THE VEIL

Customs behind cover-up
The Australian
2/28/09
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25100062-5003900,00.html

The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore and Politics
Edited by Jennifer Heath
University of California Press, 360pp, $37
A HIJAB-WEARING friend jokes about her need for a badge saying: "Don't ask me about the hijab!"

I don't wear hijab, but I know how she feels. It often seems as though Muslim women are not expected to talk about anything else. So I can relate to Keisha Ali, one of the contributors to this book, when she writes: "I have a well-developed response at the ready whenever I'm asked about the veil: I plead battle fatigue. I'm just really, really tired of talking about it."

Yet here she is -- and here I am -- talking about it again. As much as we may try to move on to other topics, Muslim women keep getting drawn back into explaining why we wear it, or don't wear it, or sometimes wear it, or don't want to talk about wearing it or not wearing it. If we're sick of talking about it, surely other people must be getting sick of listening to us. It's hard to believe that there could be anything new to say.

Still, The Veil is much more than a rehash of familiar territory. Editor Jennifer Heath has cast the widest possible net in her selection of contributors, bringing in scholars, poets and graphic artists discussing veiling across a range of locations and religious traditions.

The definition of the veil is similarly broad, including not just headscarfs and face veils but also Amish bonnets, Indian saris, wedding veils and the wigs worn to conceal the hair of Hasidic Jewish women. Some writers describe the veil not as a specific item of clothing but as a code for approved female behaviour and modesty.

This wide-ranging approach elicits some interesting resonances between the various communities under discussion, including the immense symbolic importance attached to women's dress in terms of not only their personal reputation but the standing of their community.

A Hasidic woman tells Barbara Goldman Carrel that the Jewish people were freed from bondage in Egypt because they had maintained their own traditions and, crucially, women "remained dressed the way they should be dressed. And we will once again be the chosen nation when the women of Israel are dressed properly according to the laws (of the Torah)".

Similarly, Muslim women's dress has been considered a symbol of their society's moral and intellectual direction, and women have been subjected to enforced veiling and unveiling accordingly. The Veil describes the humiliation of being stripped of the veil in societies such as Turkey and Tunisia, as well as the brutality with which it is imposed in Saudi Arabia and Iran. For women in either situation, the point is not the presence or absence of a piece of cloth but the loss of personal autonomy.

Another theme to emerge from the book is the way a dress style that appears rigid and uniform to outsiders may include a range of fashions and symbolic meanings for those within a particular community. Goldman Carrel relates how, among Hasidic women, covering one's hair with a scarf signals a greater degree of religiosity than covering it with a wig; moreover, using an obviously synthetic wig is considered more pious than using a wig made from human hair. Jana M. Hawley describes how, among Amish women, one's degree of orthodoxy governs details such as how a bonnet is tied and whether a dress is fastened with straight pins or snaps.

The Veil is made all the more readable by its smorgasbord of approaches, from autobiographical reflections to historical and sociological accounts and comic strips. I enjoyed Michelle Auerbach's account of how, after being reared by hippie "cultural relativists", she rebelled by reconnecting with her Jewish roots, learning to pray and to keep kosher. But although she longs to embrace the norms of her new social circle in their entirety, she cannot quite bring herself to embrace the veil. Her mother's reproving voice rings in her ears, wanting to know how she could choose "a rayon dress and a synthetic wig and pantyhose in August" when her parents' generation had fought so hard for her right to choose to wear anything she wanted. Auerbach's story reminded me of the horrified reaction of many Muslim mothers when their daughters began wearing the hijab: how had their daughters willingly chosen to put on something that they themselves had so determinedly cast off?

Sarah C. Bell provides a succinct comic-strip commentary on the history of the wedding veil, while the two-page extract from Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis depicts, from the point of view of a young girl, the imposition of the veil in the early days of Iran's Islamic revolution.

Shireen Malik outlines the literary and artistic evolution of Herod's stepdaughter, unnamed in the Bible but named Salome by historians and by later writers and artists. Salome is notorious as the young woman who demands the head of John the Baptist as her reward for dancing before her stepfather. According to Malik, early accounts depict Salome as an innocent girl manipulated into bloodlust by her mother.

But in later accounts she becomes a seducer motivated not by her mother's scheming but by her unrequited love for John the Baptist. Her performance becomes increasingly erotic, her body lightly covered by flimsy veils. Oscar Wilde has her perform the Dance of the Seven Veils before kissing the lips of John the Baptist's severed head. Salome came to symbolise the Eastern temptress, veiled yet available, reprehensible yet desired.

A very different image of veiling is provided by Laurene M. Lafontaine's description of the transformation of nuns' habits in the wake of Vatican II. Once again, the evolution of women's dress symbolises wider changes, with a more everyday style of habit intended to signal the church's commitment to renewal and the emergence of nuns from their cloisters into society at large. While some nuns embraced the new style of dress as well as the opportunities for greater engagement with the outside world, others were unnerved by the idea of having to deal with issues of body image and bad hair days.

The Veil is full of interesting nuggets of information. The Iranian authorities surely did not intend their veiling regulations to trigger a boom in nose surgery, as Iranian women sought to make the most of the few physical features they are allowed to display in public. And headscarfs are so unflattering for a large nose.

Paradoxically, however, the overarching theme of the book is that its subject matter is ultimately of limited importance. Even where women chafe against their lack of personal freedom over dress issues, there are generally more pressing concerns: the need for education, for food, for security in war-torn societies.

Heath concludes by reflecting that "all concerned agree that the situation for women worldwide is growing worse. This, not veiling, is what must be solved. Soon."

Shakira Hussein is a contributor to the forthcoming Beyond the Hijab Debates: New Conversations on Gender, Race and Religion (Cambridge Scholars Press).