Refusing the Veil by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Author:Yasmin Alibhai-Brown [Yasmin Alibhai-Brown]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849548465
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2014-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

in the early days of Islam were the wives of the Prophet Muhammad, known in the Qur’an as ‘the mothers of the believers’. Their role was to serve as the spiritual matrons of the Muslim community and, as a result, they were required to live and dress differently from other women to designate their status.17

And to protect themselves. Paganism was still strong among many powerful tribes, and battles were raging between Muslims and those who rebuffed the Prophet and his messages. He had many enemies and some of them taunted the women, sullied their names, ogled at and insulted them. To keep them safe and sane, they were commanded to speak to men ‘through a curtain’. Inevitably, as the female custodians of the faith began to cover themselves, they started a trend. Rich ladies wanted to imitate the elite religious family and identify themselves as special, superior to the hoi polloi. Hidden behind sheaths, they could avoid mendicants and petitioners. It was not piety but vanity and snobbery that made them do it.

Furthermore, in the one section that dwells on respectability and modesty, men are asked to be just as restrained as women. The words used for men are the same as those used for women. Men pay no heed to those commands and instead exert patriarchal control over every aspect of female life from cradle to grave.

Abu Bakr, an early convert, proselytised and fought wars in the name of Islam, provided funds for the cause, and, to mark the trust between them, arranged a marriage between his young daughter, Aisha, and Muhammad. Following the death of the Prophet, Abu Bakr became the first ever Caliph, leader of Muslims. Aisha led armies against those who rejected Abu Bakr’s claims and instead supported Ali (married to Fatima, the Prophet’s eldest daughter – another strong leading lady). Women then could be fiercely independent.

The granddaughter of Abu Bakr, named Aisha bint Talha, told the second of her three husbands that she would never wear the veil: ‘Since God, the Exalted has put upon me the stamp of beauty, it is my wish that the public should view that beauty and thereby recognise His grace unto them. I will not veil. No one can force me to do anything.’18

All that has been forgotten, erased from collective memory. Fatema Mernissi, a renowned Algerian post-colonialist feminist explains the various, original meanings of ‘hijab’ and social control mechanisms:

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