Editorial

Olivia of Illyria walks into the office of Jack Straw, Leader of the House of
Commons, and tells him that as a way to mourn her brother’s death:

The element itself, till seven years’ heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view;

But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk.
(William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 1)

The Honourable Jack Straw tells her it is not British to wear a veil and
so she ought to find another way to mourn. Confused, she turns to her com-
panion, Cesario, and asks, puzzled: “What means he by this, O beloved
Cesario? Have not the noble ladies of England worn veils for many years?”

Cesario replies: “My lady, when my eyes first lay upon the veil that cov-
ers your face, indeed I felt affronted. Surely your beauty, grace, and radiant
light deserved a viewing by my gaze. Recallest not that day when I, a hum-
ble messenger of dear Duke Orsino, didst first appear in your chambers, and
requested that you remove your veil that we might talk? But, as you say, it
has been an ancient tradition of this and other lands for women to wear veils
when they leave their homes and also attend to their religious services. I
know not what the Honourable Mr. Straw means by this notion.”

Olivia affirms: “Indeed, humble Cesario, I do recall your brazen request
and how your forthrightness to a lady of honour didst cause me such distress.
Since your appearance pleased my eye, I did agree to it, though I have not
the same response to this effrontery from Jack Straw.  Recallest not how our
Lord did command, in 1 Corinthians 1, that a woman ought to cover her
head? Why, even our Jewish sisters have worn veils for many centuries.”

As they walk to their car, a tall, white, middle-age man spits at Olivia,
yelling at her: “Go back to where you came from!” 

Cesario attempts to block the man’s anger, but cannot do so in time. “O
honourable Lady Olivia, how did I fail you, and allow your self to be cov-
ered in filth from such a man! What provoked him so?”

Olivia, wiping the spittle from her veil, notes sadly: “Dear Cesario, in
these lands some people are hostile to those who dress differently. It is the
same in Illiyria, and all over the world these days … Look, Cesario, let us
take refuge in this church, a sanctuary in the turbulence of these times.”



They enter the church and, after sitting down, Cesario, who is looking
around at the walls, gasps. Olivia asks him: “What, pray tell, has bothered
you?” Cesario, speechless, points to the image of the Virgin Mary on the
wall: She is wearing a veil, though her face is not covered. Before Olivia can
respond, the priest with the bride and groom and their wedding party enters
the church for a wedding rehearsal. They don’t notice Olivia and Cesario.

The bride, talking heatedly with her bridesmaid, exclaims: “I know it
seems old fashioned, but I want to do it! I was on the Internet yesterday and
discovered a website that sells the most beautiful wedding veils ... more than
50,000 possible combinations! Can you imagine?!” (www.veilshop.com.)

Her friend retorts: “Yes, and didn’t that website also tell you that the veil
is a legacy from our past when women were ‘given’ to the groom by the
father, and that sometimes, in arranged marriages, the first time he laid eyes
on her face was when he lifted the veil after the marriage?!”

“Arranged marriage? You mean in India?” The bride is bewildered.
“Victoria, please. I mean in English history, we had arranged marriages

like they do in India today! The way the veil was used back then! In the
Middle Ages, no respectable woman left the home without her veil!  She had
her head, neck, and shoulders covered with a wimple, and often a veil as
well. The veil is a patriarchal legacy that has no place in modern society.”

“Peggy, do you have to ruin my wedding with all this historical stuff?
The veil is such a beautiful part of the dress. And look, isn’t the Virgin Mary
covered with a veil?” The bride points to the picture of the Virgin Mary on
the wall.

Cesario, hearing this exchange, leans over and whispers to Olivia:
“Woudlst that Mr. Straw were with us now.” The wedding party only now
notices them sitting in the pews. They finish their discussions with the priest
and, as they leave the church, Peggy tells Victoria: “Look, didn’t you see that
poor oppressed Muslim woman sitting in the pews? What is she doing in a
church anyways? It’s disgusting how they come to this country and impose
their alien ways of life on us. We’re an open and tolerant society, but we have
to put our foot down somewhere!”

Victoria, her head full of white gowns, lace, veils, and flowers appears
confused: “But weren’t you just telling me that English women in the Middle
Ages wore veils?” Peggy gives an exclamation of disgust: “It’s different.
And besides, we’ve advanced since then. We don’t want these Muslims drag-
ging us back to the Dark Ages.”

Olivia and Cesario leave. Turning to Olivia, Cesario says: “O honourable
Olivia, I cannot say that I understood all of what they said, but it troubles me
nonetheless.  Why did they call you a Muslim?”

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Olivia sighs: “Dear Cesario. The world is full of hypocrites and those
who like only their own kind.  Muslim women are some of the few left who
cover their heads, and sometimes faces, with veils. Not recognizing them-
selves in me, they mistook me for an outsider.”

They walk in silence, passing by a newsstand. They stop to glance at the
day’s papers, whose headlines blare: “Vatican wades into veil debate.”
Olivia, not reading past “Vatican,” reminisces to Cesario about the time she
was at a mass given by the Pope:  “I was at the back, worried I wouldn’t be
able to see him when he entered.  The crowd was getting more and more
excited as the time approached…”

Cesario, not really listening, begins to read her the story: “Cardinal
Renato Martino and Archbishop Agostino Marchetto spoke at a news con-
ference presenting Pope Benedict’s message for the Catholic Church’s
World Day of Migrants and Refugees, in which the Pontiff called for laws
to help immigrants integrate…”

(Olivia): “There were women from all over the world. Many of the
Spanish and Latin American women wore the old fashioned mantillas
(veils), and the nuns had on their veils and wimples…”

(Cesario): “Immigrants of other religions ‘must respect the traditions,
symbols, culture, and religion of the countries they move to,’ said Martino,
head of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, in response to a ques-
tion about the use of the veil. ‘It seems elementary to me and it is highly jus-
tified that authorities demand it,’ he said.”

They both stop talking abruptly and look at each other. Before they can
say another word, an elderly woman bumps into Cesario as she rushes in dis-
tress down the street. She cries: “O kind sir, please forgive me. My tears
have blurred my vision.”

Cesario says sympathetically: “Dear Lady, worry not, for I am more
concerned to see you unhappy than a slight bump to my shoulder. What,
pray tell, troubles you?”

Adjusting her veil and barbette, which had been displaced, she told an
astonished Olivia and Cesario of her troubles: “I am a former Queen of
England, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Having rested after returning from Castile,
where I chose one of my granddaughters as a bride for Louis VIII of France,
I decided to visit Parliament and meet some old colleagues. Well, strangers
full of notions I can’t quite comprehend were sitting in their offices. One
man, named something like ‘Straw,’ began criticizing my veil, of all things,
even before I even had a chance to introduce myself! He told me it was a
mark of separation and an indication I did want to fully integrate into British
society, but rather, live in a ghetto, a parallel community! Since I invented

Editorial iii



this barbette and have taken the veil as a nun in the Fontevraud Abbey, I am
incensed with this up-start trying to tell me what is and is not properly Bri-
tish, and moreover that he thinks he can tell me how I should dress!”

Olivia again turns to Cesario bewildered: “O Cesario, Italy, the land of
the Virgin Mary, is opposed to the veil?? The heirs of Queen Eleanor of Aqui-
taine consider it a sign of un-Britishness?? What means this modern non-
sense, which forgets its own history while looking to the practices of others?”

Cesario replies: “My dear ladies, I cannot fathom it myself.  Perhaps we
should remove ourselves from this land that has estranged itself from us and
move to Egypt. As Lady Olivia reminded me earlier, I’ve heard that the
Muslim ladies there still wear a veil. Perhaps you will not be so out-of-place.

Eleanor disagrees heatedly: “O new friends, how on earth could I move
to Egypt, when it was I who launched the Second Crusade against the hea-
then Saracen!”

Olivia replies: “I’ve heard that Saracen ladies have great freedoms, and
that Jews and Christians live prosperous and peaceful lives there, free to
practice their own religions yet under Turkish rule. The past is the past, dear-
est Eleanor. Why not come with us and see?”

Eleanor agrees, and they board a plane to Egypt. While awaiting take-
off, they notice nasty stares coming from their fellow passengers. They shift
uneasily in their seats, trying to ignore the looks. A flight attendant comes to
Cesario and asks him to leave the plane. He asks why, and is told that the
pilot will not fly with him aboard. Puzzled Cesario gets up to leave, and
Eleanor and Olivia rise too. “We will not fly without him,” they say. As they
get off, they overhear a passenger mutter to his neighbor: “These Muslim
men might be violent terrorists, but can you image being able to marry more
than one wife! Whatto, eh?!”

Air Algerie finds them seats at the last minute, and they resume their
flight to Egypt. They land, exhausted but optimistic. As they look for a hotel,
a cavalcade of cars pass by.  They hear people around them saying that it was
Lord Cromer on his way to the office. The main car’s window is slightly
open, and Olivia, Cesario, and Eleanor overhear Cromer saying: “We have a
duty to introduce the ‘light of Western civilisation’ to these backward places
... In fact, the new generation of Egyptians has to be persuaded or forced into
imbibing the true spirit of Western civilisation” (Cromer, Modern Egypt,
2:100, 538). His companion, a missionary, agrees: “We are focusing on the
women. If we get them, we will get the next generation.  Already we are pay-
ing our students to remove their veil when they come to class.”

The motorcade passes by, leaving Olivia, Cesario, and Eleanor again in
a state of confusion. Cesario stops at a newsstand and sees a small green

iv The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24:1



publication entitled American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. “Dear
ladies,” he tells them, “here is a journal produced by scholars. Perhaps it can
shed light for us on these strange and bizarre encounters we’ve had for the
past few days.”

He scans it and recounts: “The first article, Bican Üahin’s ‘Toleration,
Political Liberalism, and Peaceful Coexistence in the Muslim World,’ pro-
vides a comparison of political and comprehensive liberalism and argues
that the concept of toleration related to political liberalism is best suited for
the Muslim world to come to terms with its differences and establish peace-
ful societies.”

Eleanor interjects: “Sounds like Jack Straw and the Italian archbishops
would benefit from reading that article too!”

Cesario continues: “The next article is ‘Corporate Social Responsibility
from an Islamic Perspective.’”

Olivia asks: “Corporate Social Responsibility? What is that? I thought
all corporations were supposed to do was to make profits!”

Cesario, skimming the article responds: “Well, it turns out that that is an
outdated neoclassical understanding of corporations. Western scholars talk
now of ‘reputational capital,’ which means that corporations that, say, pol-
lute the environment or otherwise act in a socially irresponsible way lose
business. Thus they are increasingly obliged to attend to their social respon-
sibilities vis-à-vis society. The authors, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki and Nurdi-
anawati Irwani Abdullah, argue that a particular aspect of Islamic law,
maqasid al-Shari`ah (the Shari`ah’s objectives) and applying the principle
of maslahah (the public good) are akin to the notion of corporate social
responsibility. A business ought not to engage in practices that harm society,
such as dumping toxic waste in residential areas.

Eleanor: “Fascinating. Someone who follows these ideas would truly be
a great leader for their society. What else?”

Cesario: “Another article emphasising humanity’s responsibility to the
environment, Abdul Kabir Hussain Solihu on ‘Making Sense of Natural
Disaster: An Islamic Hermeneutics of Malevolent Phenomena in Nature and
Its Implication for Sustainable Development.’ This article seeks to account
for natural disasters from an Islamic ethico-religious perspective. It argues,
counterintuitively, that a natural disaster, when viewed from a macro per-
spective, is not always a disaster. From a micro perspective, it suggests that
disasters are better understood not as blind acts of an evil nature, but rather
as human-induced either through humanity’s impact on the environment or
from violating the divine moral law.”

Editorial v



Cesario continues: “The last article is also about Islamic law. In his arti-
cle, ‘Ijtihad by Ra’y: The Main Source of Inspiration behind Istihsan (Juristic
Preference),’ Saim Kayadibi demonstrates the widespread practice of ijtihad
and ijtihad by ra’y at the time of the Prophet, the Companions. and after-
wards.  He argues that these practices were precursors to the more techni-
cally defined practice of istihsan, which has been – and remains – an impor-
tant tool for jurists to maintain the Shari`ah’s flexibility and upholding one of
its key goals: the ease and removal of difficulties as the circumstances of life
change.”

Olivia comments: “Well, that seems very interesting, especially since
there are countries around the world that want to reject the Shari`ah, claim-
ing that it drags them back to the Dark Ages …”

Eleanor interjects: “Watch what you say, my dear, for I reigned for a
time during the ‘Dark Ages’ – it wasn’t at all dark, you know. I can recall
seeing things quite clearly.”

Cesario finishes his summary: “Finally, the ‘Forum’ section seems to
contain two very interesting pieces: a collection of speeches given at the
launch of a book entitled Islam and Global Dialogue, which states that it is
imperative for people of all faiths to come to a common understanding in
order to avoid the supposed ‘clash of civilisations’ prognostications, and an
exchange between a translator and the one who reviewed his translation for
this journal.”

Olivia: “O Cesario, let us buy this little green journal. It sounds as if it
might give us some insight and guidance on how to respond to these bewil-
dering days. Here is some money. And look over there ... I see a hotel over
the street advertising ‘rooms available.’ Let us repair to our rooms.”

Exeunt all. 

Katherine Bullock

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