girlsoprano:

Mr. Schmidt,

I appreciate the fact that you actually do want some answers and are not just spewing blind hatred a la the supposedly liberal "nerd" poster. I am a hijab-wearing Muslim woman--been wearing it for over 10 years, and while the decision was against my parents' wishes, they didn't forbid me from it. I'll say more on my feelings about it, but first--

Hijab only equals Saudi practices because you assign that meaning to it; it predates the Saudi government with all of its tyranies (women are only the beginning). As another poster pointed out, Islam served to make women spiritual equals (and actually preeminent, but that's a longer discussion) to men, with property rights that were at the time unheard of and stand in stark contrast to your description of Muslim women as the "property" of Muslim men. These rights are not impressive in our modern context, where we take them for granted; I bring them up only to point out that the collapse of systems of oppression with hijab is fundamentally flawed. Hijab is at its core an act of faith--a faith which stands always in contradistinction to the flawed humans practicing it and purporting to represent it. You must be able to understand this difference, or this discussion will continue to go in circles. It is unfair and unsound to impute to it meanings that have arisen out of the complicated, post-colonial histories of countries run by dictator-exploiters.

The reason for hijab is the same as the reason why some feminists won't wear provocative clothing--because of the legacy of sexual objectification and dehumanization of women. It's easy enough to see in American culture, as half-naked women are still used to sell beer, cars, and even food. Here I have to confess to a not-very-Islamic view of men, which has kept my conviction vis-a-vis hijab strong. I think of them as a sub-class of humans--it's the only way I can understand the things they do to women and children. The sexual violence alone--the trafficking, the torture exacted for sexual gratification.. it's nauseating. You may not be interested in the individual, but as a response to this worldwide phenomenon my hijab is very dear to me; I'm happy not to be some guy's porno fantasy--I don't want their lust.

To continue with the honesty, of course I want the attention of specific men.. just not enough to be willing to expose myself to the general crap I see women get all the time. And I know that some men have "veil fetishes," think it's hot, and have actually been told as much by a guy. I comfort myself that they don't know what I actually look like.. The system isn't fool-proof, but I find it the best option available. .. and there are some personal reasons for it as well. I think without the physical barrier of the hijab I would sleep with men, searching for emotional connection (in addition to physical), and end up getting hurt. a lot. I've seen it happen with my friends.

Also, men are mandated to be modest, too. They typically covered their heads in the Muslim world, and this has only stopped in the last century.

I am an outsider to the culture -- an American who lived in Egypt for five years and eventually converted and married an Egyptian woman -- and my observation is just that the veil has so many different meanings as to be all but meaningless on a general level.

In Cairo, it can signify a pious woman, or a fashion-conscious girl, or even a prostitute seeking to appear discrete. So much depends on the context -- social status, age, which street she happens to be standing on.

I have known and seen many younger women who wear the higab in what can only be called (even by an outsider) a blatantly provocative manner -- pulled far back on the head, with heavy makeup and skin-tight clothes. Although I wouldn't go so far as to say I ever fetishized that look, I can testify as a straight male that it does have its appeal. There are also more than a few girls who adopted the veil purely out of peer pressure as part of the whole Amr Khaled craze.

Of course, it must be said that this is not the norm. But what is?

There are girls (the majority in terms of numbers I guess) who wear the higab or even the niqab simply because they live in rural villages and that's the way women dress where the live (without exception in many areas). In Cairo and Alexandria, where it is more of a choice for some, there are still many who wear it purely out of family pressure. At the same time, there are many who wear it purely DESPITE family pressure -- girls who come from self-consciously "modern" families where the parents rejected the veil but the girl herself values it as a signifier of her own commitment to religion and clean living. And of course there are also many girls and women in the cities who dress without the veil but are still thoroughly modest and who know instinctively how to handle unwanted advances from men -- modesty, after all, can be a state of mind.

My only point here is to say that one can not argue that the veil means this or that. An ignorant Westerner should not make assumptions about "oppression" or other silly bugaboo words. But with apologies, I think neither should a Muslim woman living in the West, wearing the veil within a Western context and having made that choice within the context of her own overall feelings about East and West, attempt to gloss over what the veil might mean to different people who grew up entirely within the Middle East.

The truth is, it is a vehicle of oppression ... for some. It is also a vehicle of liberation, and a subterfuge, and a fashion statement, and an expression of deep and true religious devotion.

At the end of the day, it's just a piece of cloth. Its meaning is culturally and ALSO individually contingent.

That's my observation, as an American male whitey -- to be taken only with the requisite grain of salt.