Maria Hauf (Matr. Nr.

525021) 1 Academic Skills: Essay Composition

Should Britain ban the veil?

Being one of the most multicultural nations in the world, Britains citizens have roots all over the world and every possible form of religion can be found all over the country. In recent years though, a heated discussion emerged around the question of whether or not to ban the traditional Islamic niqab, a sort of veil, in both public and private spaces. The niqab is often worn by women in Arab countries and is one form of covering the female face and body as required by the Islamic law code sharia. Although British culture and tradition is rooted in Christianity and a western form of thought, many Muslim women still cover their faces and bodies a covering which leads to disputes within British society. But which are the reasons for these disputes? And, most importantly, can a prohibition of the veil be a solution to them? Generally most discussions tend to develop around two critical issues: emancipation and integration. Many feminists argue that the veil opposes female rights for which generations of women fought persistently. Writing in the Independent, journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown for example suggests that this covering [the veil] makes women invisible, invalidates their participatory rights and confirms them as evil temptresses.1 Although this argument might be applied to some women wearing the traditional veil, it is highly problematic to appropriate it to all women. As a matter of fact, there is no universal womanhood, especially not a universal Islamic womanhood, which makes it hard to speak of and for women in general. It might doubtlessly be true that some women wear the veil because they are oppressed by their husband, their family or even their religious community, but there are cases where women wear a veil because they consciously chose to do so. Ironically, one might argue that the invisibility created by a niqab, which Alibhai-Brown criticises from a feminist viewpoint, is more often a chosen instead of a submissive act. Although many women are already liberated and regarded as equals to men, the still get abused not only physically and verbally, but more often through male gazes. Women are often being looked at in public when they wear short dresses or a shirt with a plunging neckline some women are more visible than they even wish to be. Would it not be a traceable wish to be invisible to this gaze and cover yourself when you do not wish to be seen? Some Muslim women wear religious covering in order to avoid being looked at in public and exposing themselves to male abuse and a prohibition of
1

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/yasmin-alibhaibrown-the-cloakof-darkness-is-no-exercise-of-civil-liberties-1877884.html

Maria Hauf (Matr. Nr. 525021) 2 Academic Skills: Essay Composition

these covers would not support the feminist argument against oppression but rather lead to the abolition of the freedom to wear whatever any woman desires. Another group of critics, who argue for the prohibition of veils, focuses on the problem of integration in western societies. The veil is often seen as an outcome of failed integration because it apparently demonstrates failure to adapt western values, encourages the creation of parallel societies and establishes the concept of us and the Other. These Others are often imagined as something provoking a deep feeling of angst especially women who are veiled cannot be easily recognised and categorised as harmless. At a conference about immigration in Britain, Dr Sanjay Sharma, a sociology lecturer at Brunel University, pointed out how mass media normalise[s] fear and hate against foreigners, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, and emphasises how much this sentiment has shaped public perception and political debate.2 Consequently, it is not the veil which signals the Other, it is the wrong perception of something alien to the dominant culture. Edward Said, a postcolonial scholar and specialist in the field of Orientalism, further declares that Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between the Orient and (most of the time) the Occident 3. As the Islamic niqab is one part of this constructed Orient, one is definitely able to argue that most arguments favouring the banning of the veil can be set aside easily. Feminist scholars often presume a universal womanhood and demand that western values of emancipation should be imposed upon all women - what is often neglected in their argument is that not all women express emancipation universally. On the other hand, other critics who see the veil as a sign of failed integration, do not realise it is their misunderstanding of Islamic culture which enforces the creation of Otherness. It is of course easier to ban something one does not grasp the concept of, but would Britain still be called a democratic nation if politicians went the easy way? Instead of positioning Islamic traditions at the margins of culture, Britons should try to understand for which reasons women would cover themselves and create a law which helps those cases in which the women are oppressed.

2 3

http://rosejournalist.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/has-multiculturalism-in-britain-failed/ Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Random House, 1978.