Her.meneutics: Burqa Watching in Great America

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September 1, 2010

Burqa Watching in Great America

Some Muslim American women say wearing the burqa keeps others from objectifying them. But must women hide their bodies to be taken seriously?

Caryn Rivadeneira, guest blogger

During this summer’s visit to Six Flags Great America, I was prepared for the bikini-clad girls with short-shorts pulled down low, the shirtless boys with white tanks tossed across their shoulders, not to mention the matching families in khaki shorts and neon green tees.

I was not, however, prepared for the burqas.

My jaw dropped as the family approached me: two fathers in tidy slacks and polo shirts walking alongside two women (presumably) draped completely in black, peering out through slits. One set of hands poked out of long sleeves to push a stroller, while the other set held the hands of two small kids.

As my eyes went from the women to the men, a rage boiled up inside me. In my mind, I was witnessing walking bondage, humans trapped beneath black cloth.

I have never considered the hijab (head scarf) oppressive, simply because I find the scarves and their wearers to be elegant and lovely — and because they do not cover a woman’s face. But to me, the burqa and even the niqab, which covers the face to a lesser degree, communicate an oppression that no woman in the world — let alone in Great America, the amusement park or the country, should bear, and certainly would never choose.

So imagine my surprise when I heard a young, modern Muslim woman named Nadia defending her choice to wear a niqab and cover her face in public at CNN’s Belief blog.

“I’ve never seen anybody interview a Muslim woman and ask her if she’s oppressed,” Nadia says. “Or if she feels oppressed for wearing what she wears, or if she’s oppressed in her home.”

Nor have I. Neither have I asked a Muslim woman. I can blame my assumptions on the Taliban and my open-jawed reading of Half the Sky, or the protestor’s images of a veiled woman being stoned for adultery. Nadia says these images are not valid in America. She has never met a woman forced to wear the veil.

In fact, far from being oppressed, Nadia maintains, she is more respected and taken more seriously by men because of her choice to cover her face and body in public. “You often see in many societies women being objectified because of how they look or being disrespected,” Aliya, another young Muslim, told CNN. The hijab helps “force people who may be otherwise unwilling to take the focus off of our physical appearance.” Ultimately, though, Nadia says that she chooses to cover to feel closer to her creator.

Nadia raises some valid points: Certainly we Christians hold modesty, as well as taking women seriously, as a virtue. But I can’t help wondering about Nadia’s view of the Creator. If women of all shapes, sizes, and skin tones want to be heard and accepted fully, we cannot continue to play into the notion that beauty or sexuality cannot go hand in hand with intellect and wisdom. As a blonde, if I color my hair to be taken seriously, don’t I just add to the longevity of the Dumb Blonde jokes? If nursing mothers continue to sneak out of interesting conversations to hide away to feed their babies, doesn’t it just fuel the flames that scorch the world with their “mommy brain” lies? If women, in the fullness of their God-given beauty and sexuality, are ever to be taken seriously, we must do it as we are created. Which leads to the bigger problem with Nadia’s conclusion.

Women are made in God’s image. God gave us faces — lips, tongues, cheeks, eyes — and breasts and legs and shoulders that presumably reflect and glorify him in some way.

Yes, in our broken world our lips and breasts and legs are viewed and used improperly, to allure the wrong person or to “distract” men. But how does hiding our womanhood away honor the God who made us fearfully and wonderfully with these parts?

When I think of a veiled face in particular, I can’t help wonder what is lost when one’s countenance is invisible to the outside world. Think how much we learn and understand about one another through our faces. When Jacob and Esau reunited after decades of bitter separation, Jacob experienced grace when he saw Esau’s kind, welcoming face that was “like seeing the face of God.”

As a Christian, I love Nadia and her Muslim sisters in whatever choice they make regarding hijabs, niqabs, or even burqas. As a libertarian and an American, I defend their right to feel close to their creator in almost any way they see fit. But frankly, as a woman made in the image of God — and as a woman loved by God — I struggle to understand how it could ever be better to hide our faces and our selves away.

Caryn Rivadeneira is a writer, speaker, and mom, and the author of Mama's Got a Fake I.D. as well as a book forthcoming from Tyndale House. She has written for Her.meneutics on fathers, Mother's Day, spanking, happiness, and pregnant Olympians.

Comments

A woman wearing a burqa is dehumanized. She is not a person, not an equal, she is literally and figuratively silenced. Nadia may say that she has never met a woman who was forced to wear a veil, headcovering, or burqa, but Muslim culture is such that women who rebel are ostracized and outcast, even in the United States. The psychological use of "force" is encultured.

I was studying abroad in Egypt this summer when I made my first burqa-clad friend. She was an American Muslim from Boston and the walking antithesis to anyone who says that women who wear burqas are silent and forgotten. She was the loudest, funniest most exuberant person on our trip. She laughed with street vendors, debated with cab drivers and got even the most stoid salesmen to crack a smile. She was everyone's mother and friend, and the only complaints we ever heard about her were from people who thought that she was too loud. Everyone on our trip agreed that she completely blew the "burqa stereotype" straight out of the water.

Those "Christian leaders" who believe that "women must always ensure that the way they dress does not induce lust in men", and "women are accountable and responsible for making sure that men do not experience lust with them as the object", if their deeply held beliefs are taken to the logical end, then Christian women will be wearing the burqa as well. Perhaps with a cross or fish pattern. Yes, the Bible instructs against women dressing provocatively to draw attention to themselves in vanity, but the average well-meaning Christian sister is not the one responsible if some man looks at her and experiences lust. It is the man's problem, not hers.

Mrs. Rivadeneira talks about breastfeeding, which is where currently this misguided "modesty burden" is seen the clearest in Christian circles, an example here:

http://annefleetwood.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/pharisee-church-pastor-tells-breastfeeding-mothers-to-cover-up/

I think the last sentence sums the situation up nicely: the writer doesn't understand how someone else feels. She embues that with a meaning ("hiding...our selves away") that I don't detect in the quotes offered.

We don't have to understand someone else's practices in order for that practice to be of value to the practicer.

In a way, going to such extremes to hide your body, and even your face, for modesty reasons shows a hypersensitivity to sexualization just as immodesty does. Women are beautiful, God made us that way. Reasonable amounts of coverings are necessary, but clothing that entombs a woman's body reflects an unnatural view of what women are created for.

Addendum: 'Livewithflair' pointed out a common understanding well known to the psychological world. Oppressed people often are the last to understand their plight.

I grew up in a form of Christian fundamentalism that required women to wear dresses. My parents didn't make me dress that way, but I wholeheartedly embraced the legalism of our movement and wore a dress and head covering. It was my choice, completely; no one personally told me I must. But looking back, it was oppressive in many ways I didn't recognize at the time, and affected my sense of value as a woman for years to come. It was also wrong: godliness doesn't come from the clothes we wear. Just because a woman chooses to embrace the teachings of her religion or denomination on womanhood doesn't make those teachings unharmful.

"Just because a woman chooses to embrace the teachings of her religion or denomination on womanhood doesn't make those teachings unharmful."

Way to go, Ann. Couldn't have said it better.

One of the great ironies of this debate is that the burqa and niqab are viewed by most as 'Islamic' symbols, when in fact the Qur'an does not require women to wear specifically these outfits. I wonder whether Muslim women who wear these outfits even understand this. The relevant passages from the Qur'an are 24:31 and 33:59.

Quran 24:31
And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over
their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband’s fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! turn ye all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss.

Quran 33:59
O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And Allah
is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Steve, I would say that Muslims interpret the passages you cite to require the full covering of the burqa, even though there's no specific language in them requiring the hair and face be covered.

Saorchid, you would be right, in that many Muslims do. But it's not a necessary conclusion, and there are Muslims who make this point and refuse to cover up their face, saying (quite correctly) that the Qur'an does not demand it.

The last paragraph really epitomizes this discussion:

"As a Christian, I love Nadia... but...."

The whole area of what constitutes modesty is certainly a difficult one. It seems to be incredibly hard for men to be pure these days because of the way women are dressing--even Christian women with really short skirts or breast-revealing tops that demean both men and women. Women, remember that your bodies are beautiful, yes, but God created that beauty for your husband or husband to be, not for everyone! Our faces are different...the faces of everyone is created to be a reflection of the soul for all to see.

Great comments, everyone. Thanks!

Question for @kt mack, though: I'm wondering what your comment is getting at. You're trouble by saying "I love you, but..."? Should Christian love never raise questions or concerns? Or am I misreading this?

@Krisitn: The idea of a face as a reflection of the soul is lovely. Just what I meant. Only better said. : )

Caryn, I applaud you for taking on a difficult subject and for dealing with it so thoughtfully. I love what you said about being able to look on our countenances, but isn't there more than one way to be visible in the world? Personally, I think a lot more is revealed in one's voice than in one's face. I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with the burqa and the niqab because they assume that the women who wear them are forced to be silent as well. But I know many "uncovered" women who are silent, either out of lack of self-confidence or from some misguided idea that women are not to speak in public. We should be more concerned about women who are silenced. Isn't that the real issue here?

Modern generation Muslims are certainly feeling that despite, as a poster above mentioned - "....I would say that Muslims interpret the passages you cite to require the full covering of the burqa, even though there's no specific language in them requiring the hair and face be covered," wearing the full burqa is an absolute, non negotiable. There is a great deal of pressure applied, partically from within the family, to adhere to these traditions, regardless of whether or not current trends may be shifting.

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