Talk Islam

Andrea Useem

  • 10:54:51 am on May 12, 2008 | # | |
    Tags: ,

    Salaams folks, here’s a story I have wanted to write forever, and Slate finally gave me a chance: It’s about loving and leaving Hijab:
    http://www.slate.com/id/2191103/

     

  • Tag this post

Comments

  • razib 12:45 pm on May 12, 2008 | #

    great peice. sometimes i wish that more american muslim men would have some standard attire so i could be marked as not a muslim to them ;-) (i.e., people assuming i’m muslim because of my name) re: hijab and veil, i think from my non-muslim perspective the two are different. the hijab can obviously be viewed as an accessory in a secular context. the veil is something which covers the face, and that’s a pretty important part of the body through which one uses to communicate a lot of implicit information. the veil’s historical context is one of segregation, isolation and purdah (this predates islam, see athenian women of high social standing). it wasn’t really designed with the assumption of modern professional women (i.e., my family knew a woman who was a banker who wanted to wear a veil as a child, and there were some obvious problems with that when you are a loan officer).

  • Tariq Nelson 5:56 pm on May 12, 2008 | #

    This opinion is mainstream among Muslims in the United States; according to a 2007 study, 51 percent of American Muslim women wear hijab all or some of the time.

    I wonder how many of the 49% who do not wear the hijab, believe that it is an obligation to wear it

  • aziz 5:57 pm on May 12, 2008 | #

    I wonder how many of the 51% who do wear it believe its an obligation :)

  • razib 6:05 pm on May 12, 2008 | #

    well, if they were it some of the time it isn’t obligate, is it?

  • muse 1:38 am on May 13, 2008 | #

    its a good article, captures a lot of nuance. but the last line seems to be saying that those who’ve chosen to de-hijab have broken through to a more expansive way of thinking thats closed off to hijabis. maybe i’m misunderstanding you.

    i’ve gone through my share of ups and downs with wearing hijab in the US, but i dont feel as though i am closed off to a way of thinking thats more accessible to someone who’s chosen to take it off.

  • ummyasmin 2:44 am on May 13, 2008 | #

    Fantastic article (congrats), but it has occurred to me there is a third category of ‘fluid’ hijab. Women who feel comfortable wearing it in some contexts, and not wearing it in others. It seems to me this is more common in places in Pakistan where hijab is part of the dress, more than it is a ‘religious identity’.

  • Dervish » Blog Archive » The many hijabs 7:48 am on May 13, 2008 | #

    […] flutter to Talk Islam) Leave a comment Comment RSS Previous: Liberal Party […]

  • Andrea Useem 7:56 am on May 14, 2008 | #

    Good question Tariq — I also wonder if “wearing hijab some or all of the time” includes women who only wear the scarf to pray. Heather Laird has some new research on hijab that will be out soon, hopefully from ISPU. I know so many of us are tired of this issue (hijab), but I would love to see more quantitative opinion data on it among American Muslims.

Leave a Comment

*

Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
Click to hear an audio file of the anti-spam word
To prevent spam, please type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.