How Islamic Veil Is Seen As Sign of Oppression in Western Eyes (Research Paper Sample)

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How Islamic Veil Is Seen As Sign of Oppression in Western Eyes
Introduction
In the modern world, different societies have different cultures, values, behaviors, and principles that they inclined to. In such context, religion plays an important role in identifying a particular society’s culture and behaviors. As the majority population of the world is transiting towards “modernized” type of culture characterized by uniformity in the taste and preferences of the people, a bigger portion of the Muslim world is still attached to its traditional ways of life that is mostly dictated by their religious ideologies and views. Notably, as the Muslim community observes their style, there are some forms of criticism emanating from the western world pertaining to Muslim's ways of life. One major stereotype concerns the veiled woman. As the Muslims associate the veil with various traditions both sociocultural and religious, the Western world views it as a dissolute representation of the Muslim women. In the eyes of the Westerners, the veil is not simply a piece of cloth rapped over the head. It is a symbol of oppression preventing the Muslim women from embracing modernity and experiencing what the modern world has to offer. Although some would tend to agree to such sentiments, most of the Muslims, including the women, view the veil differently. To them, the piece of cloth is a symbol of empowerment to the women. Among the Muslim women, the veil is not only a convenient clothing, but also represents the freedom they enjoy in the modern world. In understanding the essence of the veil, it is necessary to employ a transnational approach to analyze how the Westerners and the Muslim societies exhibit different cultural intuitions pertaining to the piece of cloth. This helps to bring out the misconceptions associated with the veil where the Muslims views it as a symbol of cultural affirmation and a sign of women empowerment, while the Westerners find it to be a symbol of oppression that portrays the lesser-being of the Muslim women. The use of interdisciplinary, intersectional, and transnational approaches is further helpful in highlighting on the politics of gender, race, and nation, elaborating on how different countries have worked towards accepting the veil, working past the misconceptions associated with it.
Veil in Muslim Societies
History of the Veil
Various Muslim cultures such as the seclusion of women and veiling have their history trailing back centuries of years ago. The Islamic community is believed to have borrowed the culture of putting on the veil from some non-Arabic Mediterranean and Middle Eastern societies back in the thirteenth century. Initially, veiling was restricted to respectable women in the society and so some women such as prostitutes were legally forbidden from practicing it. Only the elite women could wear the veil as this represented a sign of status in the society. During the time, veiling was common among the pre-Islamic Iranian, Roman, and Byzantine empires (Hoodfar 3). Despite being borrowed from the conquered people, the veil is recognized by both Islamic and non-Islamic communities as an Islamic phenomenon. The practice is further recognized and presumably endorsed by the Islamic holy book, the Quran, though there is nowhere in the book where veiling is recommended. However, some people use some interpretation of certain verses in the Quran to affirm that the religion recommends that women put on the veil. For instance, Surah al - Nur, verses 30 – 31 recommends that women should cover their jewellery and bosoms (Hoodfar 3). There is also another part that states that women should wrap their cloaks around their bodies to avoid being molested in public for having dressed provocatively. However, it was until the 1500s-1700s when the veil materialized as a widespread symbol of status among the Muslim elite and the urban elite in the region of the modern North Africa and the Middle East (Hoodfar 5). Considerably, veiling was promoted in the nineteenth century by the colonial as an important symbol of the Muslims, which has since then, been referenced as their cultural practice.
Reasons for veiling
Since its inception, the veil has been worn for different reasons among the Muslim societies. Although the majority of those that practice the culture would seem to incline to a common reason linked to religion, different people have their individual or communal reasons for practicing the culture. As much as the veil worn by women all over the world would have physical similarities, there are varieties of meanings attached to the practice and this depends on the ideological and cultural context of the particular people.
The Veil as a Symbol of Cultural Affirmation
In most societies, majority groups define a normal social practice in the domains of language used, religion, dress, and other elements pertaining to the public life. Among the Muslim women, the veil represents their strong unity that they share the same culture and experiences in life. Among the majority of the Muslim women, veiling is a way of life that portrays their obedient and respect to their Islamic culture where women are supposed to dress appropriately as dictated by the religious beliefs (Jeffreys 38). Veiling represents the expectations of the wider Islamic society. It gives the women their Muslim identity, which is intertwined with different local customs and beliefs among the Muslim societies. For many years, veiling has had the connection with the religious ideologies among the Muslim women and this is still considered a substantial reason for the practice even today. Veiling women are somehow considered religion abiding, something which is emphasized among Islamic societies. Muslim women are ideologically indoctrinated to embrace veiling as a way to avoid seducing men, which is believed to be the wish of Allah (Jeffreys 39). In some countries such as those in the Middle East and some part of the Northern Africa, failure to practice veiling among the women would be viewed as a rebellious act against the Muslim religion in support of the Westerners ideologies most of which are against the Islamic cultural beliefs. A woman would therefore, put on the veil as a sign of her respect to the Islamic culture and the religion itself. This is not only observed in the Muslim countries, but it is also common in other western countries such as the U.S and some European countries.
In the modern world, the Muslim identify has interlinked with other different local customs and beliefs and this has expound the way people, particularly the women view the essence of the veil. The idea that the modern world is highly receptive to fashion and various trends in dressing has really influenced the perception among the Muslim women concerning the veil. In some regions of the world such as Indonesia, the veil has found its way into local fashions in dressing code (Wagner et al. 524). Some young Indonesian women practice veiling as a way of adapting to their localized fashionable dressing code. The fashion industry in the country has successfully marketed the veil as a product that unite the cultural-religious obligation of covering the body and the desire among the women to be seen as objects of beauty. The fashion industry in the country presents the veils as colorful, which is considered trendy among the youth besides its association with the up-market life style. Such opinions about the veil is shared among the majority of the Indian young women who practice veiling without a religious meaning, but purely for cultural affirmation that they also embrace the modern and trendy dress codes (Wagner et al. 528). To them, veiling is just as the wearing of makeup among the women in the west. They also consider beauty as an integral part of a woman’s life and that is why they put on veils to enhance their beauty.
Veiling as a Source of Women Empowerment
For many years, women have seek different ways through which they can empower themselves to enjoy the freedom men have had throughout the history. Women from different regions in the world have adopted different strategies to help champion for their freedom of association and freedom of movement among others. In the male dominated world, the Muslims women have lived to lack the privileges enjoyed by their male counterparts many of them being concerned of going to public places bareheaded and barefaced (Jeffreys 38). By adopting the veil, the Muslim women were enabled to access the areas where they could not do initially, without the fear of being rebuked for having dressed badly. Such places include public transport as they go for work or studies and other public places such as the mosque and shopping centers. This can be viewed as the situation in the U.S, in the 1920s, when the women were entering the public world of workplaces and offices when beauty products became the in-thing for enhancing their courage and self-esteem to venture in male-dominated areas without any fear concerning their physical appearances. According to feminist commentators, the adoption of the veil among Muslim women in the twentieth century gave them a feel of safety that made them free to undertake occupations in the public world, which were previously restricted for the men (Moghissi 147). A woman with a veil would not be exposed to the risks of being harassed by men. The veil gave the Muslim women the power to fight against any sexual harassment, in case of an attack, because a veiled woman could not be blamed for having incited such an abusive behavior. Through the adoption of the veil, the Muslim women are alleviated from such harmful behaviors instigated by the male dominance in their societies. Although people from Western countries could claim that the choice for the veil arose from t...