I have a dilemma. As a child, I never met a Muslim. When I saw pictures of women adhering to hijab – the Islamic code of ‘modest dress’, and also the name of the headscarf often worn by Muslim women – I assumed that their clothes had more to do with national dress, custom and tradition than with religion.
But by the time that I learned of the religious connotations of these garments, I was also aware of their social and political significance.
When you think about it, much traditional Muslim women’s clothing is not unlike the habits that Irish nuns used to wear years ago. These derive, I’m sure, from the type of medieval dress you see in old Dutch and Italian paintings. It’s hardly surprising, then, that I have viewed these garments as a step back into the past to a time when women had few rights and were simply the property of men.
I have to admit that there was a time when the sight of a traditionally clad Muslim woman on the street of a western city incited only negative feelings. And I have been particularly shocked by European women converts to Islam who have taken to wearing the veil.
‘How can they do it?’ I’ve asked myself. It’s not simply that in wearing the veil they are rejecting western values – I might have some sympathy with that – but it is that by wearing what seemed to me to be restrictive and antiquated garments, they were only underlining their role as second class citizens.
When I visited Istanbul in the 1980s, I hardly saw anyone wearing a headscarf. Turkey is a Muslim country, yet the headscarf as a symbol of adherence to Islam had been banned in schools, universities and public offices since early last century.
However, times are changing, and this ban is now being challenged. On a recent visit to Istanbul, I was amazed to see how the heads of so many young women were swathed in multicoloured silk hijabs. Some wore them with figure hugging jeans and designer shades; others wore full-length fitted denim coats. Seeing groups of young women walking boldly about the city – some wearing the headscarf, others without – it was difficult to regard them as subservient. They were making a statement about themselves and their religion, I thought. But then I’d look in another direction and I’d see a man in western clothes walking with a woman in a headscarf. While he looked free and unrestricted to my eyes, she looked constrained and unequal.
A decade ago, I remember interviewing two north African Muslim women, whose families were seeking asylum in Ireland. They were highly educated, eloquent young women, who had enjoyed significant careers in their own countries. They were impressive both intellectually and physically.Mentally, I admired their elegant veils – heavy cream silk and embroidery. They were adamant that in their society, they had not been second class citizens.
You could say that the tiny insight I had into their lives broadened my mind. I’ve always believed in a woman’s right to choose, and that right is at the nub of all our concerns about the hijab. What western women opposed to the hijab fear most is that there will come a time when we will all be expected to wear the veil. Our fears are exacerbated when we read reports of Muslim women being forced to wear Islamic dress, or forced into unwelcome marriages, or being murdered by their families in honour killings.
Some Muslim women argue that wearing conservative dress protects them from sexual harassment and leaves them free to pursue careers and other interests. This is an understandable but very secular reason for wearing old fashioned, cumbersome clothing. One could also argue that instead of women’s lives being circumscribed in this way, the male harassers should wear blindfolds.
Men, of course, are at the centre of the issue. It’s male Muslims who make the decrees and issue the fatwas. An educated, well-informed woman making a personal choice about the hijab is one thing. A woman stigmatised or even martyred because of her refusal is entirely another.
The fanatics of this world are the problem. They force us to take sides and positions that are ultimately illogical. What does it matter what any woman chooses to wear – or not wear – as long as she is doing it of her own free will?
