Juliana Guarany, Brazil, Blog Correspondent
Read it in Portuguese.
This week American First Lady Michelle Obama didn’t wear a headscarf on a trip to Saudi Arabia. This led to outrage from some and support from others. It is incredible how a headscarf or hijab, one piece of cloth, can cause such emotional reactions when the wearing of it is simply to signify: this woman is Muslim and her life is guided by the laws of Islam.
It has been said many times that the hijab is a symbol of oppression of women, and it actually has been transformed into that in countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or Iran: restricted societies have taken advantage of Islam’s values over modesty to oppress women, hiding them behind burkas, segregating them from men in public spaces. Because of that, the hijab has been demonized by western societies, but it really doesn’t have to be like that.
February 1st is World Hijab Day, a date created by New York resident Nazma Khan to encourage non-Muslim women to wear a hijab for one day and experiment how it is to walk out as a Muslim. The website makes a good effort to deconstruct the demonized vision western societies have over the hijab. Many women tell how they felt more protected and appreciated as a person than as a sexual object while wearing it. I have done the experiment in Germany and wrote about it. I talked to friends about it, too. It seems it is one thing when the hijab is a choice made by someone thinking of her religious beliefs. It is a completely different situation when the veil is mandatory by law.
A non-Muslim friend was in Malaysia for her vacation and was invited to try on the hijab. She lives in Germany and has seen many Muslims wearing dark clothes, but in Malaysia, as she could notice, women had colorful veils: “I fell in love with the clothes. I wanted to try it out, but felt a bit insecure, I didn’t know anyone. When I walked by a mosque, a group of women asked if I wanted to try. So I decided to do it. I opted for the niqab, leaving only my eyes out. I was stunned by how my eyes popped out, stronger than ever! I loved the experience”. I asked her if she faced any glimpses or any other problems by walking around without a hijab: “Not even a little bit”, she says, “in the western world we have the arrogance of thinking that anything different from us is wrong. I walked around Malaysia with modest clothes, but my hair was out there and I was never harassed because of it”.
Another friend visited Kuwait and had a very different experience: “it is a tribal society that treats people differently not only based in their gender, but also their social status, their family history and what line of Islam they follow. In the 70s you could see women wearing miniskirts in Kuwait. Now, you need a burka to go out, especially if it’s a traditional region”. As a foreigner, she was able to walk around without a hijab, but had local teens following her into malls and markets. She talked about Saudi Arabia in similar terms as well. Indeed, Saudi film director Haifaa al-Mansour recently spoke about segregation in her country on CNN. She has to direct her film from inside the car because she couldn’t be seen around men. But she said her country is changing – very slowly, but changing.
Another friend could not go out in the streets of Yemen without a burka, fearing she could be kidnapped for being a foreign woman: “It was not just the hijab, but also wearing pants. Just the line of my legs and crunch are seen as an act of disrespect”. In Iraq, she said, the veil can be optional, but going out without it makes people uncomfortable: “it’s like as if I was walking around naked”. But even in those countries, she said, women are not addressed with such disrespect as in Egypt: “I got spit on, pissed on, even a cab driver masturbated when I was in the car”, but that has very little to do with the veil, as both Muslim and non-Muslim women are harassed constantly in the streets. As a more opened Muslim country, Egypt seems to get the worst part of both worlds, creating the most disrespectful environment women can be exposed to.
Charlie Hebdo
In the light of the latest terrorist attempt in France, Muslims have suffered from prejudice. In Brazil, a country with a very limited Muslim community, there have been acts of aggression. Wearing a hijab is just another excuse for harassment. A woman was recently hit by a rock in plain daylight in São Paulo because she was wearing a hijab: “Usually, we do not have any problems, but when a terrorist attack takes place, people around us start to blame our religion due to wrongful information passed by the media.” She clarifies one vision that takes the light of the problem out of religion: “It is wrong to say that Muslim women face violence and are oppressed, because women all around the world face violence and are oppressed just as much. This is not a matter of religion, it is a matter of gender”.
It is sad to see how aggressive the clash of western and Islamic worlds is. On one side, non-Muslims tend to think Muslim women are oppressed by their clothes. On the other, Muslim women send the message that they are the ones being judged only by who they are instead of what they look like. As women in general, we need to unite and, on top of it all, respect the choices we each make.
Juliana is a fellow from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and, together with Hamburg University, in Germany, is creating a digital campaign to connect all feminist initiatives around the globe. Read her blog Whistleblower and follow her on Twitter, @juguarany
