Introduction
The purpose of this essay is to consider the most relevant theoretical and methodological approaches to the interpretation of the meaning of the veil and covering the face and body in women professing the Muslim confession. From the perspective of an outside observer who does not interpret Islamic culture from the inside, the veil seems to be a symbol and sign of opposition, suppression by male control.
Such decidedly negative needs to be redefined, as it seems to stem from the inherent misconceptions of the Islamic world that are apparent in modern society. It is necessary to offer a deeper and more insightful perspective on the role of the veil in modern Muslim society, considering this phenomenon on the positive side. The historical development of the perception of the veil in modern society is currently expressed in the opposition between Western feminist criticism and the opposing Islamic branch of feminism.
The Veil in the Modern Era: A Historical Review
The first part of the essay presents a brief overview of the contemporary history of the veil and the law of wearing it to explain the power of tradition in the Muslim religion. It is necessary to explain how strong the cultural explosion was after the end of the Second World War in order to really characterize the subsequent changes. The process that followed after the Second World War was due to the strong influence of Western culture on the Muslim world, with new values preaching openness, intellectual freedom, and a variety of consumption (Abid 40). All of this seems to be at odds with the cultural tradition of Muslim women.
The issue of wearing a veil in this aspect can be interpreted as a point of tension in the struggle between Western and Eastern values in the second half of the 20th century and now. Moreover, this opposition can symbolize the contradiction between the old and the new, conservatism and modernization, which requires the abolition of old values.
It is also necessary to characterize the history of the perception of the phenomenon of the veil in the Western community in order to understand how a stable negative attitude towards it was formed. During the era of the French government’s colonization of Algeria, the purdah, or traditional South Asian veil, was perceived as a sign of a lagging society looking backward in development. This attitude did not give a deep or detailed understanding of the very system of wearing the veil, but it influenced the attitude towards the veil in the Western tradition in the future. In the process of the restoration of European society after the Second World War, hijabs or burqas, as analogs of the veil, began to cause social contradictions in the case of frequent precedents and laws limiting their wearing.
In the legal field of some European countries, masks are also generally prohibited, which also has a projection of wearing a veil (Ladhani 1). The anti-terrorist orientation of such legislative measures is the cause of serious cultural contradictions between Muslims and legal representatives of European society. Discussing the current situation, one should note the negative portrait of a woman in a veil created in the media that is usually associated with the terrorist threat. This kind of manifestation of Islamophobia promoted in Western mass culture is well-established and associated with the fear of extreme manifestations of the belief system, in particular, religious extremism.
The Political Significance of the Veil
In this context, it seems necessary to illuminate the misinterpretation of the veil by Western critics who perceive liberal values such as freedom and equality as something to be applied universally in the most direct sense. In many European communities, there is a paradox of oppression of pluralistic views, which are perceived as a threat to freedom to wear a veil. Thus, the veil, perceived as a symbol of patriarchy, begins to cause public excitement and calls for its prohibition, which is a violation of the private freedoms of each person. Such a modern tradition, formed only in the criticism of the last hundred, is impossible in the context of Islam and women. That is because the idea of real freedom may have a different interpretation and meaning in Eastern culture.
In particular, wearing a veil can express the freedom of an individual from the gaze of other people – thereby, the veil fits into the principles of modern feminist freedoms, in particular, freedom from mailing. In addition, it should be noted that in many religious traditions, covering the face meant preserving and emphasizing one’s own individuality, for example, among Jewish women in the Middle Ages. Moreover, in Muslim countries, covering the face with a veil could be interpreted as a sign of aristocratic affiliation, worthy of women only of the highest status in comparison with uncovered commoners.
Speaking about the political implications of condemning the wearing of a veil by Western politicians, publicists and the general majority, it is necessary to take into account the generally prejudicial specifics of the attitude in the West towards Islamic culture. Western attitude to Islam as a whole is largely constructed by virtue of absentee perceptions that are formed from both historical facts and myths and prejudices.
Moreover, Western perceptions of the East are generally more inclined to perceive Muslim culture as contrary to Western traditions. The West is associated with the ideology of enlightenment, democratic and liberal values, the struggle for personal freedom and self-expression. Islam, in this context, appears to the Western collective consciousness to be something completely opposite, advocating a more conservative and patriarchal system of values.
This perception is considered an example of so-called orientalism – a special type of perception of the east as mysterious, different and alien. At the same time, orientalism also implies the intensive work of a person’s fantasy, closing the gaps in their own knowledge with hypothetical ideas and false conjectures and generalizations. That is why the perception of the veil in the Western tradition is on a par with other practices of oppressing women for which the Islamic world is so vehemently condemned.
Such odious repressive actions as beating a woman with stones for treason, for example, are perceived in the Western mind in sync with arranged marriage, polygamy and, finally, wearing a veil. However, this perception still not only does not distinguish between each of these phenomena, but also does not peer into the cultural context, replacing it with ethical indignation from the position of another culture. Thus, wearing a veil in the Western perspective automatically becomes an emblem for the oppressed minority, which is a grandiose generalization and exaggeration.
Contemporary Feminist Interpretation of the Meaning of the Veil
It seems necessary to develop further the outlined contradictions between Western feminist thought and its counterpart in Islamic tradition, while emphasizing their complexity. A satisfactory and comfortable life under the conditions of patriarchy for feminism in the Islamic tradition seems to be oppressive. From a feminist perspective, applied to the Eastern patriarchal family structure, the veil allows men to categorize women as a class other than themselves. The veil becomes the embodiment of the Other in the patriarchal ideology of Islamic culture.
The concept of the Other in feminist theory implies a kind of minority identity, the thinking and consciousness of which contradicts the logic of the majority, understood as initially correct and fair. In the context of this reasoning, it would be interesting to apply the term “false projection”. This concept means that the side of the majority in the patriarchal order seeks to project onto the minority those aspects of the personality and psyche that they seek to hide from themselves. The projection of the male side of Islamic culture in the case of planting a veil in Muslim life turns out to be quite metaphorical, and can be interpreted as concealing the very idea of equality between a man and a woman. This attitude also appears to be in opposition to contemporary Western culture, promoting this very equality.
However, other Islamic feminists strive to separate the Western tradition from their own, to pursue the values of their culture. The veil based on these ideas should be interpreted as an individual decision of each woman and not as a sign of personality suppression. The feminist and modern critical tradition in general is in conflict with the need to reconcile with the grand and monolithic religious tradition of Islam.
One could even say that the concept of the veil is itself intrinsically anti-feminist, since the veil contradicts the Western concept of an equal woman. Citing the example of cases with the ban on wearing a veil in European countries, which entail legal proceedings and precedents, it makes sense to note a deep social and cultural conflict (Zempi 2585). In the Western context, a woman in a veil not only appears as an oppressed minority, but also contradicts the Western concept of a normal identity.
Consequently, a Muslim woman in the West is forced to adopt someone else’s moral system in order to fit into the concept of normality. This is the additional paradox of the decolonization of Muslim women. Western culture also makes no distinction between different types of face coverings for Islamic women, generalizing them as a tool of enslavement. Thus, in the context of Western feminism, the right to wear a veil appears to contradict the notion of normality.
Muslim culture finds itself in a situation of an incomprehensible and repressed Other, whose appearance and the doctrines communicated by it are generally undesirable for the dominant democratic point of view. This is the act of oppression of another culture criticized by the Islamic feminist branch (Cox 428). The historical tradition, during which it was the Western colonialists who fought against wearing the veil, further encourages distrust of the democratic tradition of criticizing the concept of the veil.
Conclusion
As a result of these observations, it should be noted that the cultural and political significance of the veil has a deeper dimension than is usually demonstrated in the Western community. The consequences of the fusion and interaction of cultures after the Second World War had a problematic impact on the preservation of Muslim culture during its integration into the European community. In the context of the Western cultural tradition, which is only reinforced by the toxic influence of the media, the veil continues to be perceived as negatively associated with the phantom image of the Islamic threat. The wearing of a veil is a dual cultural phenomenon that can be interpreted as a symbol of oppression, however, the prohibition of the maintenance of which is paradoxically oppressive as well.
Works Cited
Abid, S. “Understanding the veil.” Crossing Cultural Boundaries: Taboo, Bodies and Identities, edited by Lili Hernandez, 2020, pp. 39-53.
Cox, Neville. “Behind the veil: A critical analysis of European veiling laws.” Journal of Islamic Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, 2020, pp. 427–429.
Ladhani, Sheliza. “Decentering the veil: Transforming the discourse surrounding Muslim women.” Critical Education, vol. 10, no. 20, 2019, pp. 1-9.
Zempi, Irene. “Veiled Muslim women’s views on law banning the wearing of the niqab (face veil) in public.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 42, no. 15, 2019, pp. 2585-2602.