What Is Veiling?

2. What Do Progressive Muslims Say about Veiling?

38 Speak the truth even if it hurts you.—Prophet Muhammad Today, we have reduced Islam to a veil (niqab), a scarf (hijab), and a beard. —Dr. Suad Saleh, Professor of Islamic jurisprudence, Cairo (2009) If you think that the difference between heaven and hell is 45 inches of material, boy will you be surprised.—Amina Wadud, Inside the Gender Jihad (2006) C H A P T E R T W O What Do Progressive Muslims Say about Veiling? The mainstream and restrictive interpretations of Qurʾanic verses on female dress and the hadith tradition regularly cited in support of women’s veiling, like the imposition of hijab on women by some Muslimmajority governments, have all been challenged by a contemporary group of Muslims, many of whom self-identify as “progressive.” Many Muslims and non-Muslims know little about these modern progressive movements within Islam, and little also about Islamic reform movements and their challenge to conservative readings of Islamic texts. The first time I learned that Muslims were actually encouraged to engage in critical thinking and invited to engage personally with the Qurʾan was in the mid-1980s, when I was a senior at Bryn Mawr College, taking a class on Sufism. I still remember my shock when I heard the professor explain to the class that the first word of the Qurʾanic revelation to the Prophet Muhammad was to “read” (Q 96) and that this was a call to Muslim adherents to participate in the creation of knowledge, rather than be passive recipients of it. I had never considered this possi- What Do Progressive Muslims Say? 39 bility. I had grown up believing that I was supposed to follow the Islamic teachings handed down to me and that I was in no position to challenge, question, let alone reject any part of them. I heard about “progressive Muslims” much later, in the late 1990s when I first began my research into Muslim veiling. By then, progressive Muslims had already been actively publishing books, articles, and online materials. While this production is widely distributed, it still remains better known within scholarly circles than among non-specialists. The reader may thus well wonder who these progressive Muslims are and on what basis they question centuries-old interpretations proffered by the most esteemed religious authorities, thereby challenging practices intimately associated with Islam. WHO ARE PROGRESSIVE MUSLIMS? Progressive Muslims are male and female Muslim academics, activists, theologians, lawyers, and intellectuals. Diverse in background and occupations , progressive Muslims are living around the globe and are actively striving to create a just and pluralistic society through a critical engagement with Islam and modernity. What unites progressive Muslims is that they challenge received notions about Islam, question the assumption that Islam is incompatible with progressive humanist ideals, confront Euro-American stereotypes and escalating Islamophobia, and dispute the restrictive interpretations of Islamic texts produced by conservative Islamic authorities over time.1 Progressive Muslims live on every continent and are part of every society . Progressive Muslims living under more restrictive Islamist regimes (e.g., in Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Afghanistan) face many more challenges and tend to be more isolated than those living in Euro-American societies , who usually enjoy some degree of freedom of expression. Those living in the diaspora believe they have a responsibility to provide new paradigms of leadership, interpretation, and activism to Muslims worldwide precisely because of where they live. Today, they are part of an ongoing global movement to transform Islam and to reinterpret Islamic religious texts outside of sexism and homophobia. The central goal of progressive Muslims has been to recover Islam’s basic teachings and reconnect Muslims with the egalitarian spirit of the faith clearly expressed in Q 33:35: 40 Islam, Politics, and Veiling For men and women who are devoted to God—believing men and women, obedient men and women, truthful men and women, steadfast men and women, fasting men and women, chaste men and women, men and women who remember God often—God has prepared forgiveness and a rich reward. This Qurʾanic passage describes explicitly the absolute equality of male and female Muslims as believers in front of God. For progressive Muslims, this equality of the sexes, their rights and responsibilities as individuals endowed with free will, and the elevation of women as persons in their own right represent Islam’s core teaching and the foundation of the new community that the...