To what extent do Muslim Women in the West have autonomy to practice their religion? Using theory and practical examples discuss these perspectives from a Muslim point of view.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1988:294) once asked if it was possible for the subaltern to speak when one is understood as a woman, poor or black. In light of recent events being a Muslim woman living in western society can be added to this list. Western hegemonic practices constructed and continue to construct a particular image of Muslim women that restricts not only their religious freedoms but their rights as individuals living in western democratic societies. In late April 2010, the Belgian government passed a law banning Muslim women from wearing the burqa or niqab in public places (Tran 2010). France is set to follow with a similar ban with Mr Nicolas Sarkozy stating the reason for the ban is that the burqa is a symbol of women's oppression that will not be welcome in France (Tran 2010). It has been estimated that less than 2000 women out of a French Muslim population of 5 million will be affected by these laws yet Western governments have singled out these women as representing a danger to western culture and traditions. This essay seeks to examine the historical, political and social context for the treatment of Muslim women and their ability to practice their religion. I will argue that restrictions on their religious practices are not something new within western societies but have its roots in the colonial experience. Edward Said's critique of orientalism will be used to inform the construction of a particular image of Muslim women that has ramifications those impacts on their religious freedoms and civil rights. I will also seek to provide an understanding of the religious, cultural and social meaning of veiling for Muslim women living in western society today. While an image of Muslim women has been constructed as oppressed and passive victims, the paradox is that these women in both the west and the east have been involved in struggles for religious, political and social freedoms. In Afghanistan, women were made to wear the burqa by the Taliban regime, and in the West they are being forced not to wear it. A western image of Muslim fails to acknowledge the complexity and diversity of Muslim women and their practices of their religion.
Nicolas Sarkozy's statement of women's oppression is an echo of the colonial era's representation of Muslim women as in need of protection and rescue from oppressive practices. Spivak's work illustrates the representation of Muslim women in the colonial era as one of, “White men are saving brown women from brown men” (1988:296). Mr Sarkozy's statement and the actions of the French and Belgium governments reflect this view of Muslim women as needing to be rescued. The colonial experience informed a particular construct of non-western, non-white women, their culture and religion underpinned by western ideals and values. It was a binary opposition of characteristics contrasting the orient and the occident (Said 1991:1). In the colonial period, Muslim women were constructed as backward, sexual and oppressed living in a barbaric patriarchal society (El Guindi 1999:3). In many official texts and literature non-western women were represented in this light while contrasting them to western women who were constructed as Christian, free, moral and educated (Sardar 1999:2). Missionaries saw it as their duty and their service to liberate these women from oppression, “They will never cry for themselves, for they are down under the yoke of centuries of oppression” (Van Sommer and Zwemer 1907:15). Throughout the ages, Muslim women have been subjected to attempts to rescue them from oppression and backwardness. Hoodfar (1988:8) argues that in constructing an image of Muslim women as uneducated and oppressed it enabled the situation of the occident female to be hidden, which during this same period saw women defined, only by their biology and the domestic sphere, which was controlled by men. Orientalism constructed Muslim women as oppressed and dominated, that was contrasted with an equally constructed view of the occidental woman as free, Christian, moral and educated. Said (1991:4) has argued that both oriental and occidental are not natural histories but are constructed to produce a single mode of representation that discounted the diversity of their people and cultures. European economic, social, political, cultural and religious narratives produced themselves as one of superiority that therefore justified domination and control of the 'other'.
Many Muslim writers argue that the images of the contemporary Muslim women are constructs of the colonial era that discriminates against the way they choose to live their faith. Hoodfar claims that while in the West, the image of the burqa and other clothing as an oppressive symbol has been a static image; within Muslim cultures there has been a change in how Muslim dress is interpreted and how these interpretations are diverse and varied; “ Veiling is a lived experience full of contradictions and multiple meanings” (1988:5).While at times the burqa, hijab or niqab have been used within certain regimes and historical moments as oppressing women, it is not the only story of the veil and the experiences Muslim women (Hoodfar 1988:5). Leila Ahmed (2005:153) interviewed Muslim women at an American university college who indicated it was through their own choice that they wear the burqa. They all claimed that while the Qur'an did not require them to wear full covering their reasons for doing so were varied and diverse (Ahmed 2005:153). Some chose the burqa because it identified them with their community and compared it to Jewish people who wore the yarmulke while others saw it as a way of making people take note of who they were and to witness the value they placed on their identity and religion as Muslim woman living in western societies (Ahmed 2005:153). Others identified wearing it as a symbol of the struggle for social justice within the context of Muslims living in Palestine (Ahmed 2005:153). Wing & Nigh Smith (2005:759) found in their research that young Muslim women chose to wear headscarf's and clothing for a variety of reasons including personal religious conviction, acceptance of family traditions and values and cultural and community identity and as an escape of sexual harassment. One young women claimed that she felt freer and more feminine while at the same time displaying pride in her beliefs (Wing & Nigh Smith 2005:758). In research among young British Muslim women Dwyer(1999:17) found that clothing that covered the body and headscarves were used as a way of articulating identity within Islamic discourses about culture and identity within the Islamic community while at the same time reinventing dress suitable for their religious observances. Abu-Lughod finds that the dress that many modern Muslim women choose is both reflective of their piety and their “educated urban sophistication” (2002:786). Evidence from research in many western societies strongly suggests that young Muslim women living in the west are making decisions and choices that are informed equally by social and political discourse as well as religious and cultural traditions.
Muslim women in western societies in trying to implement their decision in the practice of their faith and membership of community have been hindered by governments and societies legislating and questioning within racist discourse surrounding their decisions and practice. Government legislation in Belgium and France are the most recent evidence of the restrictions of religious freedoms for these women however; Hoodfar (1993: 13) points out that in most western societies Muslim women experience both “overt and covert forms of racism and chauvinism'' and even more so since 9/11. She argues that Muslim women have to struggle with tones of racism and patriarchy in both academic and social discourse regarding what they wear and why they wear it (Hoodfar 1993:13). They constantly struggle to have their voices heard over stories of oppression in Iran and other Islamic cultures that reaffirm colonial Western images of oppression and Muslim women as passive victims which is then used to validate the superiority of western morals and values (Hoodfar 1993:13). In France Muslim women's voices have been silenced in previous debates surrounding headscarves and veils and when some dared to speak they were seen as “insolent and contemptuous” (Wing and Nigh Smith 2005:758). The media has controlled how these women have been represented and has helped propagate the public debate centred on colonial images of the Muslim dress as oppressive and thus inferior to western values.
Abu-Lughod (2002:784) argues that news reporting in the aftermath of 9/11 used Muslim women and their religious practices as a way of interpreting Muslim culture to understand terrorism. As in the colonial era Muslim women were used to abstract from the patriarchy of the West, Muslim women were now used to abstract from the political and historical interventions by the West in these areas of conflict. In comparison to other religious and social observances concerning dress, Muslim women have been singled out for special treatment and condemnation. Dwyer's (1999:12) research of young Muslim girls in British high-schools found that these young women experienced attitudes from some non-Muslim students and the community as being “backward and being in the dark ages”. In some British schools Muslim women have to comply with uniform standards that prohibit them from wearing any dress that identifies them as Muslim (Dwyer 1999:13). In comparison, other religious codes of dress do not receive the same social and political interference in their choices of religious observances and dress. Abu-Lughod (2002:785) points out that Hasidic women wear wigs and have high street fashion altered to cover their neck and arms in order to observe their religious standards of covering their hair and body. Some Christian nuns still choose to wear clothing that covers both their head and body. None of these Jewish and Christian religious dress observances are prohibited or even discouraged in Western societies. In contemporary Western society Muslim women are neither respected for their choices or support by these societies in the practice of their religion.
The ability of Muslim women living in Western society to practice their religious beliefs and have autonomy in the choices they make is restricted by both government intervention and the wider community's acceptance of their rights to those choices and practices. The dress of these women has identified them as oppressed and passive victims that are an echo from the colonial era which constructed them in this image and failed to recognise the diversity of the religious and cultural practices in the Islamic world. The experience of Muslim women in contemporary Western society is still mired in these types of constructions that fail to recognise the diversity of beliefs and the significance of their religious practices for both themselves as individuals and their community. In feminist discourse they are attacked for their dress as symbols of oppression rather than their rights to be who they are and their struggle for freedom of religious and civil rights. In any political or social discourse their dress and religious practices are constructed to validate western values and culture while abstracting western patriarchal practices and political interference throughout the non-Western world. In order for the voices of Muslim women to be heard and their choices respected there must be a break from the colonial past and the image of the orient 'other' as alien. In Western societies that pride themselves on the ideals of democratic freedoms of both religion and civil rights Muslim women stand out as being excluded from these rights. If the modern Muslim women's perspective was appreciated and understood as one of choice and diversity then perhaps societies could focus on victims of oppression throughout the world whether they are, female, poor or black.
References:
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