To Veil or Not to Veil
This is my final paper for REL 19.19 Religion and Technology with Professor Jeremy Sabella:
Suppose you wait in an airport security line and notice a woman wearing a veil being asked to step aside for questioning. What assumptions might you make? Perhaps you suspect the woman is Muslim due to how she dresses, and that this raised her chances of receiving a ‘random’ security check. Regardless of whether you are correct, the mere presence of a cloth on one’s body has the potential to reveal faith and lead strangers to form opinions about someone. Evidently, a technology as basic as the headscarf has become a religious symbol that isolates certain cultures from the rest of society, but by emphasizing the truths of religion and correcting our misconceptions we are beginning to see more inclusivity.
A Religious Technology
People from all over the world choose to wear headscarves, whether it be for religious expression, fashion, or simply protection from the weather. One of the most well-known forms of the headscarf is the ‘hijab,’ referring to the veil used by Muslim women to cover their hair, but this term is often misunderstood by followers/non-followers of Islam alike. Hijab is mentioned in the Qur’an 7 times, and while it denotes a barrier or partition, it is never used in the context of how a woman should dress. The Qur’an states that women should “lower their gaze and guard their modesty” by concealing their beauty from those other than relatives, young children, owned servants, etc., while men are explicitly ordered to “restrain their eyes and guard their private parts. That is purer for them.” (The Qur’an The Light 24:31). The Prophet Muhammad emphasizes to men, “Be chaste yourselves, and women will be chaste as well,” suggesting that the responsibility of self-control belongs as much to one gender as the other. Thus, men are no less accountable for accusing women of dressing improperly because they too should exhibit self-control and avoid staring. The headscarf helps women observe hijab in society to maintain a sense of modesty, promoting healthy relations between genders. The headscarf has its relevance far beyond Islam; many Orthodox Jewish women wear what is called a ‘tichel’ to hide hair due to its sexually erotic nature (The Talmud Berakhot 24a), and Sikh men express gratitude to God for the blessing of hair by protecting it in a turban.
One may wonder whether the headscarf is a religious technology, and if so, why the headscarf matters at all in faith. Although there may be nothing inherently divine about cloth itself, the notion of concealing oneself ties back to the Book of Genesis. According to Christianity, clothing only became necessary after mankind disobeyed God; Adam and Eve realized their nakedness after eating the forbidden fruit, prompting them to sew together fig leaves to cover their bodies (The Bible Gen. 1-9). According to the monotheistic religions, perhaps clothing is a reminder of humanity’s grave sin, while the headscarf could represent mankind’s effort towards purifying itself.
Since people wearing headscarves today are more likely than before to receive suspicion of radicalization due to recent terrorist activity, it is essential to understand how a technology potentially benefits its users before making judgments about them.
The Headscarf in the Context of Islam
The hijab has been viewed as a symbol of oppression due to ongoing frustrations over the Muslim World. This past October, Israeli clothing brand Hoodies released an advertisement in which supermodel Bar Refaeli removes a niqab–a form of hijab that covers the face–and dances before a voiceover that states “freedom is basic” (Pierpoint). The ad perpetuates the western ideology that Muslim women are abused, by which Hoodies can play into the mindset of its target audience and gain popularity. Indeed, Muslim women in many Middle Eastern countries face restrictive dress codes that restrict their freedoms, which is a valid message that the ad could have been trying to convey. However, it comes off as Islamophobic and creates confusion over whether the headscarf is legitimately a form of religious expression or an item pressured upon women to wear.
According to Semiha Topal, Muslim women cultivate piety within a secular state with the aid of “technologies of the self,” which are tools that help “transform [women] in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality” (Topal 585). This indicates that the headscarf helps the individual proceed on his/her journey towards perfection and an ultimate reunion with God. However, depending on where one is along this journey, society can treat you acceptingly or disapprovingly. Topal interviews Gül, a professor in Istanbul who typically does not wear the headscarf but did so for ritual prayers. She received criticism from people around her that she was praying to “show off” and ultimately stopped praying altogether due to emotional trauma (Topal 589). Individuals can struggle to attain piety because they may not appear as devoted as everyone else, even though they are in the process of becoming pious. Strict dress laws in many Muslim countries exacerbate these struggles, leading to the West’s perception of Islam as an oppressive ideology that devalues women.
The headscarf can be used to generalize cultures and label the innocent as threats to society. Following the September 11th attacks on America, hate-crimes took place not only against Muslims but also Sikhs, largely because both communities can be identified by their similar complexities and headwear; the 2001 murder of gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi was one of the first attacks on Sikhs at the time (Basu).
What remains to be seen is whether we are making enough efforts to tolerate the individuals behind the veil.
Change in Perception
To make people feel more comfortable with the headscarf, society needs to restructure the dialogue regarding this technology by correcting misunderstandings. At TEDx–University of Nevada 2017, novelist Samina Ali shared various fatwas–legal rulings–administered by Muslim clerics that give a misconstrued notion of how God ordered women to dress. She states that certain clerics have added modifiers to Quranic verses that distort the words of God, including parenthetical guidelines for how a veil must cover the entire face besides the eyes (Ali). Should society realize that the hijab is grounded on just principals rather than the misogynistic views of certain scholars, perhaps attitudes towards the wearers of the general headscarf will improve.
Part of the reason for optimism arises from recent fashion trends that appear to celebrate the headscarf. At Met Gala 2018, celebrities like Priyanka Chopra and Nicki Minaj donned intricately designed headpieces that, according to activist Tanzila Ahmed, resembled hijabs (Khalife). But by incorporating tradition into outfits, the public may be concerned; viewers could consider this style of fashion as a sign of “Creeping Sharia,” the idea that Muslims are trying to take over the world by Islamic law (Khalife). Yet, it may be necessary to push boundaries and speak out, or else people may not realize that a victimized group may be yearning for change. In fact, even Muslim women may want to participate in sports, for whom in 2017 Nike unveiled the Pro Hijab, a lightweight and breathable hijab for Muslim athletes to wear as they compete (Vagianos). This only furthers the conversation on how society can be made more inclusive by modifying existing technologies and making them more accessible.
Although the headscarf may be just a garment on the surface, it has a unique symbolism to it along with deep religious roots that date back centuries. As a religious technology, one common theme across many religions is the idea of expressing modesty whilst displaying beauty. The hijab received the most attention in this paper due to its relevance in today’s media, but additional research into how Orthodox Jewish women who wear the tichel are treated any differently than Muslim women in society today may be intriguing. Perhaps people will become more aware of the different kinds of people who wear headscarves and avoid generalizing different cultures, thanks to the internet of course. Recently the first Muslim women were elected to the US congress, thus it would be interesting to see how the American people may react to the headscarf having made its way into Capitol Hill.
Works Cited
Ali, Samina. “What does the Quran really say about a Muslim woman’s hijab?” TED. Feb. 2017. Lecture.
Basu, Moni. “After 9/11, Turbans Made Sikhs Targets.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Sept. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/09/15/us/sikh-hate-crime-victims/index.html.
Khalife, Leyal. “A Number of Celebrities Wore 'Hijabs' during Met Gala 2018.” StepFeed, 8 May 2018, stepfeed.com/a-number-of-celebrities-wore-hijabs-during-met-gala-2018-4792.
Pierpoint, George. “Israeli 'Freedom Is Basic' Niqab Advert Criticised.” BBC News, BBC, 31 Oct. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-46042657.
The Bible. Introd. and notes by Robert Carroll and Stephen Prickett, Oxford UP, 1998.
The Qur’an. Trans. by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, Oxford UP, 2005.
The Talmud. General Editor, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz Even-Israel, The William Davidson Foundation, 2017.
Topal, Semiha. “Female Muslim subjectivity in the secular public sphere: Hijab and ritual prayer as ‘technologies of the self.’” Social Compass, vol. 64, no. 4, 2017, pp. 582-596.
Vagianos, Alanna. “Nike Just Came Out With Its First Sports Hijab.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 5 Dec. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nike-just-came-out-with-its-first-sports-hijab_us_5a269d05e4b086e4e504645f.