Conflict behind Women Wearing the Veil in Egypt
How Colonialism Turned the Veil into a Symbol of Resistance
Jun 5, 2009
The spark that ignited the great debate was Qassim Amin’s book Tahrir al-Mar’a (The Liberation of Woman). It prompted a discourse in the Islamic world about the ideological underpinnings behind wearing the veil and its traditionalist undertones. Al-hijab (veiling) and al-sufur (unveiling) are linked to changing cultural, social and economic realities throughout time, but this period in particular has had the largest influence on modern discussions.
Qassim Amin's Book The Liberation of Woman
In 1899, Qassim Amin’s book was published, setting off a formidable debate —the first major controversy in the Arabic press, which marked the start of feminism in the Arab world.
The degree of opposition provoked by Amin’s book had little to do with his views on reforms to polygamy, divorce laws, and women’s education and everything to do with his suggestion that the veil be abolished.
According to Amin, the veil was the symbolic reform for a much larger cultural and social transformation that he contended was essential for the Egyptian nation. He believed that the veil created an enormous obstacle to a woman’s elevation and this in turn affected the advance of the nation. His reasons for thinking this way had much to do with Egypt’s status as a British colony.
The British in Egypt
The British occupation of Egypt in 1882 did not alter Egypt’s role as supplier of raw materials for Europe. Although British administrative reforms and agricultural projects assisted in making Egypt a more efficient producer of raw materials, its goals remained the same, and, in actuality, Egyptians prospered from the British reforms.
In particular, these changes benefited the upper classes and the new middle-class intellectuals who were becoming increasingly influenced by Western ways (perceiving them as the means to both national and personal advancement). However, for the lower-middle and lower classes, conditions deteriorated, resulting in differing economic and class interests, which further divided Egypt’s political and intellectual landscape.
Dividing lines were drawn between those wanting to take on European customs and those wanting to protect their country’s heritage. At the centre of this division became the issue of women and the veil.
Modernists, such as Amin, viewed western influence as liberating and a needed change for women and the nation, while traditionalists sought to reaffirm older customs, seeing the veil as a symbol of modesty. These opposing views resulted in traditionalists becoming more rigid (i.e. as more women went out dressed in European clothes, the more traditionalists called for making the veil thicker.) Muslim legal scholars even advocated that the government imprison women who unveiled for more than two months or at least fine them twenty pounds each.
Colonist Society in Egypt
Egyptian-American scholar Leila Ahmed examines the conduct and rhetoric of the missionaries and colonizers in Egypt at the time. In particular, Ahmed focuses on the British administrator, Evelyn Baring Cromer, who had strong views on Islam, women, and the veil.
Cromer maintained that Islamic society and religion was inferior to that of Europe because unlike Islam, which denigrated women, European men elevated and respected women in line with the Christian faith.
Cromer argued that the practices of veiling and seclusion were a degradation of women, and were what he believed “the fatal obstacle” to the Egyptians “attainment of that elevation of thought and character which should accompany the introduction of Western civilization.”
While Cromer advocated views that were supposed to bring about the elevation of women in Egypt, his policies appear in contrast to them. For example, he discouraged the training of women doctors, and made it harder for women at all levels to receive an education.
Curiously, at home in England, Cromer was the founding member and president of the Men’s League for Opposing Women’s Suffrage. This dichotomy of character reveals that feminism at home was to be suppressed and resisted, but when colonizing abroad feminism could be used as a tool for British projects of dominance and superiority.
The Veil as a Symbol of Resistance to Western Ways
According to Ahmed, Qassim Amin, who is often referred to as the father of Arab feminism, was merely rearticulating colonialist perceptions and Cromer’s views. His book marks the entry of the colonial narrative concerning women and Islam into mainstream Arabic discourse—a narrative in which notions of the treatment of women and use of the veil epitomize Islamic inferiority.
It is not without irony that Western discourse first determined the new meanings of the veil that gave rise to its emergence as a symbol of resistance, one that continues today.
It is unfortunate that the veil has become such a cultural issue as a result of the Colonial experience, because it has not only hindered the indigenous feminist movement in Egypt but in other Muslim societies as well.
See also: The Practice of Veiling: A Look at the History of the Hijab in Islam
Sources:
- Leila Ahmed. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate
- Margot Badran. Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt
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