Rights and Roles: Women’s Dress

SOURCE: Media Guide to Islam, SFSU
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When asked to describe a Muslim woman, many non-Muslims probably conjure up the image of a veiled woman, possibly covered from head-to-toe in an Afghani-style burkha or the black robe of the Iranian chador. In reality, Islamic female dress is quite diverse, with distinct regional, ethnic and cultural variations around the globe. All styles do have one thing in common: They attempt to comply with religious requirements surrounding modest dress, a topic that in recent years has been the center of debate among some Muslim women.

In the U.S., home to the world’s most diverse Muslim population, Muslim women’s fashions vary dramatically. Visitors to an American mosque will see women wearing everything from the Saudi-style veil or hijab that leaves only the eyes visible, to African-style turbans, to sheer Indian fabrics loosely draped about the head and shoulders, to “American-style” casual dress (jeans or khakis), accented only by a head scarf while praying.

ISLAMIC DRESS REQUIREMENTS FOR WOMEN 

Islam teaches that men and women should dress modestly and urges believing men and women to “lower their gaze and guard their modesty” (Surah 24:30-31).

One hadith says that women should keep their faces and hands uncovered, a tradition that sparked the religious requirement that women cover the rest of their bodies while in the company of strange men. Not until several centuries after the Prophet’s death in A.D. 632 did the orthodox Sunni and Shiite schools of Islamic law, responding to the call of the Quran and this hadith, require women to cover their hair and neck with a scarf.

In the Quran, women are directed not to “display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof” (Surah 24:30-31). Specifically, “they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' 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.”

Older women past the age of marriage may remove “outer garments,” as long as they continue to dress modestly (Surah 24:60). Some interpreters understand this as permitting older women to appear publicly without a head scarf.

THE HISTORY OF VEILING AND SECLUSION

The Quran also requires Muhammad’s wives to greet visitors from behind a screen or curtain, a requirement that arose after male guests touched the hands of the prophet’s wives during a wedding feast. The Arabic word for screen or curtain is hijab. In hadith, darabat al-hijab (“she took the veil”) describes a woman’s marriage to Muhammad.

The practice of seclusion and veiling was not unusual for those times. Some scholars point out that upper-class women of neighboring cultures such as Iran and Byzantium already lived in seclusion in harems, and that Muhammad, in addition to trying to protect his wives from other men, was influenced by these cultures. Covering the hair, seen as a symbol of a woman’s beauty and sexuality, was a tradition of pre-Islamic Arabia, and was also practiced by Syrians, Jews, Greeks and Romans. Some orthodox Jewish women continue to cover their hair today.

THE VEIL AS A POLITICAL SYMBOL  

The veil emerged as a political symbol in the early 20th century, when many Muslim women influenced by Western practices took off the veil. Western feminists as well as colonial patriarchs were critical of Islamic practices that isolated women, and many saw the veil as a symbol of what they viewed as Islam’s backward treatment of women.

Egyptian feminist Huda Sha’rawi, described as the mother of Muslim feminism, removed her face veil in 1923 at the Cairo train station following a women’s conference in Rome. The action, while controversial, was not illegal (Western women in Egypt did not cover their faces), and inspired other women to follow suit. Sha’rawi continued to cover her hair with a scarf throughout her life.

The veil has become a political symbol for governments as well. Prior to the Islamic revolution in Iran, many families kept their daughters at home in response to the Shah forbidding women to wear the veil in public. Following the 1979 revolution, women were required to wear the all-encompassing black chador in public as a sign of piety -- theirs and the society’s at large. Conversely, Turkey has outlawed the veil at universities and government offices, signaling the government’s fear of Islamic political movements. In Turkey, a veiled woman elected to a national office was barred from serving her term.

THE VEIL TODAY  

In recent decades across the Muslim world, westernized Muslim women whose mothers or grandmothers may not have worn the veil have chosen to do so, partly as a sign of their return to traditional Islamic values, partly as a rejection of Western colonial influence. This “return,” however, has not been a return to seclusion. Veiled women in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and throughout the Muslim world have entered the political and professional realms, and many of these professional women say modest Islamic dress gives them a sense of freedom and security.

As feminist scholar Elizabeth Warnock Fernea noted in her 1982 documentary, “A Veiled Revolution,” and her 1998 book, “In Search of Islamic Feminism: One Woman’s Global Journey,” women give an array of reasons for donning the veil. Women told Fernea they are less likely to be harassed by men on the bus, male coworkers give them more respect, and their families give them more freedom to leave the house when they wear their veils. In this sense, the veil has also brought a sort of freedom to conservative women whose families in earlier times might have required them to remain secluded at home.

Whether the veil guarantees such respect or protects women from molestation, however, is a matter of debate. Islam, like other religions, has a long history of patriarchy, and Islamic women have been denied basic rights and fallen victim to violence despite their modesty. The fact remains, however, that for many Muslim women the veil is a symbol of freedom, faith and security.

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