Read on Twitter
Fantasy of unveiling
In 2017, Trump reportedly had a change of heart about his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan after being shown an image by National Security Adviser HR McMaster of Afghan women from 1972, unveiled and wearing short skirts, https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/behind-veil-study-how-west-imagines-muslim-women
In 2017, Trump reportedly had a change of heart about his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan after being shown an image by National Security Adviser HR McMaster of Afghan women from 1972, unveiled and wearing short skirts, https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/behind-veil-study-how-west-imagines-muslim-women
in an effort to demonstrate that the campaign was not hopeless as Trump believed, but a cause worth fighting for.
Trump was not alone in being converted by this singular image of undisputed freedom, which reignited the fantasy around unveiling.
Trump was not alone in being converted by this singular image of undisputed freedom, which reignited the fantasy around unveiling.
Versions of it have made the rounds on social media, posted by individuals and human rights groups, framing complex historical, political and economic realities in “before and after” snapshots laden with sweeping judgements.
Once upon a time in Afghanistan, we are told, Afghan women who looked like us strolled the country’s cities, now abandoned to the wasteful carnage of fundamentalism, which swallowed up women’s bodies in a horrifying disappearing act.
The Islamic veil conspires to repress all hopes for freedom.
What is it about the veil that can produce such contradictory readings of danger and endangerment, to declare geopolitical allegiances and radically alter foreign policy agendas?
What is it about the veil that can produce such contradictory readings of danger and endangerment, to declare geopolitical allegiances and radically alter foreign policy agendas?
What is it about the veil that allows for the weaponisation of multiculturalism, immigration, citizenship, terrorism, women’s rights and human rights?
These are the questions that encircle Muslims and trigger a crisis over western identity and values.
These are the questions that encircle Muslims and trigger a crisis over western identity and values.
As with Trump’s border wall, only on the other side of the veil - the unveiled - can one avoid contamination.
In my book, The Political Psychology of the Veil: The Impossible Body, I trace this interrogation of who Muslims are
In my book, The Political Psychology of the Veil: The Impossible Body, I trace this interrogation of who Muslims are
In my book, The Political Psychology of the Veil: The Impossible Body, I trace this interrogation of who Muslims are and what they want from “us” through the recurring question of the veil.
Making sense of an obsession
Though this book is certainly not the first to be written
Making sense of an obsession
Though this book is certainly not the first to be written
not the first to be written on the topic, nor will it be the last, I wanted not to look beneath the veil to find out the “truth” about Muslim women, but rather to examine the veil’s excessive presence in the western imagination, and to make sense of this obsession.
The veil’s recurrence in whatever form - hijab, chador, niqab, burqa - despite historical, anthropological and activist-driven responses to deconstruct the western preoccupation with Muslim women and their bodies, points to an obsession that cannot be satisfied.
websites such as Muslimah Media Watch, AltMuslimah and others refreshingly challenged representations of Muslim women as embodiments of Islam’s oppressive demands.
Since then, we’ve seen an explosion in Muslim women’s activism, as part of a type of storytelling that speaks back
Since then, we’ve seen an explosion in Muslim women’s activism, as part of a type of storytelling that speaks back
Muslim women’s activism, as part of a type of storytelling that speaks back, dispelling, challenging and breaking stereotypes by revealing experiences of empowering individualism.
At a time when Muslim women have never been so visible -
At a time when Muslim women have never been so visible -
At a time when Muslim women have never been so visible - from modest fashion, to sports, to politics, to business and entertainment - the recurring imagery of the veil as a coercive “other” remains curious
Persistent presence
The veil continues to be summoned to alarm or inspire freedom for western audiences.
No truth about Muslim women’s lives, aspirations and achievements has troubled prevailing beliefs about Muslim women.
The veil continues to be summoned to alarm or inspire freedom for western audiences.
No truth about Muslim women’s lives, aspirations and achievements has troubled prevailing beliefs about Muslim women.
The notion of “lifting the veil” to show who these women really are, equates the veil with constraint, suppression of the self, and resistance to modernity. In the humanising stories about Muslim women’s lives, there is a desire to escape the veil by looking beneath it -
there is a desire to escape the veil by looking beneath it - to uncover a truth beyond it, where Muslim women confess love for Maroon 5, demonstrate rap skills, skateboard and do ballet.
My book turns a critical gaze on the psychic & political investment in visibility - the visibility of Muslim difference & of the body - and explores what that actually looks like in the Muslim context, where visibility is problematised & entangled in Islamophobic fear & anxiety
