The Veil

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Recommended: Veil is compulsory for Muslim women

The Veil

Veiling: Hiding and Separating people, God, and the sexes throughout history

THESIS: The veil has been used to hide and separate people, God, and the sexes throughout history.

The idea of veiling started a long time ago, maybe from the beginning of human history. What has been changing is its meaning. In most cultures, it has disappeared today but not in the Islamic one. The question for researchers may be why veiling has continued to be so important for many Muslims. It might be natural to assume that veiling is a uniquely Islamic practice, but history proves otherwise.

Nashat and Tucker say that it is difficult to state for sure why the veil was introduced in ancient times. Most likely, it was part of the attempt to isolate women from men for several reasons depending on different periods. According to studies of early history, the purpose of the veil was to protect upper-class women from the "gaze of common men," but the reasons here are not ultimately clear. Studies of more recent periods view the veil as an indication of the marital status of women. Evidence from Sumerian sources reveals that it was the husband who, during the wedding ceremony, covered his spouse’s head with the veil. This practice would suggest that some sort of veiling was already in force almost three millennia before the rise of Islam (32-33).

Since those early times, the veil has been used to separate and elevate several social classes: Slave-Free, Prostitute-Chaste, Royalty-Commoner, and Religious-Laity.

Nashat and Tucker add that recent findings from Sumerian graves indicate that court ladies seem to have worn a fine veil, or head covering. While Mesopotamian society sanctioned prostitution, it also required a heavy prot...

... middle of paper ...

...ersonality. To force women to wear the veil is to show the world that they are different, they are Muslims.

Why has veiling continued to exist in Islam while it disappeared in other cultures? Maybe because of the stability of Islam, veiling has not changed, so it may keep the traditions with it. No one can tell for sure, but veiling may continue to exist in Islam because of the area of the Middle East, the birthplace of veiling.

Works Cited

Gole, Nilufer. {The Forbidden Modern}. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, 1996.

Mernissi, Fatima. {Beyond the Veil}. New York: John Wiley, 1975.

---. {The Veil and the Male Elite}. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1991.

Nashat, Guity, and Judith E. Tucker. {Women in the Middle East and North Africa}. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Parker, Kim. "Women, Islam, and Hijab." {Emory University} Fall 1996.

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