The Veil in Context

President Obama recently criticized a French law that prohibits Muslim girls and women from wearing body- and face-covering garments in public schools.But French President Sarkozy this week gave his support to attempts to bar Muslim women from wearing body-cloaking robes such as the burqa. What's your view? Is this a private religious matter or a public/government one? Is the burqa welcome in America?

When French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the Islamic practice of veiling, he was doubtless making a point largely for domestic consumption. After all, it's rather easy to score political points at the expense of France's ever growing but economically frustrated Muslim minority. President Obama struck a more tolerant and considered position when he criticized laws, such as those enacted in France, that legislate against explicitly religious adornment such as the Muslim veil. But while I agree with Obama and disagree with Sarkozy, the issue of the veil as an Islamic practice that subjugates women is complex and worthy of discussion, and not just because it can teach us something about Islam.

The use of the veil within Islamic societies varies. I studied Urdu in India during my student days, and the women in my teacher's family all wore what is called the burqa. A burqa is a tent-like covering that conceals the entire woman's body with eye holes that actually are a lattice work of small openings that resemble embroidery even from a short distance. It was the burqa that Sarkozy singled out as not a religious symbol but "a sign of debasement." In one sense, Sarkozy is half-right since the burqa is certainly not understood as religiously necessary by all Muslim women. When I lived with a wealthy family in the Pakistani city of Karachi, none of the women in the household wore any kind of face or head covering. Also in the streets of Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad I saw not a few women who went about their business quite publicly and without a veil.

Of course, when I traveled to territories in North and West Pakistan, the burqa was much more common. But, between the extremes of the burqa and no head covering at all, there are a variety of gradations, ranging from colorful scarves that conceal only the hair to veils that conceal the face below the eyes. This diversity, apparent not only in Pakistan and but throughout much of the Islamic world, has to do with culture, ethnicity, economics and any number of other factors. But it also has to do with varying interpretations of the Qur'an and the sayings of Muhammad that encourage females to remain modest but only address the question of veiling in an ambiguous manner that seems to allow a range of interpretations and practices.

To be fair, Sarkozy was also expressing what passes for conventional wisdom in much of the West, namely that the burqa and associated veiling practices are inherently oppressive. The argument supporting this position interprets the burqa as a limitation of female self-expression and a sign of the subordinate role of women within Islamic religious culture. For these reasons, wearing the burqa or the veil is incompatible with participation in a civil society that embraces equality and freedom for all.

While criticisms of the veil may seem self-evidently reasonable, many Muslim women I have known understand matters quite differently--and in a manner that cannot be reduced to some sort of "false consciousness" created by internalizing their own oppression. For example, I have spoken to Muslim women who understand the burqa and other veiling practices primarily as protections against men. In this sense, concealing the female form is understood not as a sign of subordination but as an act of resistance against the propensity to judge women on the basis of appearance.

Some Muslim women would also add that women in the Western world are constrained, albeit in a different way. For example, there are powerful messages and expectations in the West regarding how women should present their bodies to make them acceptable or attractive. While these messages and expectations are legitimated by values of personal expression and self-improvement, even a cursory examination would reveal that Western attitudes toward the female form have much to do with issues of class not to mention with the variety of fantasies that focus and shape the male gaze.

This being the case, it is difficult to say that, in all cases, Western female fashion statements are unproblematic expressions of self-identity. While equating the burqa with high-heel shoes and lipstick might be seem to be a particularly labored comparison, critics of the veil also have to realize that the Western world has its own dynamics that constrain and distort the female body.

When I teach about veiling in my Comparative Religions courses, I emphasize arguments that understand veiling as an act of resistance. But such a position can also lend itself to unreflective apologetics that fail to acknowledge the undeniable fact that many Muslim women do not have choice in the matter. So, President Sarkozy's criticism is not entirely unfounded, although it would be much more productive if it were set in a broader context that examines the multiple ways all religions and cultures understand the female body and the presentation of the female form.

But to focus solely on the burqa is to divert attention to much more substantive issues affecting Muslims living in the West. Acknowledging the diversity of Islam is an initial step in understanding the variety of ways in which Muslims can live in, contribute to, and enrich civil society in Europe and North America. The really contentious issue concerns various construals of Islamic law that can potentially be at odds with prevailing civil and legal codes in the Western world.

In the end, the canard of the burqa does nothing to further the discussion of Islam in the Western world. If Western civil societies seek to affirm religious liberty and self-expression, there can be a place for the veil for those Muslim women who feel religiously or personally inclined to wear it.

By Mathew N. Schmalz  |  June 25, 2009; 10:41 AM ET
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Posted by: educated | June 25, 2009 3:43 PM
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