What Is Veiling?
-
- $23.99
-
- $23.99
Publisher Description
Ranging from simple head scarf to full-body burqa, the veil is worn by vast numbers of Muslim women around the world. What Is Veiling? explains one of the most visible, controversial, and least understood emblems of Islam. Sahar Amer's evenhanded approach is anchored in sharp cultural insight and rich historical context. Addressing the significance of veiling in the religious, cultural, political, and social lives of Muslims, past and present, she examines the complex roles the practice has played in history, religion, conservative and progressive perspectives, politics and regionalism, society and economics, feminism, fashion, and art.
By highlighting the multiple meanings of veiling, the book decisively shows that the realities of the practice cannot be homogenized or oversimplified and extend well beyond the religious and political accounts that are overwhelmingly proclaimed both inside and outside Muslim-majority societies. Neither defending nor criticizing the practice, What Is Veiling? clarifies the voices of Muslim women who struggle to be heard and who, veiled or not, demand the right to live spiritual, personal, and public lives in dignity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While there is no direct requirement to veil in any Islamic religious texts, many Muslim women choose to do so and in a variety of ways that have nuanced meanings, which Amer, a University of Sydney professor of Arabic and Islamic studies, catalogues and explores, offering perhaps the definitive glossary on veiling. She spares no one in her analysis, asserting that Western politicians exploit the veil rather than focus on real problems. At the same time, Amer exposes, in a critique sure to rankle Muslims, the social pressure to wear hijab (a common term for nonfacial veiling) among Muslim student groups, causing social isolation from non-Muslims but inviting solidarity from other Muslim students. Muslim women, in general, face this double-edged sword, where acceptance in one community probably means rejection, even bullying, in the other. Amer's deliberate and caring scholarly treatment is pitch-perfect. This book about "hijabistas," "muhajababes," and veiled Muslim hip-hop artists, among others, is really not just about veiling; it is the story of Islam, especially modern Islam, told through the prism of the veil.
