Fashion Weekly: Veiling

Sometimes fashion isn't about the new "it" bag or runway shows. Fashion, as both a reflection and creator of culture, can be about something bigger. Sometimes that something bigger is human rights.

Such was the case at Dr. Bahar Davary's lecture last Thursday titled "Obsession with the Veil." Davary is a professor of religious studies here at the University of San Diego and specializes in studying women and the Qu'ran, the sacred religious text of the Islamic faith. It seems that when it comes to dress there is no greater visual symbol of this religion than the veil, otherwise known as the Hijab.

Today the veil serves as an outward symbol of piety to those who follow Islam, and a symbol of otherness to those who do not. This sheath of material is not just a garment, but also a sign that signifies a meaning dependent on the context of the wearer and the viewer. Some Muslim women see it as a representation of community, others along with many Westerners, see it as a representation of oppression. Why all this fuss over what is most basically a piece of fabric?

The Qu'ran has little to say about veiling other than to "draw your cloak around you" in order to remain safe, though it urges modesty from women and men. But the Hadith, the text that describes the early practices of Muslims, more substantially spells out the importance of veiling to Mohammed's wives. Muslims, as followers of Mohammed, seek to embody this in their daily lives. Today, veiling is a symbol of subscription to this faith, and an outward sign of community. Indeed, a lot of cultural pressure does exist for women to remain veiled if they do not live in places that require veiling by law. Exclusion from the group is an inherently human fear, and one that often upholds current power structures and the status quo.

Scriptures in the Christian bible tell women to cover themselves, urging "silence in full submission" and "shamefacedness." It is this interpretation of veiling that has remained salient to Westerners, who equate veiling with female subordination. Images of veiled Muslims have been associated with the charge of stoning for adultery, and the political struggles of Islamic women. Westerners see themselves as culturally neutral, unwilling to see our own fashion practices as potentially suppressive, but rather as the "norm."

Veiling, whether voluntary or involuntary, is a symbol of "otherness." Today in countries around the world, women have been forcibly unveiled in order to bring "liberty" and equality. When examined further, this doesn't sound like equality to me.

Whether women are forced to be veiled or unveiled, they are still treated as objects. In the most basic linguistic sense, both these statements: "Muslims forcing women to veil" and "The Government forcing women to unveil" are ordered subject-verb-object. Women are treated as objects and pawns in a political power struggle.

Both aspects lack the fundamental component of human liberty and freewill: choice. "We don't want to be told who we are by Muslim Arab men. We don't want to be told who we are by Western men or Western feminists. We have Selves," a woman said in the video Davary presented.

Women have no more choice to express themselves in societies where they are forced to be unveiled than they do in societies that enforce the opposite. If women are true equals government bodies should treat them as functioning rational individuals, fully capable of making decisions.

I am more than aware that my understanding of veiling is limited and the cultural, religious and political implications of this practice are limitless. Davary's lecture, however, has helped me see forced veiling and unveiling in a new light. If women are to achieve equality they should have access to what one woman calls "the most basic human right: to dress the way you want to dress."