Religious Freedom and the Muslim Veil:

Shielding, Expressing, Covering, and Oppressing

by Dr. Rhonda L. Kelley

 

*Cultural Veils*

Reasons for veiling

Veiling as a fashion statement, usually came about as the result of a cultural or religious requirement.

Veils, everywhere and at all times, cover at least the woman's hair, either partially or completely.

Why?

Because hair, especially long hair, is a potent symbol of female beauty and sexual power. Long, undressed hair has traditionally been a marker of a woman's sexual readiness. Therefore, the veil became symbolic of virginity (in unmarried women and girls) and chastity (in married or widowed women).

The veil was therefore worn ...

At weddings:

In ancient Rome brides wore a red veil as protection from evil spirits.

As symbolic of the bride's virginity

In church:

To show humility before God

At funerals:

Widows and female mourners have for many decades worn black veils in the west.

As part of daily wear in concert with the fashion of the day:

While many fashions have their roots in religious tradition, the style and shape of clothing is more often dictated by fashion culture (and thus by women). (see veil gallery)

What happens when a woman fails to veil?

The Seductress

Eve (see veil gallery)

"She, as a veil down to the slender waist,
Her adorned golden tresses wore
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved,
As the vine curls her tendrils..."  (John Milton's description of Eve in Paradise Lost)

Lilith (see veil gallery)

"[Expounding upon the curses of womanhood] In a Baraitha it was taught: She grows long hair like Lilith, sits when making water like a beast, and serves as a bolster for her husband.” (Babylonian Talmud on Tractate Eruvin 100b)

Long, unconfined hair may additionally indicate a woman who is Violent, Insane, or Evil

Witches

"Incubus seem chiefly to molest women and girls with beautiful hair; either because they devote themselves too much to the care and adornment of their hair, or because they are boastfully vain about it, or because God in His goodness permits this so that women may be afraid to entice men by the very means by which the devils wish them to entice men." (Malleus Maleficarum)

"[Regarding witches under interrogation and in order to break their silence] the hair should be shaved from every part of her body. The reason for this is the same as that for stripping her of her clothes, which we have already mentioned; for in order to preserve their power of silence they are in the habit of hiding some superstitious object in their clothes or in their hair, or even in the most secret parts of the their bodies which must not be named." (Malleus Maleficarum)

Medea (see veil gallery)

"Her feet were bare, her unbound hair streamed down, over her shoulders, and she wandered, companionless, through midnight’s still silence." (Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 7)

Medusa (see veil gallery)

Of all her beauties none was more admired than her hair:...They say that Neptune, lord of the seas, violated her in the temple of Minerva. Jupiter’s daughter... changed the Gorgon’s hair to foul snakes. (Ovid, Metamorphoses Book IV)

Ophelia (see veil gallery)

"There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook." (Shakespeare, Hamlet)

Concluding that "good" women veil and "scary" women don't ...

The patriarchy (through religious or state laws) forces women to veil because of ...

The patriarchy's visceral fear of the unfettered sexual power of women (look what happens when they don't!)

The patriarchy's social, economic, and political interests in the paternity of children (if we don't protect men from the awesome sexual power of the hair, who knows who those women will sleep with?)

The separation and social invisibility of women (perhaps if we ignore them they go home and fix dinner.)

The shielding of the female body against men as sexual predators (men are sex-starved beats at the best of times, we know because we're men, so we better cover up our wives and daughters.)

 

*Religious Veils in Non-Muslim Faiths*

The Abrahamic Religions

For modesty's sake:

Because a woman's hair is seen as a sensual part of her body, many religions require women to cover their hair partially or completely.

In acknowledgement of her subjugation to man and God :

Because man was created in the image of God and woman in the image of man, a headdress should serve as a visual reminder of woman's subjugation to man and separation from God.

Christianity

I Corinthians 11: 3-9 (KJV)
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. [note the hierarchy]

Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.

But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.

For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. [being uncovered as as bad shaving her hair, which being part of her femininity would be unnatural]

For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man.

Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.

Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and some Protestant faiths ...

have at various times required female congregants to cover their heads in church and even in their private prayers. (see veil gallery)

NUNS! (see veil gallery)

Judaism

tichel: a headscarf worn by married Jewish women in observance of modesty codes. (see veil gallery)

 

*The Muslim Veil: Hijab*

Types of Muslim Veils (see Hijab Gallery)

Hijab: a term that can refer to the head (hair) covering or as a general term for the Muslim veil.

Burqa: a general term for the face mask or a specific type of face mask

What the Koran has to say about veiling:

Women should wear the veil in public and in the presence of men who are not family for modesty's sake:

And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their khimir [headscarf] over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husband, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. (Quran 24:31) (emphasis mine)

Note:  the clear intent is to shield a woman from the unwelcome sexual harassment of men.

Women should veil to avoid verbal and physical harassment from unbelievers:

Those who harass believing men and believing women undeservedly, bear (on themselves) a calumny and a grievous sin. O Prophet! Enjoin your wives, your daughters, and the wives of true believers that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): That is most convenient, that they may be distinguished and not be harassed. [...] (Quran 33:58–59)

According to religions scholar Reza Aslan, the Koran's veiling requirement originally applied only to the Prophet Mohammed's wives, and Muslim women did not begin veiling themselves until around 627 C.E and then primarily to emulate the Prophet's wives whom the regarded as the "Mothers of the Believers."

Relativist View

The modesty requirement must be met in a social context. Since some societies are more conservative than others,  one should live modestly according to one's social customs.

Modesty and fashion go hand in hand.

 

*The Reasons Muslim Women Veil*