Veiling among South Asian and Middle Eastern Women - Report Example

Veiling among South Asian and Middle Eastern Women By Veiling among South Asian and Middle Eastern Women Introduction The clothes which conceal a large part of the body, especially running from head to toe through the ankles, some parts of the hands, the face and the feet are called veils. Veils are usually worn by women from South Asia and from the Middle East. Many generations have passed and in each generation, veils and veiling have equally undergone several transformations because of evolution and discovery of different trends in fashion. Veils and veiling change according to the change in the generation so as to fit the women 1. The General terms veil is a long cloth that fits ladies loosely and it also has different colors. A scarf is usually worn to cover the neck and the head by women to complement the veil. Purdah and Pardah refer to veiling which secluded women from men and it was majorly practiced in Muslim communities such as Northern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. This practice prevented the men from seeing the women and it took two main forms. These forms include physical segregation as women covered their bodies entirely of men and physical segregation where women were secluded in another different building from that of men. The women were placed in the women’s quarter, which was known as zenana2 . Veils and veiling emanated from the traditions of the Islam where it first began with the communities of the Middle East who are non-Arabic. On the other hand, the historians have done there their research and have traced the origin and the beginning of veils to be from the legal texts of Assyria dated the 13th century BC. During this time, the veils were considered to be only worn by the noble women who were from the high social class in the community while the rest of the other women, including the prostitutes, the poor and generally the women from the lowestsocial class were prohibited from wearing such clothes. They were referred to as the clothes of honor. Greco- Roman, Byzantine and pre-Islamic empires practiced this tradition of the veil which they considered as a show of nobility and status. The villain was later adopted by the Muslims from the communities they conquered and as a result, they still adore veiling to date as a mode of dressing of the Islamic culture as El-Solh, Fawzi and Mabro (89) put it. On the other hand, Lugho, Leila poses an argument that there is a shallow evidence and information that the veiling dressing is rather recommended by the Qur’an as well, although the Qur’an does not provide quite detailed information about the veiling dress code instead it recommends that the veils should be worn by one to depict holiness 3. There are many types of veils worn by the women from the South Asia and from the Middle Eastern. All the types of the veils equally serve the same purpose and also share the same characteristic. The different types include the Hijab, Niqab, Burga and Abaya among others. The most common is the Hijab. Following the description given by Hoodfar, (24), Hijab is a sample of a headscarf worn mostly by women in order to cover their head and their necks. It generally conceals the hair and the neck. Sometimes the Hijab also covers up to the larger part of the forehead and only remain the face. Just as the many types of the veils, Hijab as well comes up in different types and versions which are also worn in a different manner. In some of the parts of India and Pakistan, Hijab is mostly referred to as Chunri and Dupatta which mean class and modesty respectively. Hijab is also associated with class and modesty these regions and are usually used in covering the face and the head. In Arabic translation, the word Hijab is translated to as modesty. Therefore, Hijab is associated with modesty in women whereby women cover themselves as an act of displaying responsibility as a way of concealing their physique in order to avoid seducing the men. This characteristic of covering the face and the head has the same main intention in all the communities of Asia. Niqab is another type of a veil and it usually covers the face only. It also functions as the Hijab and women from the North Africa, South Eastern Asia and in the Middle East majorly use the Niqab. It also has several different versions and types as well as it is worn in different styles. The Niqab that is common is the long Niqab. This is a long cloth that covers the head, the face and the forehead and only reveals the eyes and sometimes also reveals the forehead. On the other hand, the full Niqab covers the whole face 4. It contains a long piece of cloth that covers the whole face and reveals some little space for the eyes while a band is tied on the forehead. It also has different colors. In Saudi Arabia it is the requirement from the government that all the women should put on the Niqab. All the women apart from the non-Muslim women have to put on the Niqab. It still serves the same function as the rest of the veils serve which is to prevent physical attraction from the opposite sex. Burga is another type of the veil which women wear, especially when they move out of their homes; outside their homesteads. The Burga is made up using a very light fabric which is long. The light fabric is pleated all round a cap which fits on the head. Women in India and Afghanistan wear this mostly. The Burga also comes in different colors and versions and it is also worn differently depending on the society. Another most common type of the veil is the Abaya. Abaya is also along flowing black cloth which is always worn over the Thawb. Thawb is a cloth which has long sleeves or which has an ankle lenghth. It also has different styles of wearing. It can either be wrapped around the body or it can be left flowing freely on the body. Other women, especially those from the Middle East and from South Asia chose to substitute wearing the Thawb with other stylish and modern garments which are very fashionable 5. Abaya serves the same function as that that the Hijab serves. It reflects the environment from which a woman comes from, the religious believes that a woman has, the traditions of the community from which the woman descends from, her background and the general characteristics of the community of her decency. It also gives a lot of information concerning the personal touch of taste and style of a woman in the choosing of the clothing. In areas where there is no dress code such as Kuwait, women put on their clothes and complement them with Abaya or with the Hijab. eventually women in such regions like Kuwait wear a mixture or a combination of the traditional wear and the modern war as their code of dressing. Therefore, their trend in the fashion includes both then traditional and the modern clothing. In places such as Iran, there are strict rules enacted that govern the dress code of women. The women have to put on a combination of either Hijab with Abaya or any veil that covers up to the hands and the legs. On the other hand, it is quite contrary to other communities or example in Tunisia, women are expected to wear modestly and the HIjabs are not allowed to be worn alongside with the veil. Women are not given any kind of restrictions when they are within their homes. Women are quite free to choose what to wear when they are within their compounds and also it is their own choice to decide to put on both the Hijab and Abaya at the same time 6. There are also several purposes that the veils serve. One of the most important purposes of the veil is the sexual identification. This is whereby the veil is able to distinguish a woman from a man. In communities in the Middle East and the South Asian, women used veiling to cover up themselves from the harsh conditions and elements of the environment such as dust, too much heat from the sun and from the wind. Some women, especially the Islam wore the veils because it was a requirement of their religion which they were compelled to comply with. However, there are several arguments emanating from the fact that the Quran has given very little information on the wearing of the veils, the Islam still trusts that veiling is very essential and that they decided to make compulsory for all their women.Veils are also very important aspects of culture and social expressions of different communities. Women portray their culture and also social expression by wearing the veilings such as the Abaya and the Hijab. These show a strong expression of their culture, their lifestyle in their culture, they express their emotions; they display their status, forexample, in some regions veiling was a show of status and class, some women could also wear the veiling to depict the kind of the environment in which they lived since other environments were sunny or dusty and thus they protected themselves from such harsh environments. Veils also evoke the networks of women for especially women in regions dominated by Muslims, yet they are non-Muslims such as in the Philippines 7. Therefore, veiling can identify both the gender of a person and as well as the religion of an individual. The different levels of the covering of the veil have different meanings. For example, for a lady who covers entirely the whole face using either a Hijab or Abayana, it means that they are ripe and ready for marriage. Those women who cover just part of their face are already married. There are also different forms of veils which depict different age or function, for example married women among the Hindu wear a different form of veiling which is known as the gunshot. This kind of veil is worn by women to cover their bodies in front of the male in-laws or in any public areas whereby they can brush shoulders. In the modern world, veiling has become more of a fashion trend rather than a cultural wear. Many communities and most women have improvised veils and have made them very stylish that it has become one of the fashion trends 8. However, the Muslims still maintain veiling as their cultural and religious identification and thus the Muslim veils have not been entirely modernized. The function of veiling is general in all communities. The veils serve the same main function of Pardah. However, veiling in the modern world no longer serves the purpose of Pardah but instead it serves as a unique fashion trending in the market. Conclusion Veiling first originated as cultural and social clothing and proceeded to be a religious cloth in mostly South Asian and Middle Eastern. Most women wore veils because of such purposes. There are certain characteristics accompanying the veiling. This characteristic includes the fact that all veils are worn because of one major reason which is to prevent physical attraction to the opposite sex. Especially women who wore the veils wanted to prevent seduction of their male companions. The veiling was borrowed from the Greco Roman cultural affiliations. Other functions and significances of the veils is that it identified the gender of the individual whereby women wear the veils for the purpose of expressing their feminine nature and as well as the religion of the individual especially in countries dominated by the Muslims such as in the Philippines. Despite the fact that veiling started as a way of depicting and expressing the culture of the individuals, it has become personalized and recognized as a mode of dressing of the Muslims, Ghazal and Bartkowski regard veiling as a very essential aspect of religious expression. Bibliography Leila ,Abu, Lugho.Veiled Sentiment: Honor and Poetry in Society . University of California Press. (2008). Web. 11-04-2014. Martin ,Asser. Why Muslim Women Wear The Veil. BBC News. 5th October 2006, 20:01 GMT 21:01 UK . Web. 11-04-2014. Center for South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, “Middle East Dress Vocabulary”. University of Illinois. Web. 11-04-2014. Camillia, Fawzi ,El-Solh, and Judy Mabro, eds. 1994. Muslim women’s choices: Religious belief and social reality. New York: Berg. Web. Web. 11-04-2014. Bartkowski, John, and Ghazal, Jen’nan. To Veil or not to Veil?. GENDER & SOCIETY, Vol. 14 No. 3, ( 2000) 395-417. Web. 11-04-2014. Homa, Hoodfar. “The veil in Their Minds and on Our Heads: The Persistence of Colonial Images of Muslim Women”. RFP/DRf, Vol, 22(3/4), 5-18. Web. 11-04-2014. Read More