Middle Eastern women returning to veil

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 57

Middle Eastern women returning to veil

By

MARIAM ISA of Reuters

(through. NZPA) Bahrain Increasing numbers of women in the Middle East are returning to the veil, eager to assert their Islamic identity and embrace its strictures as a sign of husbandwinning purity. Women in the region say the growing influence of religious fundamentalists, peer pressure and a genuine desire to advocate g? their own Muslim culture is behind a recent social trend for r* more concealing clothing — ineluding the face veil. The “cover up” has sparked a raging debate in cosmopolitan Cairo, where • ?., mini-skirted l women, keeping if tep with the I latest Western Bashions, rub , e ] shoulders with their veiled and

head-scarved contemporaries. “This trend is mainly due to increasing pressure from conservative religious groups but it’s also a fad,” said one female Gulf national who wished to remain anonymous. “Many girls find that covering up puts them above suspicion and gains them the complete trust of their families. It can also enhance their chances of marriage,” she said. Islam stipulates that women must cover their hair and dress modestly, in long, loosely fitting clothes. Moderates say the Koran, the Islamic holy book, does not require women to veil their faces, cover handstand feet or avoid wearing brijAt colours. But duringfthe last few years a number of women at colleges

and universities from Istanbul to Cairo have begun draping themselves from head to toe in shapeless, sombre-hued smocks with face veil, black gloves and thick socks. Sociologists say the popularity of the outfit, seen as inspired by the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, cuts across Shi’a and Sunni sectarian lines. Disturbed by the veil’s political implications — fundamentalists want strict sharia (Islamic) law — the Egyptian Government initially banned veiled-women from entering campuses and campaigned against total concealment.*-/.

Egyptian university authorities complain that the veil has led to cheating at exams with some students impersonating others. But last year, three women

students won a legal battle' with the Government to enter campuses with their faces veiled. The court upheld their right to wear what they pleased but said that if asked to identify themselves, the women must lift their veils to guards at the gates. In Turkey, a secular country where 99 per cent of the population is Muslim, thousands of people have marched against a Government ban on headscarves in universities in the biggest proIslamic demonstrations since the 1980-83 military rule. The majority of Turks have embraced the Westernising reforms of Kemal Ataturk who formed the modern republic in 1923 from the ashes 1 of the . Ottoman Empire. | But Turkey still has'a hard

core of anti-secularisS who say that the national hero westernised Turkey at the cost of eroding. religion and traditional values. Most peasant women in rural areas still wear the headscarf, but more as protection against the elements than in solidarity .with Turkey’s Islamic revival. The garb meets no resistance in other walks of life. - In Iran, women’s dress is an issue only in big cities like Teheran because the chador, an all-encompassing cloak worn . with headcover but no veil, was common in villages and towns even before the Islamic republic was established. Recent visitors say that since the .death in June of Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah RuWkjlah Khomeini, the enforcement

of the dress code, which used to earn offenders up to 74 lashes, has become sporadic. Vice squads, which used to patrol the streets, have all but vanished. Women test the limits by'wearing loose, colourful headscarves which show much Of their hair, stylish smocks decorated with zippers and buttons and, at times, heavy make-up. “Some mothers not only do not abide by Islamic hijab (dress code) among themselves, but also lead their adolescent daughters along the same way,” the conservative “Resalat” newspaper recently quoted an official at a women’s theological school as saying. '/,. In Saudi Arabia, the most conservative Gulf Arab State, observers say some women have

begun discarding the traditional black abaya (silk cloak) — worn over colourful traditional thobes (dresses) — in favour of drab Islamic garb and gloves. “This .outfit was unseen four or five years ago, but it is- widespread now ... there’s one girl in every family wearing it,” one , Saudi woman said? Some say the traditional Gulf burka, a black leather mask with slits for the eyes, is also having a revival.. In the island State of Bahrain, known for its social tolerance and active female workforce, university teachers say about /.three-quarters of their women students are wearing the head--scarf compared with less than half four years ago. yA small percentage have also begun wearing veils to class.

This contrasts sharply with many who wear up-to-date Western fashions and even provocative clothing flaunting the iridescent colours and flounces favoured by many Gulf women. But some of those who remain bare-headed say they have received anonymous notes asking them to cover up. . “There are many factors behind the new predominance of Islamic dress,” said Dr Nahid Osseirau, associate professor of psychology at Bahrain University. “It’s partly religious, partly a reaction against Western influence seen, as destructive to our values.and partly to present the acceptable . social images of a gpod Muslim girl which wnt help her find a husband.”