Comparative Religious Ethics: Everyday Decisions for Our Everyday Lives

Chapter 4: Religions on Body Covering, Appearance, and Identity

97 Recently I returned yet again to work and visit friends in Indonesia, and the first thing I noticed at the Jakarta airport when I arrived was the crowds of young Muslim women. They were, as always in past visits, wearing jilbabs (headscarves) that cover their hair and wrap around their necks. Most but not all Muslim women in Indonesia wear jilbabs. But the sight was startling, because the same young women were also wearing skinny jeans or tights and long-sleeved cotton sweaters that clung to every curve. I remarked on this to my Muslim hosts at the university, that the skin-tight jeans and tights seemed to defeat the purpose of the headscarves, which have often been justified as a mark of modesty lest the bodies of women incite lust in men. Their response was illuminating: that the contemporary purpose of the headscarf in Indonesia is about identity and not primarily about modesty. I knew that in various Muslim nations where head coverings for women were not traditional, especially in parts of Africa and Asia, contemporary Muslim women have donned the headscarf not worn by their mothers as part of the global Muslim revival. They wear the headscarf as a sign that they, too, are full Muslims. Within this revival in various countries women are also reclaiming their right to attend mosques and to receive formal religious education,1 contrary to some national traditions that excluded women from both, understanding them as extensions of their husbands and fathers, who were responsible for women’s religious behavior and knowledge.The headscarf on the heads of university-trained doctors, engineers, bankers, and other female professionals today signals not only a willingness, or even demand, to Chapter 4 RELIGIONS ON BODY COVERING, APPEARANCE, AND IDENTITY Fig. 4.1. Display of headscarves in a Kuala Lumpur store. comparative religious ethics 98 exercise responsibility in the modern world, but also a desire to exercise responsibility in the umma, the Muslim community. I had not known that the headscarf as symbol of Muslim identity in Indonesia had so completely displaced the headscarf as symbol of female modesty that there would be no outcry from Muslims at such a combination of clothing. Such a thing would have been unthinkable fifteen years ago—and probably still is in some parts of Indonesia less cosmopolitan than Jakarta. Interestingly, the contemporary revival of the headscarf among Indonesian Muslim women has led to its becoming subject to fashion. New stores featuring a myriad of styles and colors of headscarves, from simple white cotton to chartreuse silk with designs in gleaming gems, as well as jeweled and enameled pins with which to secure the headscarf on the shoulder , have not only arisen but have thrived and expanded quickly. These are among the most crowded stores in major cities. Framing the Issues As I thought about my friends’ response, I was reminded that body covering as a sign of identity is actually a common religious practice , and not at all a phenomenon limited to Islam.Throughout the ages, religious societies have marked the bodies of their members in various ways, including but not only through regulations concerning dress. These regulations have served a number of different purposes and meanings. One purpose has been to identify religious leaders and distinguish them from ordinary members. Think of the Fig. 4.2. Buddhist monks in saffron robes collecting alms, Laos. Chapter 4—RELIGIONS ON BODY COVERING, APPEARANCE, AND IDENTITY 99 saffron robes of Buddhist monks and nuns, or in Catholicism, the brown robes of Franciscan monks, the red robes of cardinals, or the black suits and round white collars of secular priests. But religious leaders have not been the only members of religions to wear distinctive dress. Sometimes ordinary members wear distinctive clothing for special occasions, such as the wearing of white by participants in Umbanda rituals or Catholic First Communions , or even the wearing of white wedding gowns in Christianity or red dresses in Asian weddings.Among Christians, there have been special gowns for christening babies, as well as robes for immersing adults in baptism. In some religious communities that set themselves apart from the wider society, different dress for all members is a prominent way of marking their separation. Think of the black suits, tassels hanging from the waists, and side-curls of Hasidic Jewish men,2 or the full-coverage dresses and small bonnets of Amish women and the...