To Veil or Not to Veil

Monday, 09 October 2006
By Sabria S Jawhar
The Saudi Gazette

ONCE again and not long after Pope Benedict XVI aroused Islamic anger with some ill-advised comments about Prophet Muhammed (pbuh), which strengthens the argument of those who say that the West is hostile to Muslims, we have come across another inflammatory statement. This time we hear it from the United Kingdom, home to more than 1.65 million Muslims. Britain’s former foreign secretary Jack Straw, now responsible for arranging government business, said the veil makes it harder for Muslims to integrate and that he preferred talking to constituents face to face. He often asks Muslim women to remove their veils.
To be honest, the statement by itself might not be of great concern if it came from an ignorant or illiterate common man, but what surprised me was that it came from Straw, who has an influence over public opinion in the West. Straw also was supported by Communities Minister Phil Woolas, whose responsibilities include community cohesion, race and faith.
The claims that the veil makes it harder for Muslim women to integrate and Straw often asks Muslim women to remove their veils, fly in the face of Britain’s continuing calls for respect of all religious symbols. It is a natural right for all believers to be tolerant to maintain a culture respecting interfaith dialogue and religious co-existence.
However, it is not my intention here to get into the possible consequences of such statements on integration and coexistence. Simply because we all know that such statements would be perceived as discrimination against Muslims. Besides, this topic has been tackled by several objective writers in both the Islamic and non-Islamic world.
My argument will be limited to the expected role of senior Muslim scholars all over the world and the media in both the West and the East in tackling such contemporary issues.
But before discussing their role, it is essential to know that in Islam there are two verses that succinctly and candidly talk about Hijab or the veil. Yet Muslim jurists have interpreted them differently. This highlights the effect of cultural background when it comes to the concept of veil in Islam. Some schools, for instance, consider covering the face as obligatory while other schools do not. However, they all consider covering rest of the body a must. Also, most scholars of eminence believe that a Muslim woman must wear “scarf” and cover her head for identity and sobriety.
The crux of the matter, though, remains that we have to differentiate between the teachings of the sacred texts of Islam and its practice, which more often are culture and country specific. Islam is practiced slightly differently in various Muslim countries.
Muslim women in Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon and Egypt don’t cover their faces, while women in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan do cover. Even those who cover use different colors and vary in the extent to which they cover the hair, the face, or the rest of the body. Those facts together should be made clear to Muslims all over the world, especially in the West, to help them cope and integrate with the culture of a country, which they have chosen as home.
In other words, Muslim scholars should help those living in the West to understand Islam’s view of veiling and make it clear whether it is obligatory or not. In most of the Islamic countries, like Saudi Arabia, non-Muslims are asked to respect the religion and culture. This should work both ways. In other words, Muslims who choose to live in the West should not make themselves distinguished and expose themselves to isolation by sticking to issues of discord between the different schools of Islam.
The media has also a great role in educating people in the West about the teachings of Islam when it comes to covering the hair and the rest of the body. So a Muslim woman should not be forced to take off her scarf because it is obligatory in Islam. Muslim women should also not insist on covering her face in a society that is not familiar with veiling in public places, which might create fear among the people.
The Western media must acknowledge that covering of private parts was obligatory in ancient Greek and Roman culture and was religiously obligatory in the society of the Jews and the Christians as well. Viewing Muslim women in Hijab as alien will not serve the cause of peace and integration.