Middle Eastern societies: history, culture, and contemporary issues

Symbolism of the Veil

In almost any modern social environment, not dictated by the standards and restrictions associated with a non-secular institution it is difficult for most people, not just women to imagine living life behind the screen of a veil. Though it may seem that this is true only of western states that is just not the case. The reality of the fundamentalist resurgence of the legalism of the Islamic religion is also a shock in locations much closer to the heat of the matter. Many Middle Eastern and North African countries have enjoyed relative freedom from non-secular rule, in some cases as long as they have been post-colonial, independent nations.

A recent resurgence of fundamentalist rule in some countries has brought women's rights to the forefront of social debate. It is for this reason that the discourse of the veil and the veil itself are recognized as the symbolic litmus as to the health of women's rights in a nation. Though this may be oversimplified and very western in view, the inability for modern American or European women to imagine life behind or even under a veil has given this idea staying power and provided sociology and politics with a lasting visual image of the wrongs being done to women all over the world in the name of faith.

Very public symbolism of the resurgence of secular rule is often seen in some of the very first mandates. The first legal changes that appear are often those related to dress, for men the social mandate of facial hair and for women often a veil be it a full gown with very limited view behind a screen or simply a complete head covering scarf. Regardless of how much or how little these things are seen as propaganda the effects become public and visible almost literally overnight and they are often just the beginning as women are forced from public office, education systems, and even from any sort of vocation outside of their home.

In Middle Eastern history there is a historical theory based on the idea that every generation or two a fundamental revival seems to occur. The institutions of government, regardless of their theoretical nature secular or theocratic in name alone become from some views corrupt and ineffective. It is then that the fundamentalists come down from the proverbial or literal mountains and return the government and by their hopes, the culture to a more Islamic ideal. Culturally there is a close connection with the subversion of women and the establishment of more traditional and conservative governments. With the resurgence of fundamentalism and the nature of the global world the symbols of secular rule, like the veil or the burka in Afghanistan become obvious to people all over the world.

In the very unsettling short story, "Distant View of a Minaret," the symbolic nature of the veil and constraints on communication from women is played out in a very personal and private moment. The symbolic nature of the different worlds in which men and women live is culturally represented by the inability of a woman to express open communication about a fundamental aspect of marriage. The worlds of men and women are so barbed with convention that this wife spends her entire marriage sexually unfulfilled and even goes so far as to shame herself for her lack of understanding. The observance of her husband achieving climax makes her feel completely alien to him because she cannot share this joy with him and no longer seems to have the desire to try. (Rifaat 1983) In almost all cultures the ideal of the sacredness of sexual fulfillment makes this communication seem both startlingly conservative and a sad basis for the establishment of a healthy marriage and even a healthy society.

The story is slightly more unsettling when the woman is portrayed as the silent servant. It is interesting that she is also very pious and fully embraces the Muslim ideals finding her only real solace in prayer and accepting her husband's choice of a place to live because there is a good view of a minaret. What would seem a contradiction the woman, embracing the ideals of a faith that are the source of the convention that stifles her, yet it also serves to point out the complexity of the issue. This complexity is age old and can be seen to some degree in every faith. How can something that offers so much solace condemn some simple fulfillments of human happiness? Another quandary can be seen when many women express their desire to wear the veil and embrace the symbolism as integral to their own identity as a member of their society. The rejection of the veil is by no means a universal feminine ideal. (Inda 1992 p23)

The stories we hear from Afghanistan, Iran, and Algeria, as well as from conservative religious communities in Israel and the United States, tell of women changing their dress and returning to a home symbolically transformed into a space of purity that is the nation of this new community. (Cooke 1999 pg178)

On a more political note the writing of Qassim Amin, Tahrir Al-Mar'a (The liberation of Women) discussed in Leila Ahmed's Women and Gender in Islam was published in 1899 and has become a symbol of the arguments stressed by even modern reformers. Amin was really the first thinker to stress the ideal of the removal of the veil as the very basis for the liberation of women. The cosmopolitan nature of the time and place in which he wrote still did not embrace the idea that the removal of the veil was acceptable or even right, regardless of the fact that his ideas about legal and social reform for women were considered rather mainstream and had been debated for years. His attack on the symbolism of Islam warranted violent protests about the fear of Westernization. (Ahmed 144-146) The politics of the time were fresh from the revolutions that rid much of the region from western colonization.