Modesty and the Veil

The requirement that good Muslim women cover themselves for the sake of modesty lest they affront and entice good Muslim men by their brazen flaunting of their womanhood, gifted to them by Allah certainly goes a long way to ensuring that women know their place in Islamic society. In the Western world there has long existed a classic put-down of children, that they should be seen and not heard. In the world of Islam, that little aphorism is turned neatly around, and it becomes women who should be heard but not seen.

Invisible objects of unconcern. Of course women who defy the obligation to cover themselves lest they turn the heads of otherwise-blameless males in their society are shamed, belittled, and often beaten. In other words, treated as children who are also, when they behave in a manner inconsistent with adult expectations, shamed, belittled and beaten.

Muslim women themselves will defend their "right" to cover up, by insisting that this is what they want. It is their way of honouring Allah, of submitting to Islamic doctrine. This is a defence of sublimation, denying one's personal right to appear in public just as men do; adequately garbed, but not to the extent where one's physical characteristics, one's personality is lost under fabric yardage of complete concealment.

On the other hand, pious Muslim women living in theocratic societies which oblige women to know their place within the society are broadly accepting of a custom, societal mores, religious obligation which they honour. In countries where stifling heat for much of the calendar year would entice most people to shed unnecessary garments to cope with the discomfort, women remain obliged to cover themselves from head to foot.

Muslim women living in Western societies who insist on their "right" to complete coverage, are quite obviously engaging in politics. It isn't that they're agreeable to the prospect of submerging their physical appearance and identities in a stifling cover-up, but rather that when they decide to express themselves through complete cover, this is a political declaration. One which also brings much attention upon the person who, despite insisting this is done for modesty's sake, reveals another agenda; that of striving for attention and a degree of notoriety. The choice has been made; rather than accept the freedom that the lifestyle of the West offers, one has deliberately selected a physical bondage.

A Muslim woman living in the West assumes an air of serene indifference to all about her, an apartness, a deliberate separatedness from the values of her surroundings, and those of the "other" population in which she is immersed. Rejection of equality as a political statement. And make no mistake, when an individual born to the ideals of a civilized, equal-opportunity community which prizes individualism, yet embraces communitarianism and accepts diversity can most certainly experience a gut feeling of distaste and distance on being confronted by that rejection.

That respected old adage "when in Rome do as the Romans do" is simply good sense. One submerges one's identity into the greater identity of the population at large, respecting social mores, laws of the land, customs, adapting to another heritage, while retaining valued aspects of one's own. Why emigrate to a country so different from one's own that upon arrival everything about the country, its freedoms which were the reason for removal from the country of birth to begin with, thrown off as though irrelevant. And in the process, expecting, even demanding recognition for customs and mores not recognized in the adopted country. The burka, the niqab, are visible insults to freedom and equality.

Human beings respond to cues received from individual to individual. We take the measure of the person before us and respond accordingly. An open expression of trust, a hesitant smile, an obvious wish to communicate, and we respond. But we're entirely shut out of the potential to become co-operative or responsive to a human being who chooses to physically deny those around her to see her as a human being, just as they are.

So when Muslim women complain that they are treated differently, or with a lack of interest, or a lack of respect within a largely secular-democratic society there is a certain ingenuousness about the declaration. After all, those of whom they complain are responding to them in the manner in which they themselves have presented. No facial clues, no eye contact - you do not exist.

These are all choices that people make throughout their lives. If, while living in a religious, male-centered society women accept the limitations to their freedoms of expression, clothing choices, social practises in public and accept their subordination to the wishes of men, that is one thing. They are victims of their society, their religion, their governments. If, while living in a secular society whose laws ensure equal treatment and freedom of expression, they still cling (or take up these traditional usages anew) to gender-demeaning customs they are victims of their own stupidity.

I can have friendly feelings of openness to women from other cultures who prefer to cover themselves for the comfort of the familiar, and that is in itself an entirely different proposition. I can never feel comfortable or helpful to women who separate themselves from other women with the abrupt finality of a veil where only the eyes can be seen, eyes which express no interest in me or the world around us.

What could be more natural?