Reinventing The Veil Analysis

In her Financial Times article, “Reinventing the Veil,” writer Leila Ahmed uses her background and knowledge as a Muslim feminist to write about the dynamic evolution or revolution of the Islamic veil. Ahmed starts with the 1940s through 1960s, in an era which education was quickly spreading. Many Muslim majority cities were becoming more aware of the cultural significance of the veil and were deciding to opt out. As an educated Harvard academic, Ahmed builds trust with her readers’ and also establishes her credibility. She then appeals to our emotions to form an overall persuasive and organized piece.

In “Shrouded in Contradiction,” Gelareh Asayesh compares and contrasts her life in Florida with her life in Iran. While in Florida, she wears westernized clothing, but when she returns to Iraq, she must put on the scarf and long jacket that many Iranian women wear instead of a veil. The essay begins by telling the readers that Asayesh “grew up wearing the miniskirt to school, the veil to the mosque” (187). Instantly, we become aware of her double life; she changes her appearance and demeanor depending on her surroundings.

Ethnic stereotypes operate in the same ways for men and women. In the reading “ Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes the Mind,” Ethan Watters mentions how culture shapes the way of thinking and perception. “The most interesting thing about cultures…they mold out most fundamental conscious and unconscious thinking and perception.”(Watters 496). This shows how culture is not just about the materialistic things, but how it influence’s ones thinking and judgment in general. A main source that influences an individuals judgement is the media. It is exactly what happens in the reading “ Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas,” were Jennifer Pozner mentions how “Other Latina models throughout the series have been called ‘fiery’ as a compliment and ‘hootchie’ as an insult.” (Pozner 361). This quote shows how racial stereotypes work. The show America’s Next Top Model releases these name calling that will later on affect that particular ethnicity.

Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. DuBois (originally published in 1920). This work allows a peep into the relationship of DuBois with nature and outdoor recreation. DuBois shared a reverence for and a fear of nature, while encountered nature in unique and special way. The work offers us a profound and unrestrained glance into the complex relationship between the wild places of the country and Afro-American people.

In document #3 of the DQB, veiling is talked about. The document mentions that non-muslims think of veiling as a form

Throughout this course, numerous examples of Muslim women who have expresses self-determination, when it comes to wearing the veil. Afshar introduces the story of a woman named, BLAH BALH, who explains her decision to start wearing the scarf at the age of 21. She explains how, for her, the decision to wear the scarf was political, as she was serving as president of the United Nations Students’ Association at her university, and wanted to claim her identity as a Muslim woman, and challenge the typical stereotypes that Muslim women hold. Her goal was to demonstrate how a woman who wears a hijab is not necessarily the weak minded, severely oppressed woman that the world often depicts her to be, and that she can instead be an educated and engaged professional.

The double standard between men and women has always and will continue to be evident in today’s world. In the essay There is No Unmarked Woman, Deborah Tannen explores the contrast and double standard facing women when it comes to clothing in the workplace. An anecdote depicts her evaluation of the clothing worn by women at a gender-diverse conference. She then explains that she “…suddenly wondered why I was scrutinizing only the women. I scanned the eight men at the table. And then I knew why I wasn 't studying them. The men’s styles were unmarked”(553). She defines ‘marked’ by explaining that a word is ‘unmarked’ when it is in the male form of the word, but female forms of words are ‘marked’ with endings such as ‘ette’ or ‘ess,’ and are less likely to be taken seriously. She describes how the women at the conference had things such as women’s clothing, shoes, hairstyle, or makeup, making them ‘marked.’ Since the men did not wear make up, they were ‘unmarked.’ She concludes that even if a women did not wear makeup or wore comfortable clothes instead of business attire, “there is no unmarked woman”(556). This unfair behavior remains in the workplace to this day, and no woman is held to exactly the same fair standard as

For example Margaret who was known as the ore outspoken woman stated that “at first thought she thought the staff women’s lack of assertiveness meant that they were ineffectual. Over time, she came to believe that the staff’s feminine demeanor, and their contributions, were both valuable and unrecognized by others.” (pg. 101) This quote to me is significant because this not only takes place in this book. This is something us as woman face on a regular. We are constantly devalued and go unrecognized for not only being contributors but because of our kind and sometimes sensitive demeanor. And this is very much important to gain insight in this book because in higher up positions in the business field you begin to see the difference in men and woman. Men are raised to be the bread winners and ones who provide while woman are taught to act like a lady, respect man, and literally make ourselves submissive to them as well as available in any situation. And seen in this book the woman are to be only considered as volunteers. Even though they do work that is for pay. This a problem because so often women are seen as already being in that nurturing nature and what they work as and do shouldn’t be considered work. Another example from the book came from when it was stated that Ron (one of the practitioners) didn’t seem to understand that renewal held multiple meanings for the staff of women, which

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis, presents the central tension of Marjane struggling with the relationship of her nationality and herself by seeing the transition of clothing, makeup and accessories that female characters wear in the book. During her teenage years, she had been to a lot of countries and she always felt like she couldn 't find her real identity, either as a westerner or an Iranian. The book presents a lot of struggles with her trying to figure out her relationship, nationality, and her identity. The readers can see the transition of cultural background by noticing details within the image, for example, character’s clothing and how they dress themselves up. The transition of clothing and fashion represent cultural backgrounds that create struggles for Marjane and her search in self identity.

This week's readings focus on the issues of freedom and enlightenment. In Angelique Chrisafis’s essay France’s headscarf war: ‘Its an attack on freedom’ we are introduced to the problems many Muslim women in France are experiencing regarding their traditional headscarf, the hijab. Chrysalis explains that the French Republic lays a great deal of importance and focus on the separation of church and state and, therefore, do not allow any religiously affiliated clothing or items to be worn in the public work sector. However, many Muslim women are upset, embarrassed, and feel targeted by the treatment they are receiving at the hands of different institutions in France when wearing their hijab.

The townspeople are quick to judge The Minister for wearing such a sinful crape but they themselves overlook their own sins amongst the chaos of speculating the different crimes he must of committed to be wearing the veil. “He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face”. It is possible that no crime was committed but rather the veil was worn to show how unfaithful they truly were to their religion.

The way a person dress may or may not be connected to the type of person you are, In “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr. Hooper wore a black veil to hide his sins. The appearance of someone may or may not be linked to personality because it could be based on religion and environment. The people from the church were judging Me. Hooper because it wasn't normal for people to wear that all day everyday. The people didn't take the time to listen to him and ask questions about it. The black veil seemed scary for the people because they didn't understand why he was wearing it. It doesn't matter because he is still the same person just wearing something different that people didn't understand why he wore the black veil. People were scared of the veil they were confused by the black veil.

Common American understandings of the meaning of hijab are related to a foreign cultural threat. There was a clear relationship between safety and wearing a hijab, this resulted in some women to stop wearing it after 9/11. A hijab carried a religious meaning, this factor played a role in the way Americans viewed women wearing it. Muslim women were aware that they were potential targets of attack, they were aware of the shift in public attitudes toward their apparel. Cainkar interviewed Muslim women and found, “One of my friends, immediately after September 11, she was afraid, and she couldn’t go out, and she ended up staying home”, another woman said, “After the events, we have begun to feel less secure than before. And because I wear a veil,

The Islamic religion was also the reason for veiling even after the Islamic revolution. However, there is the one difference after the revolution which is fundamentalism. The fundamentalist strongly believes that women 's hair stimuli men 's sexual desire, as the TV explains why women need to hide their hair in Persepolis (Satrapi 74). Indeed, When Marjane 's mother was in town without wearing the veil, she was insulted by fundamentalist (Satrapi 75).

Fatima Mernissi was born into Middle- Class family is Fes, Morocco of 1940. She earned her doctorate in 1957 studying political science at Sorbonne and at Brandeis University. Afterwards she returned to work at the Mohammed V University where she then had taught at the Faculte’ des letteres between the years 1974 and 1981 mainly on subjects such as methodology, family sociology as well as psych sociology. She earned her title as a well-known Islamic feminist that was greatly concerned with Islam and women’s role in it. Fatima Mernissi had conducted thorough investigation of the nature of the succession of Mohammed in order to verify what was written in the hadith. Fatima Mernissi’s works include: Dreams of trespass: Tales of a harem Girlhood, Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World, and the well-known as well as her first Monograph, Beyond the Veil, which was published in 1975. It has become popular book in fields such as sociology and anthropology of the women in the Arab World.