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Sounds of Summer: Donning the veil


PM - Thursday, 4 January , 2007  05:10:00

Reporter: Kathryn Roberts

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Hello, I'm Elizabeth Jackson. As part of the ABC's summer season, we now present a Current Affairs Special.

Not since the introduction of the miniskirt has an item of women's clothing caused such a stir, but the Islamic headscarf has stolen the limelight.

It happened in Australia when the country's most senior Islamic cleric, Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali likened women who weren't wearing the hijab to uncovered meat, and implied that uncovered women were inviting rape.

Overseas, several governments have banned headscarves and full-face veils in public on the grounds of security, community harmony and integration.

However, it seems more women are wearing the hijab both in Australia and overseas.

Interestingly, it's not just Muslims returning to more traditional forms of religious dress.

Kathryn Roberts prepared this report.

(Sound of Muslim prayer)

MOUNA: Obviously when I'm inside the house I just wear like anybody else, I wear a normal dress, but when I go out of the house, I put on, you could say, an overcoat that comes from my shoulders down to my toes, and I wear a hijab, which covers my hair, and then I just have an extra piece over my face, showing my eyes.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: And what colour, any particular colour?

MOUNA: Well, when I'm in Lakemba, which is predominantly a Muslim suburb, I tend to wear black, because I find that the material is very comfortable to wear, like it's made especially for the face, that's why it's very comfortable to wear. However, when I go out of Lakemba into other places, I tend to wear a less dramatic colour, like I tend to wear like a beige colour, 'cause I know that it's more acceptable to people, they don't find it threatening or anything like that.

(Sound of Muslim prayer)

KATHRYN ROBERTS: Walking around the Sydney suburb of Lakemba, it's not uncommon to see women wearing hijab, or like Mouna, the niqab, with only their eyes peeping from beneath their head-to-toe coverings.

To protect her privacy, Mouna didn't want to give her last name.

The 35-year-old is a seventh generation Australian and a mother of five children, who says her husband was initially reluctant to support her decision to wear the niqab, because he was concerned about how others would react.

Why does a woman like Mouna dress the way she does?

MOUNA: My reason for wearing the niqab was about emulating the wives of Prophet Mohammed and the wives of his companions. In Islam there's different levels of faith, so for me it was about getting closer to Allah, getting closer to God, so you could say it's a higher level in spirituality.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: So what sort of reaction do you generally get when you are walking around in your niqab?

MOUNA: To be honest, in all the years I've been wearing it, which has been about 13 years, I really haven't had any serious problems. You know, I find there's all different people out there, and I know that very often, you know, when people approach me and start speaking to me and they find that, you know, Aussie accent coming out, I think a lot of people find that quite interesting. I've actually had people very curious about that.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: You mentioned that you generally wear a softer colour, so that it's not so confronting. Do you find that some people are a bit shocked that an Australian accent is coming from beneath this covering?

MOUNA: I find the general Aussie, you know, usually they're very tolerant, very easy-going. That's the typical Aussie. I mean, you will get your fuddy duddies out there that, you know, have got a real problem, but they're the ones with the problem.

One of the greatest things about Australia is that, you know, people have the freedom to express who they are in the way that they dress, or the way that they convey themselves, and I think that's what makes Australia such a great country.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: Why is it so important, though, to cover the face below the eyes, and just have the eyes showing?

MOUNA: I think you have to really step into Islam and understand it from the Muslim eyes before you can really understand certain parts of Islam.

What I can basically say, wearing the niqab for me was a very empowering experience, because it gave me complete privacy from unwanted attraction from other men. It puts a complete barrier between you and men. You can go about your business without, you know, anyone sort of checking you out or something like that.

Wearing the hijab, I'd still get people, like, you would get, you know, sometimes men sort of looking at you wanting to know more about you, but when I put the niqab on, I mean, whether that person was a Muslim or a non-Muslim, I found that it sort of makes them sort of stay back, away from you.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: You talk about a barrier, and you talked about the niqab acting as somewhat of a barrier between yourself and men. Does it also, though, work that it creates, in perhaps a not so positive way, in that it creates a barrier between yourself and non-Muslims, including women?

MOUNA: I know people may see it like that, but when I'm talking about barriers, I'm talking about as far as, like, sexual attraction from males, that's what I'm talking about. But when it comes to everyday interaction, I didn't have a problem with that, I didn't feel that it created that barrier between me and them, because I find the eyes are the most important part when communicating, and people could understand my expressions by looking at my eyes, so I don't feel that it, you know, created that barrier between me and non-Muslim women, for example, no.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: In a culture like Australia we do engage with people based on facial expression and body language. You mentioned the eyes, but do you think it is important to reveal other parts of the face when communicating with someone?

MOUNA: As I said, I haven't really had any difficulty. I mean, I see women in the shopping centre, and they smile at me, they can see me smiling, like they can tell from my eyes I'm smiling. You know, when they look at my eyes they can tell if I'm shocked or, you know. So the eyes are a very important part of me.

If you think about it, when you talk to somebody you look at their eyes, you don't tend to really look down at their mouth. It's necessary to uncover the eyes to see what you're doing, otherwise you'll probably trip over (laughs). So that's what it's basically about, just blocking off as much as possible so that you can live a private life without anyone bothering you and trying to check you out.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: But it's precisely that anonymity that some governments have taken issue with.

Several western European countries have moved to ban the full-face veil in public. Others have banned the headscarf in schools or government offices.

In Britain, the senior Government Minister Jack Straw stirred up controversy and sparked outrage not long ago when he suggested Muslim women shouldn't wear full-face veils in public.

JACK STRAW: In our society we are able to relate, particularly to strangers, by being able to read their faces, and if you can't read people's faces, that does provide some separation. What I'm saying on the other side is would those people who do wear the veil think about the implications for community relations?

KATHRYN ROBERTS: The Dutch Government has also said it wants to ban the burqa in public places on the grounds of security, integration and community harmony.

However, it's not only Western, predominantly Christian, countries that have moved to impose restrictions on what women wear.

Tunisian police have recently been cracking down on women wearing Islamic headscarves in public.

Back home in Australia, just a few months ago, debate over Islamic dress codes intensified after a controversial sermon by one of the country's most senior Islamic clerics, Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali, who suggested that women who did not cover themselves could be inviting sexual assault.

SHEIKH TAJ EL-DIN AL-HILALI: Being misunderstanding, I'm very, very sorry for that people misunderstanding my talk, my message.

KEYSAR TRAD: The issue was not whether they'll wear a hijab or don't wear a hijab. The issue is that every society has a certain dress code, a normal dress code that people go by. So if somebody goes beyond that dress code, if the men and women get to the stage where they dress in a manner that is provocative, then these people are doing something wrong. But if the dress code in a society is such that it's a short skirt and a tank top, well that's the dress code, that's normal.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: Associates of the Sheikh said the sermon was taken out of context, and that he was actually referring to extra-marital sex, not the wearing of the hijab.

But those efforts to explain the comments did little to subdue debate within the Muslim and broader Australian community.

Whether the hijab is a requirement under Islamic law is itself open to interpretation.

Rachel Pickering converted to Islam seven years ago and believes the hijab is not optional.

RACHEL PICKERING: Allah asked us to cover ourselves in a way that it needs to be long, loose, not see-through, not too attractive, and covers all of the body, except for the face and for the hands.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: How do you feel about the fact that it's women who are asked to cover up?

RACHEL PICKERING: A lot of people don't realise that men also have a dress requirement, and they need to wear loose clothing from the navel to the knee.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: Do more women than men, though, follow the code, in that we do see men dressed in tight jeans and firm-fitting trousers? Are women more likely to follow that dress code?

RACHEL PICKERING: I think it's just more obvious when women dress, because women don't generally cover their head in Australia, so when they do it's more obvious than my husband's dress code.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: It would be fair to say, though, in 2006, most Australian women would wonder why you'd choose to wear a hijab. Can you understand that perspective?

RACHEL PICKERING: I can understand that perspective, because I also asked all of those questions when I was learning about Islam as well, but after someone explaining how it's important for a woman to dress modestly, and also Allah says it's best for us, for women not to attract unwanted attention. So whether we like it or not, the way we present ourselves does attract or detract attention. So the dress code that we're asked to follow doesn't attract as much attention, and so we're safer in that perspective.

But, very importantly, it's also we don't want to be seen as sex symbols, sex objects. There's a lot more to a woman than her shape, but a lot of what is focused on, a lot of attention, too much attention, is given to the way a woman's shape, or her different sizes, or her physical aspects, not enough is given to her mental, her intellectual abilities.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: There was recently a lot of controversy around Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali's comments about women not dressing modestly, inviting rape. Is it fair to say, though, that the hijab is about, primarily about modesty, and that women who don't dress appropriately will invite unwanted attention?

RACHEL PICKERING: The hijab and the whole Muslim covering is about modesty. Under no circumstance do women, they don't invite, you know, rape or aggression against them. That's always a sin. That's not allowed anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, sometimes it might attract the wrong person. That doesn't give them the right to do anything, to attack a woman, but prevention is better than cure, and that's part of why we dress, 'cause we don't want to attract that sort of attention.

It's exactly what my father said to me, and what our fathers all said to our daughters. When we were growing up I wasn't allowed to just wear anything outside, because my dad, you know, I don't want any unwanted attention, exactly what Islam says and exactly what, you know, Sheikh was trying to say as well, that's what all of our fathers said to us, we had to go back and change some of the things that we came out in, and that's no different. So really, that was all the message that the Sheikh was trying to say.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: Is there a place, in your view, for men in the family, or family members, friends, to suggest rather forcefully that someone should wear the hijab?

RAHCEL PICKERING: Well, I think in every family the head of the household imposes what he feels is the right thing for his family, to protect his family, the right thing for the family. So, in a practising Muslim family they learn from a very young age why, what is required from Allah, and for men and women, and why, and the benefits, and the reasons, and the rewards.

So in Muslim and non-Muslim families, the head of the household will impose certain rules. I had rules imposed on me when I was young, and I understand that, you know, my father was doing it because he wanted to protect me.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: But some Islamic scholars say the veil is much more complex than simply providing a shield for a woman's modesty.

Samina Yasmeen is the Director of the Centre for Muslim States and Societies at the University of Western Australia. She's also a Muslim.

She explains that the origins of the head and body covering lie in the cultural and climatic conditions of the Middle East.

SAMINA YASMEEN: With the heat and the sandstones and the harsh climate, made it necessary for both men and women to cover themselves. And even now if you go into the desert you'd find both men and women covering, not necessarily because they're being Muslim.

So if we stop imbuing this whole notion of veiling and covering with religious meanings and start looking at the weather, climatic conditions, what we can understand is that at one level the dress codes really reflect the environment in which these religions emerged.

Basically people who became either Christians, or Muslims, or any other religion, they just continued wearing what they were wearing, but gave it a religious meaning.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: As cultural and religious traditions merged, veiling also became tied to the upper classes who wanted to distinguish themselves by covering up.

Although non-Muslims are often accused of being obsessed with the veil and projecting their own Western feminist perspectives on the traditional Islamic dress, Samina Yasmeen says there's tension within the community between those who veil and those who don't.

She says in recent years the veil has emerged as a sign, in some people's opinion, of a good Muslim woman.

SAMINA YASMEEN: I think it's very closely related to emergence of Islam as an international issue. The more debate started about what role Islam plays in global politics, the more the question of identity or identities emerged among Muslims in Muslim majority countries, and the more there were women who, having been educated in orthodox reading of Islam, started opting for veiling.

Now, the more they did that, the more they said anyone who wasn't veiled wasn't a good Muslim woman.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: The veil is many things to many people. It can be a statement of faith, or a sign of oppression. Or quite the opposite, it may be a tool of resistance, as it was during the process of colonisation, when Muslim women continued to veil to symbolise that while their countries may have been conquered, the people retained their Islamic identity.

I asked Mouna whether she thought some women were also wearing the hijab in solidarity with other Muslims.

MOUNA: There may be some people who do, you know, decide to put on the hijab, or, you know, put the niqab on because they want to rebel, but I think what actually happens is, for examples, especially past, you know, say, post 2001, is that, you know, when people are marginalised, it tends to push them back to their roots.

So where you've got, say, you're your ordinary Muslim who wasn't maybe wearing hijab before and they were just living normal Aussie life, for the first time they were being marginalised because, for example, they're Middle Eastern origin, and that, sometimes what happens is it pushes them back to their roots, "well you don't accept me, well I'll go back to where I am accepted". And it makes them go back and start re-looking at their roots, and sometimes that actually, yes, it can push people back to practising their religion more.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: But why are we so interested in what other people wear?

Gary Bouma is an Anglican priest and a professor of sociology at Monash University.

He says clothing is our first point of contact with others, and, rightly or wrongly, we make judgments about who someone is and where they fit into society based on how they present themselves.

GARY BOUMA: Dress is always a matter of who I wish to associate with and who I do not wish to associate with. We always dress, both in attempts to attract and to, in a sense, repel. There's no standard dress that is attractive to everyone. There is no standard dress that is appropriate under every and all circumstance. We always dress for the occasion and to declare where it is we fit and who it is we're going to feel comfortable with.

Because we are in a very consumerist society, as opposed to a society which dictates choice to its members, we need to know what the person is intending by their clothing choice. To impute motives, to impute understandings to a person's clothing choice is to, as you say, use stereotypes, is to usually get it wrong, and that's a serious problem when you're trying to interpret somebody else's behaviour.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: Although the focus has mainly been on Islamic dress, Muslim women aren't the only ones returning to more traditional forms of clothing.

(Sound of Christian Church music)

In the United States, there's renewed interest in the veil in Christian circles.

Sister Patricia Wittberg teaches the Sociology of Religion at Indiana University.

She says the religious orders in America that wear a visible habit are attracting more young entrants than the ones that don't.

(Sound of Christian Church music)

And some established orders are even re-adopting a modified habit at the request of their younger members.

Sister Patricia Wittberg believes the habit is iconic for the X and Y generations born after 1965. She says they're the television generations and they're more image oriented, so the habit is a visual sign of covenant and commitment.

The Y generation is also team oriented, and they see the habit as a symbol of belonging to a group.

And she sees parallels with younger Muslims.

PATRICIA WITTBERG: This is a quote, "We see a habit as a radical jump from the world of supermodels and designer labels. We're a visual generation and they're a visible sign. What a witness it is to see a young man or woman walking down the street in a habit or cleric, how much that says about the reality of God in a world today without a word being spoken".

You know, they think in pictures, and it's a wonderful picture. That's more generation X. That was a generation X person I was quoting. The millennials will say that, and they'll also say it's a sign of a team belonging, we're belonging to a group, why wouldn't you wear the team colours?

KATHRYN ROBERTS: Professor Gary Bouma has a different interpretation. He argues that spirituality is becoming more important to Australians, and young people are looking for religions that demand more of them.

GARY BOUMA: We've had a period of time being right away from religion, and being quite secular. In every different phase of history, that phase is followed by a more religious phase, and all we're doing is following the ebbs and flows of history.

People who thought secularity was here forever and was going to be the order of the day forever are simply wrong. That secularity has had its day, people have found it's limited and are not satisfied with its answers to the questions of life.

For many, the dress is simply a sign that they're taking their spiritual life more seriously, and are happy to do so in a way that others can see.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: As Australia becomes increasingly multicultural, what's certain is we will encounter new forms of dress, and as we're thrown together, Samina Yasmeen suggests we may just have to challenge our preconceived ideas.

SAMINA YASMEEN: Probably we are still mentally living in another era, an era where the world wasn't as small as it is today. So we had these images of people in their dress codes, and now we come face-to-face with difference in our immediate environment, and probably we haven't really learnt the art of giving up our previously held ideas, to saying no, a certain dress doesn't mean a certain value, it could mean something else. Maybe mentally we haven't moved into a real global village identity.

(Sound of music)

KATHRYN ROBERTS: If someone is to see you coming along in your niqab, how would you like them to approach you?

MOUNA: Just say g'day, mate, how you going?

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Kathryn Roberts with that report. And you've been listening to a Current Affairs Special.