A fantastic BBC radio broadcast, featuring my favorite NYU Law professor, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, and two other Iranian commentators. There’s no direct link, so you have to go to the “Listen to Previous Programmes” tab and select “Uncovering Iran.” They offer unique perspectives on the Revolution, the state of women’s rights in Iran, the issues with religious minorities there, and Iranian history in general. Check it out. A teaser quote about women’s rights in Iran from Professor Mir-Hosseini, who was barred from teaching in Iranian universities after the revolution because (1) she was educated in the West, and (2) she didn’t wear the hijab:
In a paradoxical way, this mandatory hijab… really gave women from religious families a kind of license to be in the public space. I remember when I went to school in Iran in the 1960s/early 1970s there were many girls who came to school wearing the chador [traditional Iranian covering]…. They had to take it off because the schools would not allow them. And universities were mixed, so many of them never got the opportunity to go to universities. But then after revolution these girls had the opportunity to go, because that mandatory hijab gave them kind of a license.
Now, Professor Mir-Hosseini doesn’t wear the hijab herself, and is obviously aware of the various feminist implications and issues surrounding it. But she does make an interesting point when she says that the hijab really has two sides to it, and that it has brought great benefit to many women who would otherwise be disallowed from participating in the public space.
The problem, of course, is that women shouldn’t have to be the ones always shouldering the burden of the apparent male inability to function with women in the room. Those who are invested in maintaining sexist social structures have always used women’s clothing and bodies as a means of social control, whether that be through mandatory head-coverings, finger-wagging about “modesty,” shaming women for what they wear, or contending that women invite sexual assault by wearing certain types of clothes. It’s all part of the same spectrum, and it’s all essentially BS.
At the same time, though, we have to recognize that we are operating within a highly patriarchal social context, and I think we need to do what we have to in order to make sure that women from all backgrounds and walks of life can be heard. In my personal opinion, this does not mean making the hijab, or any sort of clothing, mandatory — but it also doesn’t mean banning the headscarf or other religious symbols in certain contexts, like France did a while back. It simply means recognizing women as people, not as coat-hangers or symbols. And it demands looking at things like the hijab as fully as possible, and seeing the many paradoxes that crop up when modesty is mandatory.
Before some right-winger comes on and starts bleating about the evils of Islam, and accuses me of being an apologist for a sexist religion, consider first that headcoverings were not common and certainly weren’t required in the time of the Prophet. Men and women prayed together, and occupied the public space together. Read the Quran, and see if you can find the word “hijab” anywhere in there. See if you can find any requirement for women to cover themselves in public.
Then blindly criticize Islam,* instead of the contexts through which religious rules about headcoverings** and women’s rights evolved.
*I am in no way arguing that Islam — or any of the Abrahamic regions — are gender-neutral or treat women the same way that they treat men. None of them do, and Islam is no exception. There is sexism deeply entrenched in all of their texts. But we should consider that the most egregious examples of this sexism come from human interpretation of the texts, and pre-Islamic customs which were given religious backing, despite the fact that they are mentioned nowhere, or even refuted (in word or in spirit) in the Quran or the Hadith. We should also consider that in many ways, the Quran was a revolutionary text for women: It gave them contracting rights in marriage, outlawed the practice of female infanticide, gave them certain property rights (whatever they brought into marriage, or earned while married, is theirs and theirs alone, even if the marriage dissolves) and emphasized that all people have equal access to God, regardless of gender, race, class or any other social marker. Given the time period in which the Quran was received, this was a major step for women’s rights.
However, that doesn’t make Islam a feminist religion any more than Judaism or Christianity is feminist. Let’s not kid ourselves about who wrote the texts, who was in power when they were written, who continues to be in power, whose voices represent religious belief, and whose interests those religions are made to serve. You can bet I’m highly critical of patriarchal religion, despite being a believer myself. I’m just not convinced that feminism is incompatible with religion. I think I’m evidence that it isn’t, and so are the millions of women who identify with Jewish, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Baha’i, Wiccan and various other belief systems. And I’m growing increasingly tired of seeing Islam singled out as the oppressive, anti-woman force, while the actual experiences and beliefs of Muslims and Muslim feminists are ignored or disregarded.
**I’m also unconvinced that we should be focusing as much time and conversation as we do on the headscarf. Yes, it’s an important symbol. Yes, it’s highly problematic that it’s required, either legally or socially, in many countries and communities. Yes, we need to discuss it. But do we really need to harp on it as if its the locus of women’s oppression? It’s a highly compelling visual symbol of that oppression, yes, but it’s hardly the most pertinent issue facing women, Muslim or otherwise, in the world today. And as Professor Mir-Hosseini points out, in some contexts it can even empower women who would otherwise be silenced. Perhaps it’s time to listen to Muslim women and take their perspectives into account, instead of seeing pictures of women in scarves and thinking, “Oh, the poor oppressed dears!” It’s high time we let them set the conversation, instead of simply expecting them to explain why or why not the hijab is disempowering, or why Islam is or isn’t bad for women. I promise they have a lot more to talk about than just their clothes.
(Shorter Jill: Go listen to this radio broadcast. It’s interesting.)