What are your thoughts on this article?
“The West interprets veiling as repression of women and suppression of their sexuality. But when I travelled in Muslim countries and was invited to join a discussion in women-only settings within Muslim homes, I learned that Muslim attitudes toward women’s appearance and sexuality are not rooted in repression, but in a strong sense of public versus private, of what is due to God and what is due to one’s husband. It is not that Islam suppresses sexuality, but that it embodies a strongly developed sense of its appropriate channelling – toward marriage, the bonds that sustain family life, and the attachment that secures a home.
Outside the walls of the typical Muslim households that I visited in Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt, all was demureness and propriety. But inside, women were as interested in allure, seduction and pleasure as women anywhere in the world.
At home, in the context of marital intimacy, Victoria’s Secret, elegant fashion and skin care lotions abounded. The bridal videos that I was shown, with the sensuous dancing that the bride learns as part of what makes her a wonderful wife, and which she proudly displays for her bridegroom, suggested that sensuality was not alien to Muslim women. Rather, pleasure and sexuality, both male and female, should not be displayed promiscuously – and possibly destructively – for all to see.
Indeed, many Muslim women I spoke with did not feel at all subjugated by the chador or the headscarf. On the contrary, they felt liberated from what they experienced as the intrusive, commodifying, basely sexualising Western gaze. Many women said something like this: “When I wear Western clothes, men stare at me, objectify me, or I am always measuring myself against the standards of models in magazines, which are hard to live up to – and even harder as you get older, not to mention how tiring it can be to be on display all the time. When I wear my headscarf or chador, people relate to me as an individual, not an object; I feel respected.” This may not be expressed in a traditional Western feminist set of images, but it is a recognisably Western feminist set of feelings.
I experienced it myself. I put on a shalwar kameez and a headscarf in Morocco for a trip to the bazaar. Yes, some of the warmth I encountered was probably from the novelty of seeing a Westerner so clothed; but, as I moved about the market – the curve of my breasts covered, the shape of my legs obscured, my long hair not flying about me – I felt a novel sense of calm and serenity. I felt, yes, in certain ways, free.”
by Naomi Wolf
Categorized | Affiliate Marketing 101
Wearing The Veil Is Good For Women – Says A Western Feminist.?
Posted on May 23, 2012.
If I wanted to read useless stupid articles like this, I’d go to the Yahoo homepage.
People should be allowed to wear what they want. If Naomi Wolf thinks it’s good, let her wear it.
The countries that have a ‘morality police’ force, going around harrassing women who don’t wear the veil but are otherwise modestly dressed, should have a good hard look at themselves.
CHOOSING to wear the veil is fine for Western women. But many women in the Islamic world do not have a choice about what they want to wear, and are potentially victims of violence and sexual assuault from men of they do not wear veils.
Dx
interesting.
it’s same as saying Michael Jackson did the right thing of surgically becoming white, because being who he is and putting it on display would make his life uncomfortable, as there still is racism in the world.
if people feel like they have to hide who they are and what they look like to be respected and not treated as objects, as this article claims, then there is a huge problem in that society.
What exactly is “free” about wearing the veil in a cultural context where women who don’t wear the veil are bullied and harassed?
In countries like that the society is essentially saying to women: “You can either wear the veil or get harassed. Your free choice.” Give me a break.
..if she’s ugly like a camel
Porkistan zindabad!
As if a woman never wore a veil and couldn’t even know whether she had or had enjoyed wearing it.
Feminists in the main think women are stupid as beagles.
You raise a very interesting issue and I will try to give it some serious thought. You have put a lot into this question and I feel it deserves some detailed attention.
What seems to be in question here is what the veil signifies. For western women the concept of a veil seems to signify restriction and or repression. A good example of this is the veil many women in the western world wear on their wedding day. This is the context of the veil in western thought that is most familiar to the western mind. That it “covers” something sacred, has seemed to slip the western mind as western spiritual expression is more interested in self-knowledge and self-exploration with a focus on authenticity. This heavy bias on what is “authentic” has caused a great deal of division among the Abrahamic spiritual group. Countries which are predominantly Christian, like mine, often mistake the concept of “sacredness” with vanity or idolatry. This should not be surprising, as the Christian religious experience heavily emphasizes authentic revelation or “unveiling” of truth through deep self-exploration, and by transitive property, rejects anything “veiled” as it calls forth the spiritual reality of either being “untested” i.e. unaccountable to the word of God or being truly sacred and therefore implies what is behind it is somehow “apart” from God. This, of course, is not always in fact the case. The Islamic faith seems to retain the idea of “sacredness” being necessary in it’s everyday expression of faith. I can only speculate as to what that means as I am not a Muslim, but wherever I find traditions routed in religious expression there always seems an eagerness to condemn the practices it manifests. Do not listen to the voices of condemnation. They are quick to accuse and deceive, but they have no depth or substance.
May the love of God comfort and keep you
They are putting a barrier between them and unwanted attention from the young perverts that hang out in public places and harass women. No one is forcing them to wear the scarf, it is their choice because of the way the men act in public. That and having a stoic expression on their face as they walk past and try to ignore hissing men gathered together in cafes..
Ah Naomi, the author. Not trying to sell you anything. No. Never happens 😉