Beyond the Hijab as Lodestone

I was invited by the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion editors to participate in this roundtable and to comment on miriam cooke’s article “Deploying the Muslimwoman.” What follows is my response to her thought-provoking piece.

Whereas it is true that the veil remains a lodestone of political Islam, to use the word upsets, as many do, to represent the status quo of the Muslim woman who veils can erroneously generalize perceptions of the veil and its bearer’s identity in both the Muslim-minority and Muslim-majority worlds. It is my position that the veil or hijab should neither upset nor trigger any predisposed reactions on the part of the onlooker. Unfortunately, precisely because the veil does elicit such responses in both the Muslim-minority and Muslim-majority worlds, it becomes a lodestone. Perhaps whether a woman’s choice to veil or not were left alone, the hijab would not be viewed as such a marker.

I had previously thought the resurgence of the veil would only garner such a response in Muslim-minority settings. However, even among largely Muslim circles, it has become the focus of energy that could be better used elsewhere. Young Muslim women who have taken on the veil after an identity-searching, religious-awakening, group-consciousness experience are eager to talk about this experience among other Muslims. In sessions of my “Women in Islam” class at the University of Colorado, I often encourage Muslim students who veil to talk about their choices. As they relate their personal paths to it, they share their enthusiasm with others. Often, I see non-Muslim students begin to understand the personal journeys of their peers and to sympathize with the discrimination Muslim women who choose to veil may experience in a Muslim-minority situation. However, veiled women often project a sense that they are wearing a moral badge as well. And this is where the woman who veils often loses the argument that doing so is a protected freedom of religious expression. I’m afraid that it is at that point that the young Muslim woman is transformed into the Muslim-woman about whom cooke writes, the Muslimwoman we all want to avoid. And so the “upset” veiling entails may well be unwittingly projected by the woman herself who wears the hijab.

Both non-Muslims and Muslims alike react to this transformation. Whether it is a political debate or even an informal presentation in the classroom’s humble setting, we are all culpable in politicizing the veil. cooke has correctly correlated this phenomenon to the “primary identity” she analyzes. Of course, the obvious limitation in attributing a “primary identity” to a particular group and its beliefs is that doing so leaves no breathing space for those who do not themselves relate to this primary identity. We all know that not all Muslim women veil, devout as they may consider themselves to be. Where do they belong? Will their voices be heard as Muslimwoman’s voice as they negotiate their faith, lives, and real-life duties? Are they the “outsiders” from “within”?

If there is a growing feeling that there can be a primary identity for a Muslim woman, then surely the ones who do not veil may be excluded from within this power point. Will the unveiled Muslim woman have a say in the direction her group may take in either a Muslim-minority or Muslim-majority situation?¹ Will she be seen as a respectable and stable member of the mosque to which she belongs? Will she be a role model for other younger Muslim women who learn from her experiences? In other words, will she be considered Muslim enough by her own Muslim “sisters” to be taken seriously in matters that may concern her and those around her?

Creating a Muslimwoman’s primary identity as one who dons the hijab may then be viewed as essentialist, and herein lies the biggest threat to a Muslim woman—not from the outside but rather from within. Essentializing the identity of the Muslim woman to a Muslimwoman would then be a form of oppression by the...