118 The American Journal of [slamic Social Sciences 19:4 

The Veil Unveiled: The Hijab in Modern Culture 

Faegheh Shirazi 

University Press of Florida: Cainsville, 2001. 222 pa ges. 

Finally, the study ofhijab has come of age. After Shirazi's book, no one will 

be able to argue that "the" hijab means any one thing divorced from its con­

text. In six chapters, Shirazi investigates the "semantic versatility of the 

veil" in western popular culture, Saudi advertising, Iranian and Indian poet­
ry and films, and for Iranian, Iraqi, and UAE women soldiers. Not surpris­

ingly, the veil means different things in different contexts, and Shirazi's 

book is a rich study of this diversity. She reinforces her arguments by the 

wealth of photographs that depict veiled women in multiple contexts. 
Just how different the veil's semantics can be is highlighted in chapter I: 

"Veiled lmages in Advertising." ln this fascinating comparative study of the 

veil's use in western and Saudi advertising, Shirazi shows that its meaning in 

an ad depends on the target audience. So when advertisers target western 
middle-class male consumers, the veil is presented as an exotic and sexualiz­

ing piece of cloth. In a 1996 commercial for Chrysler's Jeep Cherokee shot 

in Morocco, a veiled woman is seen smiling and admiring the Jeep-sending 
the message that "if he buys the Jeep . . .  He may even win the admiration of 

the most inaccessible of women, the woman with the veil." Western exotica, 







Book Reviews 121 

into two groups: those who endorse the veil, like the Iraqi poet al-Hajj 'Abd 
al-Hussayn al-Azri (1880-1954), and those who reject it as a symbol of 

oppression, like Uzbek songs or the Iranian poet Parvin E'tesami (1907-

41 ). A subcategory of the latter are male poets whose poems use the veil as 
metonyms for captivity, unbearable separation from the Eternal Beloved 

(God), or ignorance. There is even a surprise study of some poems by 

Ayatollah Khomeini that reject the veil - but not as a garment women 

should wear, rather as a metonym for the ignorance of those who would 
study philosophy. Can there be a more ironic example of the "semantic ver­
satility of the veil?" 

Shirazi's book is an extremely useful addition to the sociological study 

of Muslim women. I would have liked to see her push her analysis to a 
deeper level. Unfortunately, it is news to some people that there is not "one" 

single meaning of the veil (usually that it is a symbol of oppression); how­

ever, there are other readers for whom this is not news. Throughout, I had 

a nagging question that I would have liked explored: The veil means dif­
ferent things to different people in different cultures - what next? What do 

these different semantics really signify? Moreover, in her following of 

Mernissi's interpretation of the veil in Muslim contexts as signifying 
"women asfitna" (sources of chaos), Shirazi imposes a singular meaning 

of her own. Absent are the voices of veiled women themselves. Shirazi's 

feminist analysis of the veil does not quite reach the promise of her argu­
ment of"semantic versatility," but at least she has laid a firm foundation for 
moving in that direction. 

Katherine Bullock 

Book Review Editor, AJ/SS 

Toronto, Ontario. Canada