Abstract
This chapter depicts the main arguments put forward by opponents of veiling. Drawing from the works of several Arab feminists, activists, and academics, I describe a discourse that attributes much of the lack of female participation to the boundaries imposed on women by certain readings of the Qur’anic texts. Those restrictions, it is argued by critics, draw their legitimacy from misguided religious interpretations made by societal forces that have no intention to move in any direction that empowers women.
I am against the veil because it is against morality.
(Nawal el-Saadawi)
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Notes
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Paff and Lanker (1997); Taylor, G. R. (1970). Sex in history. New York: Vanguard.
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I use the veil here to mean the headscarf specifically. When I use the term “a veiled woman,” I mean the dominant understanding of hijab in Muslim societies which includes clothing, in its various forms, the hides the whole body but keeps the face and hands uncovered. This excludes face covers that are used by a minority of veiled Muslim women.
- 6.
I distinguish here between headscarf critics and face cover critics. The later group includes many societal elements including Islamist groups, many of whom would affirm that headscarves should not represent a barrier to empowerment and participation.
- 7.
Mernissi , F. (2011). Beyond the veil : Male-female dynamics in modern Muslim society. Saqi, London, UK; Mernissi; Lazreg , M. (2009). Questioning the veil: Open letters to Muslim women. Princeton University Press, NJ, USA.
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Mernissi (2011).
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Thompson (2003).
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El-Saadawi, N., & Ezzat, Heba Raouf (2000). Women, religion, and morals. Darul-Fikr Al-Mu’aser. Damascus, Syria.
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Qasim Amin (1863–1908) is the most famous women’s rights advocate of the nineteenth century and first few years of the twentieth century. He was not a prolific writer but his two books The Liberation of women and The New Women are considered to be the triggers behind many of the later initiatives that aimed at women’s emancipation.
- 14.
Amin , Qasim. (2005). The Liberation of Woman. Translated by Samiha Sidhom Peterson. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, Egypt .
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Sidani, Y. M., Konrad, A., & Karam, C. M. (2015). From female leadership advantage to female leadership deficit: A developing country perspective. Career Development International, 20(3), 273–292.
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Lazreg, M. (2009). Questioning the veil: Open letters to Muslim women. Princeton University Press, NJ, USA. Marnia Lazreg is Professor of sociology at Hunter College and at the CUNY Graduate Center. She has written extensively on human rights, women's issues, and French colonialism.
- 17.
Ibid.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Meijer, R. (2010). Reform in Saudi Arabia : The gender-segregation debate. Middle East Policy, 17(4), 80–100.
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Elhaidary, M. (October 14, 2014). A big difference between khilwa and ikhtialt expect here! Riyad Newspaper, Issue 16,913 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia .
- 21.
Lazreg (2009).
- 22.
Sidani, Y. (forthcoming). Glass Doors or Sealed Borders? Careers of Veiled Muslim Women in Lebanon. In Adelina Broadbridge & Sandra Fielden (eds.) Handbook of the diversity and careers. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK.
- 23.
International Center for Transitional Justice. https://www.ictj.org/
- 24.
Habib Bourguiba (1903–2000) was the first president of Tunisia from 1957 to 1987. He is known to have implemented reforms in health and education. Yet, he is mostly recognized for his aggressive social agenda. He was extremely critical of the veil which was outlawed in 1981. He was overthrown in 1987 by Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who adopted the anti-hijab stance of his predecessor.
- 25.
International Center for Transitional Justice, “It was a mechanism to destroy our lives”, https://www.ictj.org/ar/news/%E2%80%9Cit-was-way-destroy-our-lives%E2%80%9D-tunisian-women-speak-out-religious-discrimination, New York, NY, USA.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Kasem, Rawea. (2013). Veiled women and media organizations in Lebanon. The Beirut Observer. http://www.beirutobserver.com/2013/04/2013-04-01-18-26-21, Beirut, Lebanon.
- 28.
Ghamroun, S. (March 31, 2015), Who is Afraid of a Female Majority in the Lebanese Judiciary? The Legal Agenda, http://legal-agenda.com/en/article.php?id=692&folder=articles&lang=en, Beirut, Lebanon.
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Obeid, G. (2015), ‘Initiative launched to end interference in the judiciary’, The Daily Star, accessed 16 June 2016 at http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2015/Apr-21/295168-initiative-launched-to-end-interference-in-the-judiciary.ashx; Chalhoub, E. (not dated), ‘Promoting the Rule of Law and Integrity in the Arab World’ Project. The Arab Center for the Development of the Rule of law and Integrity, accessed August 22, 2016.
- 30.
www.dw.com; Unemployment of veiled women, is it an alibi to satisfy foreigners? Deutsche Welle. http://www.dw.com/ar; Bonn; Germany.
- 31.
AlQabas Newspaper; (September 17, 2005); Questions to three ministers: Al-Saqr condemns discrimination against the non-veiled woman and her non-employment, http://alqabas.com/88129/, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
- 32.
AlQabas Newspaper; (September 20, 2005); The syndicate of banks supports the activism of PM Al-Saqr to eliminate discrimination against non-veiled women, http://alqabas.com/88516/, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
- 33.
Al-Ghoul, Asma, (August 5, 2010); A veil for a photograph, shame on you Azahar. https://asmagaza.wordpress.com/2010/08/05; blog at wordpress.com
- 34.
Dunia Al-Watan; (September 2, 2015); MOE Gaza: Admitting non-veiled women is permissible as long as it dress is acceptable; https://www.alwatanvoice.com/arabic/news/2015/09/02/769516.html; Ramallah, Palestinian territories.
- 35.
France 24; (February 2, 2014); Saudi Arabia forbids non-veiled women from entering girl schools; France.
- 36.
Almanateq, (October 19, 2015); After fining non-veiled workers.. twitters: Thank you Labor of Minister; http://almnatiq.net/141479/; Saudi Arabia .
- 37.
Alqurtas News; (February 15, 2017; Anger from disallowing non-veiled women from entering Karbala; http://www.alqurtasnews.com/news/216528; Baghdad, Iraq .
- 38.
Sumer News; (September 12, 2015); Corruption of Prime Ministers’ Secretarial Office: Firing non-veiled women.
- 39.
BBC Arabic, (October 21, 2006); Women talk about their experiences with the veil ; http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/arabic/talking_point/newsid_6034000/6034589.stm, London, United Kingdom.
- 40.
Adel, Samir; (March 19, 2017); The Shi'a ISIS; Alhewar Almotamaden, http://www.m.ahewar.org/s.asp?aid=552085&r=0; Algeria .
- 41.
Elwatan News; (December 15, 2012); Salafis forbid non-veiled from casting their votes in Alexandria committees; http://www.elwatannews.com/news/details/96627, Egypt .
- 42.
BBC Arabic, (October 21, 2006), Women discuss their experiences with hijab. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/arabic/talking_point/newsid_6034000/6034589.stm.
- 43.
Masr Alarabia; (August 1, 2015); Rola Kharsa: Non-veiled women suffer from societal perspectives; http://www.masralarabia.com/, Egypt .
- 44.
Zaraket, Maha; (May 18, 2012); Non-veiled women screened out of “Al-Manar”; Lebanese Forces, https://www.lebanese-forces.com/2012/05/18/213955/, Beirut, Lebanon.
- 45.
Kamla, R. (2012). Syrian women accountants’ attitudes and experiences at work in the context of globalization. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 37(3), 188–205.
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Odeh, L. A. (1993). Post-colonial feminism and the veil : Thinking the difference. Feminist Review (43), 26–37.
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Hatem, M. (1988). Egypt’ s middle class in crisis: The sexual division of labor. Middle East Journal, 42(3), 407–422.
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Rock-Singer, A. (2016). The Salafi Mystique: The Rise of Gender Segregation in 1970s Egypt . Islamic Law and Society, 23(3), 279–305.
- 49.
See, Zuhur, S. (2003). Women and empowerment in the Arab world. Arab Studies Quarterly, 17–38. Both street and workplace types of harassment are being tackled by various organizations including grassroots groups in many parts of the Arab world including Egypt and Saudi Arabia . In Egypt, the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights initiated a successful campaign against sexual harassment. In Saudi Arabia, twitter has been successfully used to raise awareness about harassment cases. See Winder, B. P. C. (2014). The hashtag generation: The Twitter phenomenon in Saudi society. Journal of Georgetown University- Qatar Middle Eastern Studies Student Association, 6.
- 50.
Stop Street Harassment ; http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/resources/statistics/statistics-academic-studies/; Reston, VA, USA.
- 51.
Shalaby, M. (2013). When Sexual Harassment Becomes a Barrier to Development. Rice University Issue Brief (12.23.13).
- 52.
Ibid.
- 53.
Arab Trade Union; (November 27, 2016); http://www.arabtradeunion.org/en/content/saudi-arabia-occupies-third-place-sexual-harassment -workplaces; Amman, Jordan .
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Cundiff, K. The Role of Women in The Arab Awakening. Southwest Academy of Management Proceedings – Annual Meeting, Little Rock, AR, March 8–11, 2017.
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Abu-Odeh, Lama (2015). “Those Awful Tahrir Rapes” Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 1610. http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1610
- 56.
Kearl, H. (2010). Stop street harassment : Making public places safe and welcoming for women. ABC-CLIO; Praeger.
- 57.
Ibid.
- 58.
BBC News; (September 3, 2012); Egypt ‘s sexual harassment of women ‘epidemic’; http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-19440656; London, United Kingdom.
- 59.
YouTube Video; (Uploaded on September 19, 2016). A woman complains about harassing veiled women. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgd0bhOKFLA&feature=youtu.be
- 60.
Knickmeyer, E. (August 17, 2008); In Egypt , Some Women Say That Veils Increase Harassment; Washington Post Foreign Service http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/16/AR2008081602063.html
- 61.
Nawal el-Saadawi (1931–) is the most celebrated Arab feminist. As a medical doctor, a novelist, an author, and activist, she has significantly impacted women emancipation movements in the whole Arab world. She is a considered a secular feminist who frequently criticizes religious establishments and religious institutional thinking. Some of her most famous books include Memoirs of a woman doctor, Women and sex, and The hidden face of Eve.
- 62.
El-Saadawi, N. (1997), The Nawal el-Saadawi reader, Zed books, London.
- 63.
YouTube Video; (Uploaded on December 11, 2009). Without censorship: Nawal el-Saadawi . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqJNKnoK15g
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Abou-Bakr, O. & El Saadi, H. (2012) Review: A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America, Interventions, 14:4, 625–631.
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Schvaneveldt, P. L., Kerpelman, J. L., & Schvaneveldt, J. D. (2005). Generational and cultural changes in family life in the United Arab Emirates : A comparison of mothers and daughters. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 77–91.
- 66.
El-Saadawi and Ezzat (2000).
- 67.
Ibid.
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Raja Bahlul (2000); “On the Idea of Islamic Feminism,” Journal of Islamic Studies, 20, 34–63.
- 69.
Bahlul, Raja, (2000); Banani, F. (1993). Taqseem al-‘amal baina al-Rajul wa al-Mar’ah (Division of labor between men and women). (Marrakesh: Manshurat Kulliyat al-‘Ulum al-Qanuniyya).
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Yafout, M. (2015). Islamist Women and the Arab Spring Discourse, Projects, and Conceptions. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 35(3), 588–604.
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Sidani, Y.M. (2018). The Critics. In: Muslim Women at Work. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63221-6_4
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