Unveiling the truth

New writer Peter Rice, currently living in Egypt, discusses his views on the Islamic veil.

''In Iran and Saudi Arabia, women are required by law to cover up everything but face and hands in loose, thick sheets.'' ''I confess that I once had problems initiating conversation with a woman wearing the niqab. I didn't know whether it would be appropriate for me to make conversation with her.'' ''Here's the trickiest question: does veiling repress women, whether they choose to or not?''

The Islamic veil is often seen in the West as a communication barrier, a symbol of the repression of women, and a sign that Islam and Muslim society is “uncivilised”. Westerners tend to assume that veiling is forced upon these women, who are unable to speak out against their imprisonment within their all-concealing swathes of clothing.

This is the enduring image of the Muslim woman in the West. However, the reality is very different. First, there are many types of veil. The all-concealing styles are the burkha (which conceals literally everything, including the eyes) and the niqab (which reveals only the eyes). The hejab, however, covers very little (only the hair and neck), while others are somewhere in between.

Second, there are an enormous variety of reasons why women wear the veil. True, in Iran and Saudi Arabia, women are required by law to cover up everything but face and hands in loose, thick sheets. However, in Egypt, it’s almost totally a matter of personal choice, and women with all types of veil, or no veil at all, mix freely in public.

So, is the veil a communication barrier? I confess that I once had problems initiating conversation with a woman wearing the niqab. I didn’t know whether it would be appropriate for me to make conversation with her, or whether she would be difficult to talk to. As it turned out, she was an articulate, intelligent, if shy (not an uncommon characteristic in any society) woman. I soon realised that it was my hang-up that prevented me from talking to her freely.

Here’s the trickiest question: does veiling repress women, whether they choose to or not?

Myself, I don’t agree with it being forced on women by law or society. There is a much-quoted line in the Qur’an that states “there is no compulsion in religion”, interpreted by many as meaning that Islamic practices should be a matter of choice. That said, a mass rebellion would be counterproductive – if women in the Gulf states suddenly unveiled, and were put in prison, they would be unable to campaign on plenty of far more pressing issues: lack of education, employment opportunities, marriage rights, voting rights, lack of a voice in the media, domestic violence and the difficulty of bringing rape cases to court. Is veiling that important compared to all these?

As for women who choose to wear the veil, I can see why. I have read accounts by Muslim sociologists who see the veil as a symbol of protest against Western oppression of women. This oppression has led to women who are plagued by vanity and eating disorders just as much as Muslim women are ‘imprisoned’ by the veil. Wearing the veil doesn’t seem so bad compared to excessive paranoia about weight and looks, let alone crippling skinniness or vomiting. Furthermore, the veil could also be a way of remaining anonymous in a society where men often see women purely as sexual objects – an interim measure while men reform their attitude (many Egyptian Christians, for example, also wear the veil).

Whichever country one goes to in the Middle East - whether it’s a liberal one like Egypt, or an Islamic state like Iran - there is always debate amongst Muslims about the veil. Those who believe that women are totally repressed in the Middle East, and that Muslim society needs to be “Westernised” in order to liberate women, fail to recognise the ways in which Western women are also oppressed, and that Muslims are sorting the matter out for themselves. Crucially, in my opinion, men must reform their attitudes towards women, and women all over the world must speak out against their oppression.