In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

chapter 5 The Shifting Significance of the Halal/Haram Frontier Narratives on the Hijab and Other Issues Stefano Allievi The question of the hijab, the most common Arab name for what is often imprecisely called the “veil,” as well as other gender issues, has always been a very sensitive issue in European countries’ perception of Islam. It seems that, more than the issue itself, it is its symbolic perception that is crucial. The subject of women in Islam is in fact a burning issue and a source of polemics and mutual incomprehension. At the risk of excessive simplification, two dominant positions can be distinguished in the public discourse. For the West, the Muslim woman is by definition downtrodden, and the symbol of her oppression is the hijab, the veil, which she is forced to wear. For some Muslim women—and for Muslim men—it is Western women who are slaves to their obligation to be beautiful and available, on pain of being rejected, and so it is they who are not free. Furthermore, Muslims say, except for in certain situations the veil is a choice, not, as the West sees it, an obligation. The hijab is therefore a symbolic banner , waved on both sides by those who are either for it or against it. In addition, there is a kind of “semantic war” being waged about the hijab that seems to be of some significance. The Arab word hijab is sometimes translated with no great semantic accuracy, as is the case with the French foulard . But often the choice falls on stronger words: the French voile, the English veil, and the Italian velo. The word veil itself dramatizes the debate, referring at least implicitly and certainly psychologically to something that separates, conceals, masks, or blocks the view (not to mention the word chador, often used in Italian, erroneously but perhaps not innocently, as an equivalent for the preceding terms). Even if, on a symbolic and etymological level, the word is polysemic and ambiguous, in this debate the veil is always “that which covers,” not “that which re-veals” (the Latin root of these words shows more directly the link between veil and revelation). The semantic aspect is thus not neutral, aseptic. It turns out to be strongly ideological. The choice of words used reflects the exact way we want to put the question, and also points to the responses we wish to receive. t h e s h i f t i ng s i g ni f i c a nc e o f t h e h a l a l /h a r a m f r o n t i e r 121 A significant example comes from the main European comparative research project on moral and religious values, the RAMP Project (Religious and Moral Pluralism). One question asked in the RAMP questionnaire was introduced as follows: “All religions require the faithful to do certain things (like for example cover their face or head) [the two actions in themselves not identical] or they forbid them to do others,” and interviewees were asked if they agreed “that girls should go to school with their head covered, if that forms part of their religious customs.” In the Italian sample the “definitely don’t agrees” came to 66 percent, to which must be added those that are in a middle position on a scale that goes from 1 to 7. (Allievi 2003b, 294–295). Let us imagine how different the result would have been if the question had been about Muslim girls’ right to wear a hijab (that is, a headscarf), not the obligation to do it.1 In Italian there is a proverb that says: “The tunic does not make the monk.” Mutatis mutandis, a garment does not make a Muslim. But Muslims—and even more so Muslim women—are continually being faced by the problem of what they wear. If not through their individual will, through the social pressure of the surrounding Islamic community. If not through this, through the no less indiscreet pressure of non-Muslim society. Muslim women are questioned if they follow a presumed Islamic code of conduct and even if they do not. This is in certain ways paradoxical and so all the more significant to understanding our way of perceiving Muslim women. Quite often it is surrounding society that creates the problem of the veil, and in a way “insists ” on it as part...

Share