Muslim Feminisms

Name:Instructor:
Course:
Date:
Niqab and Saudi Arabia
Veiling entails wearing protective clothing to cover a part or the entire body. Veiling has been an integral part of not only Islam but also religions such as Christianity and Judaism. However, veiling is strongly associated with Islam due to the spread of the religion into regions that revered veiling thus Islam picked up this custom. Veiling can either be in the form of wearing a niqab or a hijab. A niqab is an outer garment covering the entire body leaving only a narrow slit for the eyes while a hijab is an outer garment covering only the head, some parts of the face, and the neck. Formerly, veiling was a symbol of wealth, largely practiced by the affluent, although that has changed over the years with even people from the lower class veiling. This paper focuses on the history of the niqab and how it was worn in earlier times while also comparing it to modern times in Saudi Arabia.
History of the Niqab
Scarves and veils were a common custom in many cultures even before the inception of Islam in the seventh century. Head coverings were an important feature in many faiths, including Judaism and Catholicism (Pitts-Taylor 294). Islam proliferated to the status of a major religion since the seventh century. Islam not only adopted local customs, but it also influenced local customs as it spread from the Middle East, through Asia to Europe. As a result, Islam assimilated veiling from local customs, and the popularity of veiling grew over the years.

In recent years, certain countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia have made it a requirement for Muslim women to veil. It is a requirement in Iran that women wear a veil. Saudi women are also required to veil in a majority of the cities in their home country (Pitts-Taylor 294).
The niqab covers the entire body while the hijab covers only the head, face and neck. A niqab can either be full or half. Half niqab constitutes of a headscarf and veil to the face but leaves the eyes and forehead uncovered. In contrast, the Gulf niqab covers the entire body only leaving a narrow slit for the eyes (Pitts-Taylor 293). Despite the significance of veils in Islam, Gulf States are most synonymous with veils.
The interpretation of modest dressing has evolved over time. In most customs, the clothes donned by women have mirrored the customs of a region as well as the position of the woman in society. The veil came into existence many years before the inception of Islam. Assyrian Kings secluded women considered of the royal class and also allowed them to veil in the Near East (Pitts-Taylor 294). However, slaves and prostitutes were instructed not to veil whereby those who went against this rule were subjected to slashing (Pitts-Taylor 294).
The practice of veiling is traced to classical Greece, in Persia and India among women in the upper caste (DeMello 303). Women in these societies practiced covering their faces and living in seclusion. In the first century of Islam, it was not a mandate for the Muslim women to veil. Musab who is the husband to Aisha Abu Bakr, the niece of Aishah Bint Abu Bakr (the wife of Prophet Mohammed) asked his wife to veil whereby the wife replied that beauty was given to her by the Almighty (The Quran 68). Thus, she absolved herself from veiling and declared that she had no problem with the public viewing her beauty.
Early Muslims adopted veiling as Islam proliferated to other regions assimilating regional practices, including the covering of women bodies. Veiling became a common phenomenon in the second century whereby it was predominantly used by the affluent as a status symbol. The Quran statement instructing women to cover their bosoms was deduced as a sanction for Muslim women to veil their heads and necks (DeMello 303).
Veiling has mostly been associated with the urban classes throughout the history of Islam. The majority of Islam women – rural and nomadic women – absolved themselves from veiling. The privilege to veil and stay indoors synonymous with the upper class insinuated that the women were from affluent backgrounds where they could eat and drink without toiling (DeMello 267).
Women exhibiting nomadic roots were allowed to visit towns unveiled since it was not in their tradition for women to veil. Women were unveiled in the early period of the Safavid dynasty although this changed towards the end of the dynasty (Hansen and Kenneth 488). In the fourteenth century, Ibn Battuta observed a phenomenon that he termed as a “remarkable thing” among the nomadic Turks who traveled into Anatolia. He recalls that Turkish women never veiled – not only women from the lower class (merchants’ wives and wives of common people) but also women from the upper class – where the women would travel in wagons driven by horses with their faces visible to the public (Dunn 140).
Middle Ages
It became a rule to veil in the tenth century. Numerous laws were passed during the Middle Ages requiring women to veil, which greatly disadvantaged women compared to earlier times. In Egypt, women were subjected to vast sanctions constantly being instructed to observe veiling and the need to absolve themselves from engaging in outdoor activities (Guthrie 120; 143). Ibn al-Hajj, a commentator, made statements revering the injunctions since he felt that women had taken to parading their bodies and competing for space with men in Cairo. He urged shopkeepers to be careful when women visit their shops to buy goods whereby if a woman visits a shop unveiled, the commentator advised shopkeepers to turn their backs to such customers till they left the shop (Guthrie 92).
History of Niqab in Saudi Arabia
The notion that women have to wear conservation clothes was first criticized by liberals, in the second half of the nineteenth century (Marafi 79). This crop of people was conscious about the advancements the West had made, and they wanted to push societies in the Islam world to adopt Western lifestyles. To realize this goal, intellectuals, reformers and liberals conceived that changing the status of women in the society was a great starting point. To alter the status of women, traditional customs had to be abandoned, including veiling and living in seclusion, which they felt denied women the access to socialization and education (Marafi 198).
Men took a lead role in challenging the notion that Muslim women should wear a veil. In 1899, Qasim Amin through his book The Emancipation of Women wrote that new interpretations should be adopted for Quran teachings on polygamy, divorce, and veiling (Khater 61). A consistent argument in his book is that veiling is not a requirement in Islam but rather a product of the people who uphold wearing conservative clothing converting to Islam. His work was followed by an enormous debate whereby the key critics of his work were Muslim women. Malak Hifni, an Egyptian writer, was worried about women become emancipated before they were ready. She posited that women not only needed to be educated about the world but also men required to be taught not to harass unveiled women. She was particularly against men deciding what women should do or not do. She argued that indeed men had erred in the past in deciding the lifestyle that women should lead, and that men were also infringing the freedom of women at the time she wrote her book (Goldschmidt 152). The emergence of liberal views, particularly in Egypt, influenced Saudi Arabia customs where the issue of forcing women to veil began to be approached from a new perspective (Mahmood 16).
The Influence of Nationalism
Qasim Amin and Malak Hifni represented liberals whose ideas that the Islam world should do away veiling were motivated by the need for national independence among Arab countries under colonization (Korteweg and Gökçe 174). To them, the changing status of women in society was a clear sign to their masters overseas that indeed subjects could govern themselves. Women were encouraged to take up influential positions in the new society. The people who resisted the social emancipation of women were openly rebuked. For instance, women donning niqabs were hailed as “beetles” by Turkish elites (Korteweg and Gökçe 254). Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who pioneered the establishment of a liberal state in the Islam world denounced veiling terming it is as an impairment to civilization. However, he never outlawed veiling.
In the 1930s, Reza Shah Pahlevi banned veiling in the country. This sudden banning on veiling frightened many women as opposed to liberating them. A majority of women feared to go into public places from the fear that police officers would forcefully unveil them (Kahf 34). However, the customs around wearing niqab remain affected in Saudi Arabia. Muslim women adhered to wearing niqabs since Saudi Arabia was never colonized by the West thus never experienced a humiliation to each customs and traditions, such as practicing Islam and veiling.
The forceful public unveiling is a humiliation Middle East women knew too well in the twentieth century. Governments and social elites have forcefully unveiled women in many countries, including Tunisia and Turkey from 1925 through today (Kahf 31). However, the both the Western and Arabian media prefer to ignore the issue of forceful unveiling. Media does this despite its tendency to cover stories of women forced to veil particularly from the lower class. Although Saudi Arabia and Iran (after 1979) legally required women to veil, a majority of the countries revering Islam subjected women to the forceful unveiling. However, this public humiliation of women rights is largely ignored by the West and Muslim feminists. Instead, the West and Muslim feminists applaud it claiming that the move is a step forward in the journey towards the emancipation of women (Kahf 31).
In the 1960s, most of the nations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) had abolished veiling (Kahf 31). Veiling was considered illegal in Turkey during the reign of Mustafa Kemal. It means that public servants were forbidden from veiling at work. Also, students attending public institutions were forbidden from veiling. The Pahlavi dynasty outlawed veiling in Iran. The elite class in most Arab lands, such as Palestine and Iraq advocated for Arab secularism such that veiling was considered more of a legal prohibition than a social prohibition. In Egypt, veiling had become outdated much to the joy of British colonizers. Also, Muslim women had abolished veiling in Tunisia, which settled well with French colonizers (Kahf 32).
Saudi Arabia, however, was an exception to this movement towards Arab secularism. Saudi Arabia has never colonized thus the nations’ traditions, and customs have never been compromised by the Western power. Further, the state which came into existence in 1932, was founded through powerful intertribal alliances thus it must conform to the demands of the “Wahhabi” segment of the society who are ultraorthodox (Kahf 33). This made the state enforce veiling as a part of its tenets. Saudi Arabia was the only state mandating Muslim women to veil till the Islamic Revolution in 1979 (Kahf 33). However, not all segments of the society complied with the injunction to veil. Women in the rural areas continued with their daily lives without adhering to strict veiling though they conformed to modest dressing.
Wearing Of Niqab in the Saudi Arabia of Today
Towards the end of the century (the 1990s), most of the Arab lands experienced a surge in the desire among women to veil as well as dress modestly. Opposition to Islam had required the adoption of new dressing styles that were not universally accepted. The upper and middle classes were in support of skimpy dressing advocated for by the West while the lower class still wore conservative clothing despite the movement towards Arab secularism (Mahmood 2). Women in the countryside failed to embrace increasingly liberal ways of dressing even in a country such as Turkey with political reforms geared towards Arab secularism.
However, veiling during the 1990s was entirely different from veiling in prior years. New veiling proliferated characterized by modern designs and ideologies emerged in the 1990s (Mahmood 35). The new veiling constituted of tailored outer garments resembling modern day trench coats, and a sleek head cover to match the outer garment. This new veiling was dubbed the jilbab or manteau (Mahmood 35). The new veiling was tailored to empower women to increasingly interact with the world as opposed to the traditional veil that forced women to retract from the world. The traditional veil was largely dull and ill-fitting. In contrast, the new veiling incorporated flashy designs and was well-fitting. This allowed an increased number of women, especially from the upper and middle class in Saudi Arabia to embrace veiling. Similarly, women from the hinterland in Saudi Arabia had a variety of niqabs to choose from, namely the manteau as well as the traditional niqab.
The 1990s marked a period whereby an increased number of foreigners relocated to Saudi Arabia for work and business. The foreigners were largely Christian in a denomination which posed a threat to Islam traditions mainly through intermarriages even though mild. As a result, women increasingly wore niqabs as an expression of their identity (Mahmood 16). Further, women in Saudi Arabia embraced niqabs as a sign of solidarity with other Arab nations during their struggles against Western power. Niqabs were an ideal way for Saudi women to join their allies in neighboring and far Arab lands against the Western rule in silent demonstrations (Mahmood 35).
The ruling government in Saudi Arabia played a critical role towards the increased embracement of women both in the upper and lower class. The government passed laws requiring women to don niqabs to reaffirm the identity of the nation and reject the spread of Western values (Mahmood 34). Arab secularism had been viewed to fail across many numerous Arab lands qualifying the need for adherence to Islamic laws. Arab secularism was viewed to not only influence people to negate Islamic laws, but also indigenous customs. Consequently, the uniqueness and superiority of Arab culture compared to Western culture were exemplified through donning niqab.
The Iran revolution led to the proliferation of veiling in Arab lands, including Saudi Arabia. Women became integral towards reforming morality both in public and private. Women who appeared in public unveiled were not only ridiculed as unchaste “painted dolls” but also were punished (Kahf 34). In many countries in the Arab world, demonstrations were increasingly conducted in universities over the required Western style dress code. Today, Saudi women have increasingly embraced veiling with the availability of options whereby they can either wear the traditional veils or the modern, sleek veils.
Western media displays veiling in a negative light. Governments in the Arab lands are displayed as forcing Muslim women to veil against their will. Thus, the West is viewed as infiltrating into the Arab world to save women from this oppression. In Afghanistan whereby Taliban exercised misogynist rules on Muslim women, the West indeed rescued the women from oppression (Kahf 37). However, the phenomenon whereby Muslim women turn back into veiling after oppressive governments are overthrown quite challenges the perception of the West. Although a section of the women continues veiling from fear of sexual harassment, a majority of the Muslim women revere veiling since it is their tradition.
The United States convey Karen Hughes in 2005 exhibited a false perception about Muslim women in the Arab world as being oppressed, a notion that she had picked from the Western media (Kahf 38). She was amused when she met five hundred women, including women from Saudi Arabia who were categorical that they were tired of being told they were oppressed when indeed they never felt oppressed. Although this scene could have been arranged, other women from Saudi Arabia exhibit the same view. For instance, Raja Alem who is a novelist contends that veiling is the least of concerns among Saudi women unlike what the West perceives (Kahf 38). Mai Yamani, a Saudi feminist and author, also reiterates that she is not only proud to be a Muslim woman but also loves her veil. Further, a poll conducted among Muslim women in the Arab world pointed out that oppression in not a part of their concerns (Kahf 38).
It is evident that veiling is not unique to Islam but also other religions practiced veiling in the past. However, veiling became a common feature in Islam due to the proliferation of the religion in regions whose customs entailed veiling. An increasing number of women from the lower and upper classes have embraced veiling unlike in the past. It has been a consistent practice for women to veil both from a legal requirement that women veil as well as reverence to traditions among Saudi women. The establishment of Saudi Arabia through powerful intertribal alliances as well as the failure of the West to colonize Saudi Arabia have seen veiling remain affected since the formation of the state. Veiling in Saudi Arabia received a boost towards the end of the 20th century with the increased return to veiling among Muslim women in other Arab lands.
Works Cited
DeMello, Margo. Faces Around the World: A Cultural Encyclopedia of the Human Face. Santa
Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2012. Print.
Dunn, Ross E. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2012. Internet resource.
Goldschmidt, Arthur. Biographical Dictionary of Modern Egypt. Boulder [u.a.: Rienner, 2000.
Print.
Guthrie, S. (2013). Arab Women in the Middle Ages: Private Lives and Public Roles. New York,
Saqi. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1333367.
Hansen, Valerie, and Kenneth R. Curtis. Voyages in World History. Boston, MA: Wadsworth,
Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
Khater, Akram F. Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East. Boston, MA:
Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Korteweg, Anna C, and Gökçe Yurdakul. The Headscarf Debates: Conflicts of National
Belonging. , 2014. Print.
Mahmood, Saba. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, N.J:
Princeton University Press, 2011. Print.
Marafi, Najebah. Intertwined Conflict: The Difference between Culture and Religion. , 2012.
Print.
Mohja Kahf . From Her Royal Body the Robe was Removed, n.d. [PDF]
Pitts-Taylor, Victoria. Cultural Encyclopedia of the Body. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press,
2008. Internet resource.
The Quran. Trans. Dr. Syed Vickar Ahamed. Lombard, IL: Book of Signs Foundation, 2007.
Print.