Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, No. 4 31

DEMYSTIFYING THE ORIENT: IMPERATIVE OF VEIL
AND MUSLIM WOMEN’S EMANCIPATION

DR. HAFIZ MUHAMMAD SIDDIQUEa

SADAF MEHMOODb

aFaculty of Shariah & Law

International Islamic University, Islamabad

e-mail: hafiz.Siddique@iiui.edu.pk
bFaculty of Languages & Literature

International Islamic University Islamabad

The hegemonic discourse produced by West theorized veil as an

imperative of Muslim women’s oppression. This discourse further imprinted

the binary of ‘us’ and ‘they’ aftermath 9/11. The discourse produced

multifaceted interpretations to other the theocracy of its practitioners and

sympathizes with the barbaric alterity of its followers. The controversy

of interpreting and staging the otherness West attempts to protect the

Muslim women from the oppression of misogynistic Muslim men and

their religion. The current study deals with the dynamics of the discourse

of otherness by posing the question of veil as an imperative of oppression

or emancipation. To examine the factors of misrepresentation of Islam and

Muslim women this research strengthens its argument in the frame of

Orientalism by Edward Said. The study is significant to examine donning

veil as an epitome of oppression or emancipation under the rubric of

feminist scholarship while providing counter study of Qur’Én and AÍÉdÊth.

This paper investigates the theological interpretations of traditionalists and

contemporary readings of Islamic feminists to manifest the trouble of

subjective interpretations. The study also helps to deconstruct the image

of Islam as backward religion by highlighting the underlying sagacity of

Islamic injunctions with specific reference to veil. The study concludes

that Islam is an egalitarian religion that does not allow gender discrimination.

Keywords: Veil, Orientalism, Muslim Woman, oppression, emancipation

INTRODUCTION

The image of Orient in Occidental memory has always been othered
by posing binary of barbaric, uncouth, uncivilized, mysterious and erotic



32 Demystifying the Orient...

to civilized, modern, progressive and therefore dominant. The legacy of

this binary has shaped new series of otherness as Muslims, Islam,

fundamentalism, fanaticism and terrorism whose existence is a threat to

civilization and democracy. This discourse is exacerbated after the tragic

event of 9/11. The demonization of Islam is reinforced in media, political

and academic rhetoric. Shaping the discourse of otherness enabled West

to maintain its rule in the world. Devoted scholarship has perceived Islam

as an opposing religion can challenge the existence of Western hegemony

with its orthodox practices.1 The Occidental mission is therefore

accelerated in the guise of teaching civilization and saving veiled Muslim

women from the oppression, backwardness and inferiority of gender

apartheid society. West is engaged in promoting secular ideas to destabilize

the orthodoxy of Islam that would go against the interests of West. The

veil is therefore demonstrated as a tool of oppression of Muslim women

to restrict their mobility in misogynistic public space. This practice is

perceived by Western feminists as a dress code that propagates women’s

invisibility in public space with an assertion of social control and

subordination. Unni Wikan argues that the stereotypical image of veil

implies that with its “constraints on movement and self-actualization,

seclusion must be inherently suppressive, therefore oppressive.”2 This

stereotype is challenged by the Muslim scholars with positive note as an

imperative of emancipation which enables Muslim women’s accessibility

to public space with guaranteed social safety and security.3 Farah Azari

argues that for veiled women in Iran, the obligation of donning veil

carries minimum amount in exchange with safe and secure social position

which it promises.4

Nonetheless, the question of veil as a tool of oppression or agency

is probed by traditional and liberal intelligentsia which reveals subjective

intrusions as dominant to interpret the veracity of the commandment.

The ambivalence of the imperative of veil is, therefore, heavily dependent

over its conflicting interpretations. This study is significant to contextualize

the dialectic of veil in theoretical framework of Orientalism in which

Muslim women is known as oppressed other. Yegenoglu views Orientalism

as a frame that builds an ‘essential difference’ in which burqa‘ clad

Muslim women remain other since the true nature of these women is

hidden and they are exposed in false and deceitful manner.5 Thus, the

strategic construction of veiled women in essentialist terms is represented

as exotic and mysterious other.

Theorization of the discourse of otherness further reveals the



Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, No. 4 33

stereotypical representations of Islam as religion which promulgates thick

chances of misinterpretations of sacred texts of the Nobel Qur’Én and

AÍÉdÊth. Amplified luminaries provide subjective interpretations which

usually reinforce the Orientalized version of fundamentalism. In the rubric

of Orientalism, this research examines the power dynamics that propagate

the discourse of otherness with specific reference to oppressed veiled

Muslim woman. This study aims at demystifying the orient Muslim women

with reference to the politics of representation and interpretation in light

of verses of the Nobel Qur’Én and AÍÉdÊth of the Holy Prophet (œ).

While reading diverse scholarship the present study deconstructs the

misinterpreted and misrepresented imperative of veil by highlighting the

savvy imperative of veil as a symbol of emancipation, respect and modesty

that is therefore epitomizes civilized practice of a civilized religion that is

Islam instead of oppressive practice of backward and conservative religion.

Demystifying the Orient

By raising the slogan of English as the Best Nation endeavored to

non-European territories in fifteenth century. These adventurous

explorations produced a plethora of ethnographic calculations to

demonstrate the uncouth and barbaric populace settled across boundaries

and waiting passionately for their colonial fathers to teach them civilization.

In Orientalism Edward Said perceives this oxymoronic representation

through his enunciation of the Orient and Occident. The Orient epitomizes

East, barbaric, uncivilized, conservative and feminine while the Occident

is the West, civilized, modern and masculine therefore legalizes the notion

of colonization to enlighten the barbaric aboriginals. The otherness of

orient to the occident is further manifested through ethnocentric

representations of media and literature.6 Contextualizing White man’s

burden as an “interested desire”, Gayatri Spivak elaborates the legacy

of colonial expeditions “to conserve the subject of the West, or the West

as Subject.”7 The barbaric orient remains a subject of exploration of the

unknown, mysterious yet interested to certify civilization and modernity

of the occident. Said renders Orientalism as a “system of representations

framed by a whole set of forces that brought the Orient into Western

learning, Western consciousness, and later, Western empire.”8

While perceiving the existence of Islam as obdurate religion to

subdue before the enlightenment of Christianity, Edward Said argues a

development in othering the orient: “fundamentalism equals Islam equals



34 Demystifying the Orient...

everything-we-must-now-fight against, as we did with communism during

the Cold War…the battle is graver, more profound and dangerous with

Islam.”9 Edward Said polemically scrutinizes West’s political interventions

in non-Western world by incessantly being engaged in “covering Islam”
that “obscures what “we” do, and highlights instead what Muslims and

Arabs by their very flawed nature are.”10 The stereotypical clichés of

Islam reported by the Western discourses are filled with negative images

for instance Islam as conservative religion is followed by fundamentalists

whose presence is a threat to democracy. The end of Cold War thus

introduced Western world with a new enemy as Islam that can potentially
deteriorate the settled civilizations.11 However, Riffat Hassan investigates

this hostility even before the colonial collision; he argues that “propaganda

against Islam and Muslims is nothing new in the West. It is as old as the

first chapter of Islamic history, when the new faith began to move into

territories largely occupied by Christians.”12 Since the inception of Islam

as threat the otherness of Muslims has been fixed as anti-democratic.
This otherness is further affirmed after the fall of twin towers in

September 11, 2001. The event is contextualized in the framework of

Orientalism and the image of Islam traversed from fundamentalism to

terrorism.13 Said argues that media plays significant role in perpetuating

the ideological demonization of Islam but also it establishes historical

connections of Orientalized versions of otherness.14

The discipline of Orientalism not merely provides cogent critique of

Western discourse but also implies counter representations which Lughoud

refers as “combating stereotypes work”15 to distinguish between the true

and contrived representations. In postcolonial world constructed notions

of otherness are continuously challenged by the colonized to suit their

self interests on one end, and on the other the degree to which British

imperialists’ aesthetic whims were altered by their colonial encounter.16

Said’s Orientalism identifies the differences of East and West in imaginary

geography which is “an exclusively male province” where women remain

absent or silent.17 Reina Lewis also contemplates over the absence of

women in Said’s Orientalism as a dominant discourse articulated by a

colonial subject that is incorrigibly male.18 Said’s male oriented monolithic
elucidation of otherness is challenged by Lewis with an assertion that

women are not merely subjects of colonial hegemony but they have

provided lens to shape the Orient as other and different.19 In this backdrop,

postcolonial feminists have produced epistemological reception of defining

the subject orient and celebrating the differences.

Lisa Lowe investigates Said’s Orientalism as monolithic study of



Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, No. 4 35

constructing difference of Orient and Occident. For Lowe, Orientalism

signifies deviating frictions which indicates instability of the Orientalist

discourse and its diversion from race, gender and class.20 Her study

provides an alternative perspective to perceive Orientalism beyond the
binary logic of otherness by considering the differences of class and

gender. Nashat and Tucker highlight the construction of differences in

gender regime by including race, class, ethnicity, religion, time and space

which underlines the intricate constitution of gender as homogenous as

well as heterogeneous subject of otherness under the umbrella of

Orientalism.21

Gayatri Spivak dismantles the hegemonic homogeneity of Western

feminist discourse wherein the varied heterogeneity is subsumed under

the process of generalization. Chandra Talpade Mohanty similarly notes

the political oppression of the incongruity of the subject with the

construction of “third-world difference”.22 She further notes that it is due

to the ‘third-world difference’ western feminist discourse engages in a
process of systematizing oppression through which power structure is

established in the writings of Western feminists.23 By generalizing the

heterogeneous subjects through homogeneity Spivak criticizes the

hegemony of western discourse for elusive representations by stating

epistemic violence. The difference as well as the generalization involves

appropriation to construe politics of representation by othering the orient
as subject known and unknown.24 As Orientalism according to Said is a

form of discourse with its defining institutions, language, doctrines and

the imperial administration25, this disciplinary discourse is “essentialising

other cultures, people and geographical regions”.26 Therefore, Orientalism

is specific discourse to create essential difference in prospect of women.

Under the aegis of Western feminist discourse, the ‘third-world difference’

is essentialized through oppression, subordination and backwardness. The

overarching concept of global sisterhood in Western feminist discourse is

replaced by Mohanty with solidarity. She explains solidarity as a solution

against the totalizing stereotype of oppression, backwardness, docility,

uncouth and uncivilized, she exposits that diversity and difference are

main triggers that should not be eliminated in building alliances.27

White Men are Saving Brown Women from Brown Men28

The construction of otherness of Muslim women and her veil as

symbol of oppression is prevailing in the historical accounts of travelogues,

diaries, government archives, missionary reports and fictional narratives



36 Demystifying the Orient...

to reaffirm the colonial suzerain. This discourse manifests “Islam was a

crude and dying religion, stressing alleged mistreatment of women as

part of their anti-Muslim rhetoric.”29 West with “inferiorising gaze” seems

strive to liberate Muslim women from unjust oppression and subordination
of Muslim men that is visible in practice of veil.30 Nonetheless, the

superior image of emancipation is presented in the form of unveiled

western women.31 Veiled woman symbolizes conservatism and echoes

inferiority which embodies the uncouth, mysterious and uncivilized natives;

it is a metaphor of both the “oppression of women” in colonial discourse

and according to contemporary reception of Islam renders “backwardness
of Islam”32.

The stereotypical image of oppressive veiled women is elaborated

by Katherine Bullock into six themes: i) hiding to oppress feminity; ii) veil

is ostensibly refers to the difference of male and female which translates

men as superior and women as inferior being; iii) it connotes women’s

particular place inside the domestic sphere; iv) it is associated to patriarchal
purport of female chastity and dignity; v) the veil can be obligatory; and

vi) it is connected to the restrictions imposed on women on the name of

Islam.33 In this context, veiled Muslim woman is a dormant figure of

victimization, oppression, conservatism and therefore different and other

from Western unveiled woman who is modern, liberal and civilized.

Diverse controversies are promulgated due to this enigmatic religious
doctrine of veiling in the mayhem of representation of Orient/ Occident,

modern/ backward, liberal/ oppressive. The prominence and visibility of

veil is a threat to civilizing mission for colonizers therefore the attempts

are made as “white men are saving brown women from brown men”.34

Ample of ethnographic and historical contributions in making veil other

and alien, strategize the mission of civilization and unveiling through

imposing the generalizing representation of speaking for the silence and

the oppressed.35 Such mission of totalizing the oppression through secular

Western feminist rhetoric, the Muslim women with all its oriental

background are stereotyped and misrepresented. Hitherto Western

representations of veil have been stigmatizing and prejudiced. The process

of othering is Janus faced: it at first presents a vague picture of Muslim
women’s position in the society and simultaneously deploys an ideal

image of modernity and freedom Western women which is defined by

Donnell in terms of “Despised difference”.36

This difference is inculcated by the Western ethnographic diligence

as in Our Moslem Sisters, Van Sommer introduces her subject of Muslim

women as oppressive who needs to be voiced and known, “they will



Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, No. 4 37

never cry for themselves, for they are down under the yoke of centuries

of oppression, and their hearts have no hope for knowledge of anything

better” and therefore it is the divine duty of the white sisters to voice this

difference and oppression.37 The book begins with reiterated gloominess

of the oppressed Muslim women who appeal the Christian sisters to

rescue them from the oppression on the name of religion and illumine the

darkness in the ambiance.38 Similar concerns of feminists were registered

through their support of Afghan war as saving mission of white man to

protect vulnerable women from the subordination of Taliban.39 Laura

Bush affirms the war against Afghanistan through their imperialistic version

of white man saving brown woman by affirming that the owing to the

militancy of the US in Afghanistan, the indigenous women are not

incarcerated in their home”, despite they are free in their everyday lives,

she asserts that the struggle to wrestle against terrorism is an endeavor

to emancipate Muslim women40.

This exposes that West invasion ensures freedom of Afghan women

from patriarchal oppression of Taliban. To save Afghan woman from

brutal practices of Taliban and to unveil the burqa‘ clad women have

been posed as the prior objectives of the war. This reinforced otherness

demonstrates Occidental familiarity of Oriental subjects that is examined

and protected during saving mission in Tear off your Western Veil,

Azizah Al-Hibri argues how tactfully this hegemonic discourse is silencing

the other. She claims that western feminists do not endeavor to learn

about Islam or Muslims instead their knowledge of Islam is extracted

from Orientalist understandings of Islam which unquestionably silences

the voice of Muslim women.41 While analyzing post 9/11 media images

of veil, Faegheh Shirazi exposits that how historically ingrained stereotype

of mysterious veiled women which is reiterated during war is used by

advertising agency to attract consumers especially to sell sex.42 The

propagated cliché of veil that is othered and alienated is demonstrated

as inviting consumers to purchase the product that would also mean to

purchase the exotic veiled women. While gauging the eroticism of veil,

Shirazi describes three main media strategies of manipulating the

stereotypical image of Muslim woman: a) an enigmatic veiled woman

waiting for a white man; b) the subjugated woman forced to cover

herself behind the veil; c) and the generic veiled woman, epitomizes non-

western culture and geographical otherness.43 The politics of representation

and otherness in the guise of saving mission is on the other hand, renounced

in postcolonial context as being part of the “project of cultural



38 Demystifying the Orient...

colonialism”.44 In context of saving mission, Muslim clergy denounces

feminism as an ideological apparatus to attack on Islam by misrepresenting

it as conservative and oppressive creed.45

Imperative of Veil and Muslim Women’s Emancipation

The society that Islam wants to establish is not a sensate, sex-

ridden society. . . . The Islamic system of Hijab is a wide-ranging

system which protects the family and closes those avenues that

lead toward illicit sex relations or even indiscriminate contact between

the sexes in society. . . . To protect her virtue and to safeguard her

chastity from lustful eyes and covetous hands, Islam has provided

for purdah which sets norms of dress, social get-together……and

going out of the four walls of one’s house in hours of need.46

Siddiqi’s enunciation of veil classifies women’s social position in the

society. The generic reception of veil as specified dress code of Muslim

women ensures her modesty, her seclusion from the public space and

protection from nuisance of sexual pestering. Amplified scholarship is

devoted to deem veil as symbol of modesty, liberation and protection or

oppression and alienation. Muslim clerics define veil as a symbol of

chastity and modesty, nonetheless, it is also opposed as a cultural imperative

of patriarchal domain to evict women from male dominated public space.

While probing the underlying differences of opinions Bullock states that

the general postulation of veil as a tool of oppression is also shared by

some Muslim clergy who contextualize its practice in conservatism and

backwardness of Islam; nonetheless, the immediacy of this riposte is

lurking in Orientalist discourse.47 Those who are pro-veil provide reference

from the Nobel Qur’Én and Ahadith. The practice of veil is traced back

at the time of Holy Prophet (œ) when Muslims were instructed and

commanded to adopt proper code of behaviour while they are in contact

with Holy Prophet (œ) in His domestic space as Holy Qur’Én explicitly

states:



Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, No. 4 39

“O Ye who believe! Enter not the dwellings of the Prophet for a

meal without waiting for the proper time, unless permission be

granted you. But if ye are invited, enter, and, when your meal is

ended, then disperse. Linger not for conversation. Lo! That would

cause annoyance to the Prophet, and he would be shy of (asking)

you (to go); but Allah is not shy of the truth. And when ye ask of

them (the wives of the Prophet) anything, ask it of them from

behind a curtain. That is purer for your hearts and for their hearts.48”

This verse of Surah Al-AÍzÉb is usually referred as the first

commandment over veil which specified the separation of private and

public space. Pro and against veil luminaries have grounded their initial

arguments on the basis of this verse. Mauwdudi has analyzed the verse

as obligatory for all women; it is not only specified dress code of Holy

Prophet’s (œ) wives.49 Madani provides similar illustrations of the

following verse. According to him the specified dealings with Prophet’s

(œ) wives epitomize the appropriateness of similar commandment to all

Muslim women.50 Nonetheless, Rehman argues that the verse indicates

distinguished social status and privileged position of His (œ) wives, “in

no way could this obligatory duty of the wives of the Prophet be forcibly

thrust upon other Muslim women as a compulsory duty” however, if they

adopt this dress code then it signifies “noble gesture on their part”.51 This

contradiction seems visibly resolves when Allah Almighty states:

“O Prophet (œ)! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women

of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they

go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognised and

not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.”52

This verse categorizes the Muslim women in general to observe the

commandment of veil. However, it draws a dividing line between the

believing and non-believing women. Al-Ùabari elucidates this distinction

as Prophet (œ) has been asked to tell His (œ) wives, daughters and

the women of the believers that “they should not dress themselves like

slave women by revealing their hair and face. Rather they should bring

their cloaks closer to themselves so that no dissolute person harasses

them when he knows that they are free women.”53 Al-Ùabari’s



40 Demystifying the Orient...

interpretation suggests that Muslim women are not restricted to private

space however when they go to the public realm their dress code should

not appeal other men. In Surah Al-NËr, Allah Almighty states the

observation of screening with meticulous details:

“And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their

modesty, and to display of their adornment only that which is

apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to

reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or

husbands’ fathers, or their sons or their husbands’ sons, or their

brothers or their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, or their women, or

their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who

have no sense of the shame of sex. And let them not stamp their

feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment.” 54

Shahrur contends that female body is “visible adornment” that is

therefore should not be exposed. In the absence of palpable evidence of

adornment, Shahrur divides female body into two anatomical sections.

The first consists of the parts that are visible by creation as limbs and

head, whereas the other part is not visible in creation for instance the

armpits. He suggests that the anatomy that is not visible by divine design

needs to be concealed, however, the societal moors and norms further

determine the extent of concealing the body in the public.55 This

contradiction seems resolve in a HadÊth narrated by Hazrat Ayesha

(R.A.) in which Holy Prophet (œ) forbade the exposure of body and

explicitly highlights the conditions and body that can be uncovered:

“When a woman reaches the age of menstruation, it does not suit

her that she displays her parts of body except this and this, and he

pointed to his face and hands.”56



Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, No. 4 41

In various ahadith abundant of direct or indirect references of veil

are present that explicate and reinforce the imperative of veiling. These

ahadith supply a comprehensive amount of understanding the conditions
that are not explained in the Noble Qur’Én. Hazrat Ayesha (R.A.) has

narrated a HadÊth in which Holy Prophet (œ) said:

“Allah does not accept the prayer of a woman who has reached

puberty unless she wears a veil.”57

In the same context a HadÊth is narrated by Zaid ibn Qunfudh that

his mother asked from Hazrat Umm-e-Salamah (R.A.) that:

“In how many clothes should a woman pray? She replied; she

would pray wearing a veil and a long shirt which covers the surface

of her feet.”58

In another HadÊth that is narrated by Hazrat Umm-e-Salamah

(R.A.), in which Holy Prophet (œ) aptly states that:

“When a slave of one of your women has made an agreement to
pay for his freedom (i.e. he is a Mukatib) and can pay the full price,

she must veil herself from him.”59

Mawlana Mawdudi with support of the above mentioned verse60

authenticates the veil of full body since her body is itself adornment. The

verse not merely confines physical concealing instead it also suggests
screening of her gaze that will purge her body and soul and endow her

dignity and honour. While concealing their body and gaze the Muslim

women escape the possibilities of promiscuous intentions. Muslim jurists

from various schools of thought have diverse opinions on visible adornment

and to cover the face and body. ×anafi jurists including Al-Sarakhsi and

Ibn Abidin opine that woman has to cover her body including face to

avoid the possibilities of seductive temptation.61 MÉliki jurists such as Al-



42 Demystifying the Orient...

Dasuqi and Al-Sawi explain that whole body of a woman is considered

as adornment including face and hands.62 ShÉfi‘Ê jurists do not permit

woman to show any part of a body even she is instructed not to talk to

a stranger.63 Imam Ahmad Ibn Hambal denotes “woman adornment” is

her whole body that also includes the nails of her hands and feet, he

continues to explain that if a woman comes out of her confined social

space neither her hands nor slippers be shown because the slippers

describe the foot.64 Imam Ibn Qayyim further elaborates the piousness

of gaze is inevitable along with the full body concealing because it is the

underlying reason of all licentious thoughts that can potentially impinge on

negative feelings to astray mind and heart of any individual.65

In theological frame veil is referred to modesty, chastity and respect

which manifests its maintenance of civility instead of backwardness and

barbarity of oppression. The imperative of veil was pronounced as an act

to discriminate the barbarity of pre-Islamic society wherein women used

to invite other men through their ostensible physical appearance. Ali

connotes this commandment as not to confine women’s liberty instead to

conserve them from the molestation and harassment prevail at that time.66

Both AÍÉdÊth and the verses of Qur’Én highlight veiling as an imperative

of affirming modesty, scrupulous faith system and chastity which surely

demonstrate the epitome of civilized behaviour. This particular dress

code defines the ethics of a well established society where the erotic

licentiousness is invisible and controlled however, in the society where

women move while exposing their bodies seems more vulnerable to

sexual lechery.67 By following the complete ethics and injunctions of

Islam the society provides as totality of civilization. The religion which

underpins the piousness of gaze for both men and women cannot promote

repression of one and dominance of the other.

While contextualizing veil in historical frame the contemporary

discourse of Islamic feminists reiterates the need of reinterpretation of

Islamic principles according to the need of the hour. These feminists

perceive patriarchy as primary force of oppression which is legalized on

the name of Islam.68 According to Amina Wadud, patriarchal norms of

Arabian society has deeply influenced the nature of the Qur’Énic

enunciation and is still in practice for centuries with “interpretation and

implementation”69, she further argues that the values of Qur’Én challenges

advocacy of women’s oppression on the name of dignity which is

legitimized through narrow and reductionist interpretations of Islam and

its sources.70 While scrutinizing women as “subjects of male construction”



Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, No. 4 43

Wadud argues “what the Qur’Én says, and how it says it, what is said

about the Qur’Én, and who is doing the saying, have been supplemented

by a recent concern over what is left unsaid: the ellipses and silences”.71

Asma Barlas also claims male dominated exegete to confine women’s

mobility and affirm their inferiority as weak and thus subordinate sex

with misogynistic teachings of women’s innate inferiority which supplies

a justification of women’ subservience and denial of her rights in patriarchal

milieu further affirms their religio-social subordination.72 On the question

of donning veil, Fatima Mernissi perceives the hegemony of male

conceptualization to standardize women’s spiritual uprightness by

restricting her mobility within private space73.

Mernissi argues veil as a tool of oppression that is derived from

repressive social practices “mediocrity and servility” of male dominated

society which does not have any link with the sacred texts of Qur’Én and

AÍÉdÊth. Without supplying scriptural references in support of her

argument Mernissi cogently bolsters her anti-veil discourse by framing

Qur’Énic inferences in historical context.74 Haida Moghissi’s study

scrutinizes veil as one of the conservative practices of Islam that poses

constraints over women’s mobility in public space. She refers to Iranian

revolution and Algerian imposition of veil or die as an epitome of

oppression.75 Badran analyses that the concept of Islamic feminism is

filled with issues of agency and such revolutionary diligence in postcolonial

context is regarded as Western, and therefore being stigmatised as

antithetical to Islam76. This discourse perceives the barbaric practices of

patriarchy in pre-Islamic society as reshaped through the misrepresentation

of divine text. However, the pro-veil clerics reinforce the notion of gender

apartheid as code of conduct for a civilized society because Qur’Én

refers to gender egalitarianism by stating the oneness of soul either men

or women77. It reveals that women is not different from male counterpart

since she is originated from the same soul and Allah will bestow His

celestial reward for both men and women for protecting their modesty78.

Thus the notions of oppression are not visible from the theological teachings

of Islam instead these are underlying in non-Islamic and pre-Islamic

states where women were and still are regarded as object of amusement

and subordination. On the name of re-readings, reinterpretations in post

modern world of mini-narratives the underlying sagacity of Islamic

injunctions are obdurately challenged by post modern deconstructionists

who do not provide textual references in order to escape the paradoxical

explanations.



44 Demystifying the Orient...

Lughoud asserts the agency of women who veil. She argues that

despite of Orientalized version of stereotyped oppressed Muslim women,

the women are fully conscious of using veil as a tool to assert their

agency in particular community. She emphasizes over the need “to work

against the reductive interpretation of veiling as the quintessential sign of

women’s unfreedom” also “to reduce the diverse situations and attitudes

of millions of Muslim women to a single item of clothing” and she

suggests that “it is time to give up the Western obsession with the veil

and focus on some serious issues with which feminists and others should

indeed be concerned”79. For Bullock the controversy of donning veil as

an emblem of repression or emancipation is highly dependent over the

social constraints in which the sagacity of this imperative is lost. She

argues that the Muslim women are dispossessed from emancipated status

because these obligations define concept of veil in the minds of common

people which has little support from sacred text of Qur’Én, the Sunnah,

which is later on imposed as a common practice on the rest of women80.

She examines the divided Muslim community in prospect to interpret the

divine book into two main extremes the traditionalists and the liberals.

The corollary of traditional discourse is to present women as an oppressed

ideal whereas secular attempts to liberate her from this oppression.

Bullock’s study concludes that there is some possibility of misinterpreting

Islamic discourse in light of Patriarchal dynamics though, it is not essentially

dominating its general principles81, however, it is necessary to believe the

savvy proposition of veil that “‘Islam’ does not oppress women, and that

where ‘Islam’ finds its expression in law, that law should not oppress or

discriminate against women; and that where such burdens are to be

found in law, they should be amended or removed, and that the Qur’Én

and Sunnah provide the legitimacy and wherewithal so to do.”82

Conclusion

This study has concluded that in contemporary situation the

imperative of veil is stereotyped as the only practice of Islam to alienate

and oppress women from mainstream society. This stereotypical image

of demonization of Islam which promulgates patriarchal infrastructure is

demonstrated through media, politics and academic discourse under the

aegis of saving mission. Through this saving mission and Orientalized

version of Islam West maintains its dominance over Islamic countries

that need support and succour of their Western civilized philanthropists.



Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, No. 4 45

In the backdrop of diverse scholarship contemplating over pro-veiling and

anti-veiling thesis, this study has argued that the religion of Islam is

misrepresented through hegemonic Western discourse. It has been

investigated that the dialectic of veil as tool of oppression as well as of

emancipation is defended through subjective interpretation of the Nobel

Qu’rÉn and AÍÉdÊth. It is examined that counter mini-narratives are

produced to deconstruct the misinterpretation of the sacred texts though

postmodern readings are also challenging the prudence of the holy texts.

The societal disequilibrium which promulgates oppression is not because

religion is interpreted in true sense instead the practices which seemed

favorable to the dominant group are adopted as the true imperatives.

This study has argued that the trouble of representation and

misinterpretations provide subjective insights to question the underpinned

savvy prescriptions of Islam. The stereotypical image of veiled Muslim

women as oppressed does not have any connection with Islam instead

it is more close to the barbarity of patriarchy. Muslim women as compare

to non-Muslim women are more strong and powerful because they gained

all their rights of emancipation and equality fourteen hundred years ago

without roaming in the streets, nonetheless, white women acquired the

consciousness of their rights in the end of 1960s. Therefore, it has

become inevitable to reinterpret the Holy texts by reinstating the

underpinned prudence of Islamic doctrines.

Notes and References

1. Ralph Braibanti, The Nature and Structure of the Islamic World, (Chicago: Int.

Strategy and Policy Institute, 1995), 5. See also: Bullock, K., Rethinking Muslim

Women & the Veil: Challenging Historical and Modern Stereotypes, (London:

International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2002),  xxxiv. See also: Said, E.,

Covering Islam: How Media and Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the

World, New York, Vintage Books, 1997, p. 143.

2. Wikan, Unni, Behind the Veil in Arabia, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University

Press, 1982, p. 105.

3. El Guindi, F., “Veiling Infitah with Muslim Ethic; Egypt’s Contemporary Islamic

Movement”,  Social Problems 8 (1981): pp. 465–485.

4. Azari, F., “Islam’s Appeal to Women in Iran: Illusion and Reality” in Women of

Iran: The Conflict with Fundamentalist Islam, edited by F. Azari. (London: Ithaca

Press, 1983), p. 71.

5. Yegenoglu, M., “Veiled Fantasies: Cultural and Sexual differences in the discourse

of Orientalism”, in R. Lewis, & S. Mills (Eds.), Feminist and postcolonial theory

: a reader, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2003, p. 547.



46 Demystifying the Orient...

6. Said, Edward, Orientalism, (London: Routledge, 1978), p. 2.

7. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, “Can the Subaltern Speak”, in Colonial Discourse

and Post-colonial Theory: A Reader, edited by Patrick Williams and Laura

Chrisman, ( New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 66.

8. Said, Edward, Orientalism, p. 203

9. Said, Edward, Covering Islam: How Media and Experts Determine How We See

the Rest of the World, xix.

10. Ibid., xxii.

11. Huntington, Samuel P., The Clash of Civilizations? (Surabaya: Papyrus, 1997),

p. 22.

12. Hassan, R., “Religion, ethics and violence: Developing a new Muslim discourse”,

in B. K. Goldewijk (Ed.), Religion, international relations and development

cooperation,  (Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2007), p. 162.

13. Boer, Inge de., “Imaginative Geographies and the Discourse of Orientalism”,

Thamyris, (2003), pp. 9-10.

14. Said, Edward,  Orientalism, p. 26.

15. Lughod, Lila Abu. “Orientalism and Middle East Feminist Studies”, Feminist

Studies (2001), 27: p. 101.

16. MacLeod, D. S., & Codell, J. F., Orientalism Transposed : The Impact of the

Colonies on British Culture,  (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), p. 1.

17. Stoler, Ann Laura, “Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Gender, Race and

Morality in Colonial Asia”, in Gender at the Crosswords of Knowledge: Feminist

Anthropology, edited by Micaela di Leonardo, Oxford, University of California

Press, 1991, p. 54.

18. Lewis, Reina, Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity and Representation,

London & New York, Routlegde, 1996, pp. 17-18.

19. Said, Edward,  Covering Islam: How Media and Experts Determine How We See

the Rest of the World, p. 4.

20. Lowe, Lisa, Critical Terrains: French and British Orientalisms, New York,

Cornell University Press, 1994, p. 20.

21. Nashat, G., & Tucker, J. E., Women in the Middle East: Restoring Women to

History, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1999, lxi.

22. Mohanty, C. T., “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial

Discourses”, in Feminist Postcolonial Theory, a Reader, edited by & S. Mills R.

Lewis, (London: Taylor and Francis, 2003), p. 49.

23. Ibid., p. 51.

24. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, “Can the Subaltern Speak”, in Colonial Discourse

and Post-colonial Theory: A Reader, edited by Patrick Williams and Laura

Chrisman, pp. 66-111

25. Said, Edward, Orientalism, p. 2.

26. Ibid., pp. 108-109.

27. Mohanty, Chandra, T., “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial

Discourses”, in Feminist Postcolonial Theory, a Reader, edited by & S. Mills R.

Lewis, p. 7.

28. While criticizing the politics of British colonization, Spivak argues how colonizers

connive the legitimacy of their rule in non-western world with their civilizing



Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, No. 4 47

mission. Through this statement she manifests the stereotype of oppressive

women in male-dominated society. See for detail: Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty,

“Can the Subaltern Speak”, in Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory: A

Reader, edited by Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, p. 93.

29. Alvi, S. S., Hoodfar, H., & McDonough, S., The Muslim veil in North America:

issues and debate, Toronto, Women’s Press, 2003, p. 163.

30. Ibid., p. 13.

31. Thobani, S.,  Exalted Subjects: Studies in the Making of Race and Nation in

Canada, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2007, p. 218.

32. Ahmed, Leila, Women and Gender in Islam, Historical Roots of a Modern

Debate, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1992, p. 152 .

33. Bullock, Katherine, Rethinking Muslim Women & the Veil: Challenging Historical

and Modern Stereotypes, London, International Institute of Islamic Thought,

2002, xxxii.

34. Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak”, in Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial

Theory: A Reader, 93.

35. Bullock, Katherine, Muslim Women & the Veil: Challenging Historical and Modern

Stereotypes, xviii.

36. Donnell, Alison, “Visibility, Violence and Voice? Attitudes to Veiling Post-11

September”, in Veil, Veiling, Representation and Contemporary Art,  Eds. David

Bailey and GilaneTawadros, Cambridge, The MIT Press, 2003, 123.

37. Van Sommer, Annie, Our Moslem sisters; a cry of need from lands of darkness

interpreted by those who heard it, Edited by Samuel Marinus Zwemer, (Americana,

1907), p. 3.

38. Ibid., p. 1.

39. Alison Donnell, “Visibility, Violence and Voice? Attitudes to Veiling Post-11

September”, in David A. Bailey & GilaneTawadros (eds.), Veil: Veiling,

Representation and Contemporary Art, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: the MIT

Press, 2003), pp. 124-126.

40. Ibid., p. 126.

41. Al-Hibri, Azizah. “Tear Off your Western Veil!” in Food For Our Grandmothers:

Writings by Arab American and Arab-Canadian Feminists. Ed. Joanna Kadi,

(Boston: South End Press, 1994), pp. 160- 161.

42. Faegheh Shirazi, The Veil Unveiled. The Hijab in Modern Culture, (Gainessville:

University Press of Florida, 2001), p. 10.

43. Ibid., p. 20.

44. Badran, M., Feminism in Islam: Islamic and Secular Convergences, (Oxford:

Oneworld Publications, 2009), p. 221.

45. Karam, Azza. M., Women, Islamisms and state : contemporary feminisms in

Egypt,  (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998), p. 6.

46. Siddiqi, Muhammad Iqbal, Islam Forbids Free Mixing of Men and Women,

Lahore, Kazi Publications, 1983, vii-viii.

47. Bullock, Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil.Challenging Historical and

Modern Stereotypes, xxxvi.

48. The Holy Qur’Én, XXXIII: 53.  Mostly the translation of Ayat of the Noble

Qur’Én in this paper are taken from Picthal, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran:



48 Demystifying the Orient...

An Explanatory Translation (Kazi Publications, 1996.

49. Abu Al-A‘ala Mauwdudi, Purdah and the Status of Women in Islam, (Kazi

Publications, 1979)

50. Dr. Mohammed Ismail Memon Madani, Hijab: The Islamic Commandments of

Hijab (Karachi: DarulIshaat, 2000), p. 13.

51. Afzal Ur-Rahman, Role of Muslim Women in Society (Seerah Foundation, 1986),

p. 422.

52. The Holy Qur’Én, XXXIII:59.

53. Al-Tabari, Abu Ja‘far Muhammad b. Jarir, Jami‘ al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Qur’Én,

(Beirut: Dar al-Ma‘rifah, 1987), pp. 21:33.

54. The Holy Qur’Én, XXIV:31.

55. Shahrur, Muhammad, Al-KitabWa al-Qur’Én Qira’ah Mu‘asarah, Beirut, Sharikah

al-Matbu‘at, 1993, pp. 604-607.

56. Abu Dawud, Sulayman Ibn al-Ash‘ath, Sunan Abi Dawud, Kitab Al-Libas, Bab

Fima Tubdeu al-Marah min Zinateha.

57. Ibid., Kitab Al-Salah, Bab Al-Marah Tusalli Beghaire Khimar.

58. Ibid.,Kitab Al-Salah, Bab Fi KamTusalli Al-Marah.

59. Ahmad b. Ali Al-Hajar Al-Asqalani, Bulugh Al-Maram, Kitab Al-‘Itq.

60. The Holy Qur’Én, XXIV:31.

61. Al-Sarakhsi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad, Al-Masut, ((Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘ilmiyyah,

2003), 10: 152. See also: Ibn Abidin, Muhammad Amin, Radd al-Muhtar ‘Ala al-

Dur al-Mukhtar, (Riad: Dar Aalam al-Kutub), 1: 406.

62. Al-Dasuqi, Muhammad ibn Arafah, Hashiya al-Dasuqi ‘ala al-Sharh al-Kabir,

(Beirut: Dar Ahya al-Kutub al-‘ilmiyyah), 1: 214. See also: Al-Sawi, Abu Al-

Abbas Ahmad Ibn Muhammad, Bulghat al-Salik Ila Aqrab al-Masalik, (Dar al-

Ma‘arif, n.d), 2: 75.

63. Al-Nawawi, Yaha Ibn Sharf, Al-Majmoo‘ Sharh al-Muhadhab (Jaddah: Maktabah

al-Irshar, n.d), 1: 100.

64. Ibn Taymiyyah, Ahmad Ibn Abdul Haleem, Majmoo‘ Al-Fatawa, (Saudi Arabia:

Ministry of Islamic Affairs, 2004), 328/24.

65. Ibn Qayyim, Muhammad Ibn Abu Bakar, I‘ilam al-Muwaqq‘in ‘An Rabb al-

‘Aalamin, (Qahirah: Maktabah al-Kulliyyat al-Azhariyyah, 1968), 80/2.

66. Abdullah Yousaf Ali, The Holy Quran:Text Translation and Commentary (3rd

edn, Kashmiri Bazaar, 1938), 1126.

67. Abu Odeh, Lama, “Post-Colonial Feminism and the Veil: Thinking the Difference”,

Feminist Review, (1993), 43:29.

68. Badran, M., Feminism in Islam: Islamic and Secular Convergences, Oxford:

Oneworld Publications, 2009, p. 134.

69. Wadud, Amina, Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam, Oxford:

Oneworld Publications, 2006, p. 22.

70. Ibid., 15.

71. Wadud, Amina, Qur’Én and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s

Perspective, (Oxford University Press, 1999), xiii.

72. Barlas, Asma, Islam Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’Én, (Austin:

University of Texas Press, 2002), p. 14.

73. Mernissi, Fatima, The veil and the male elite: A feminist interpretation of women’s



Hamdard Islamicus Vol. XLII, No. 4 49

rights in Islam. Translated by Mary Jo Lakeland, (New York: Addison-Wesley,

1991), p. 194.

74. Ibid., p. 87-88.

75. Moghissi, Haida,  Feminism and Islamic Feminism: The Limits of Post- Modern

Analysis, (London & New York: Zed Books, 2002), pp. 42-46.

76. Badran, M., Feminism in Islam: Islamic and Secular Convergences, (Oxford:

Oneworld Publications, 2009), 221.

77. The Holy Qur’Én, VI:1.

78. Ibid., 33:35.

79. Abu Lughoud, Lila, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological

Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others”, American Anthropologist

(2002), vol. 104, 3:786.

80. Bullock, Katherine, Rethinking Muslim Women & the Veil: Challenging Historical

and Modern Stereotypes,xxiv.

81. Ibid., xxvii.

82. Ibid., xxv.