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veil

Veil is the most common English translation

of the Arabic word hijab (a word whose many

meanings also include “cover” or “screen”), most

frequently understood as the head scarf worn by

some Muslim Women. The matter of the veil is a

highly contentious and controversial one. There

is much historical evidence indicating that the

practice of veiling is not peculiar to islam, and

nothing in the qUran explicitly or unequivocally

requires it of women. Muslim proponents of the

hijab often refer to Quranic verses 24:30–31,

which direct both Muslim men and women to

dress and interact modestly, and also instruct

women not to display their beauty except to their

husbands and close relatives. The word hijab

does not appear here; rather the reference is to

the draping of khumur—a type of covering over

the hair worn by some women in seventh-cen-

tury Arabia—over the chest. Nor does the word

appear in verse 33:59, which instructs women to

cover their persons using jalabib (loose cloaks).

During the time of the prophet mUhammad (d.

632) only the women of his own family, who

were held to unique standards of modesty, veiled

themselves. Muslims continue to debate today

both the issue of whether the Quran prescribes

a specific type of covering of women’s bodies or

rather modest clothes for women in general as

well as the stringency of that prescription.

Colonial discourses in the Euro-American and

Muslim worlds have played a significant role in

constructing images and perceptions about the

veil. The history of Western colonization in Mus-

lim countries recounts European manipulation

of the veil as a symbol of Islam’s backward and

barbaric nature and as evidence of the necessity for

occupying and civilizing Muslim societies. In turn,

Muslim resistance to colonialism has often recon-

figured the veil as a symbol of its religio-national

essence. Some assumptions about the veil within

Euro-American feminist discourse have also tended

to oversimplify its meanings for Muslim women. In

all cases, debates on the veil have tended to ignore

the agency of Muslim women and the rich, varied

expressions of their veiling, which, to name only a

few, may include statements about a woman’s class

standing, her religious or national identification, or

even her resistance to Western modes of sexuality.

See also bUrqa; pUrdah.

Aysha A. Hidayatullah

Further reading: Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in

Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven,

Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992); Fadwa El Guindi,

Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance (Oxford, U.K.:

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