This is a three part series on the origins of the veil within Islam.  The following are the links for the next two posts in this series:

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous – Part II

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous – Part III

If you look at human history, there is one theme that never seems to go away and that is our obsession with the lives of the rich and famous. We seem to be attracted to wealth and are riveted by mouth-watering glimpses of how they live. Many yearn for wealth and fame, but secretly believe such lifestyles are beyond their means. Instead, people try to emulate their lives by acting the part and purchasing knock-offs and poor imitations of the real thing. Our mass consumption society is a symptom of our desire to live the high life.

While, I am not going to write a post where I drool over the lives of the rich and famous, their lifestyles did get me thinking about what I want to write about today. I will be discussing the strange custom of veil wearing and why it is so taboo for women in some cultures to uncover their face. You most likely have been confronted at one time or another with one of these Islamic women. They have their entire body and face covered with a veil, save for a narrow slot for the eyes. Our first reaction when having to deal with such women is usually awkwardness and discomfort. You may even wonder how is it possible that in the 21st century we still have to deal with a misogynistic relic of the ancient past? You are probably wondering by now what on earth does wearing a veil has to do with the lifestyles of the rich and famous? As it turns out, the ironic social origin of the veil was once used as a mark of power and prestige by the wealthy rather than as a form of oppression for the masses.

There is one distinction I would want to make before I go any further, just so we are all on the same page. There is wearing a veil and then there is dressing modestly. One creates a wall of separation while the other sets boundaries while still allowing interaction. The purpose of the veil is to create separation and to minimize communication between the wearer and the outside world. In all practical purposes, the veil creates a wall between women and the rest of society. On the other hand, dressing modestly still requires women to wear non-revealing clothing, but her face is not hidden allowing her to interact with the outside world. Occasionally, I work in the Oil and Gas industry where I interact with some female Muslim Engineers (yes, they do actually exist). While, these women dress modestly and wear a headscarf, I can still have a normal professional and friendly relationship with them. This style of relationship would be impossible if the women would be wearing a veil. For the purpose of this discussion I will be focusing on the veil and the separation created by it.

If you talk to the Islamists, they will tell you that the veil is a divinely inspired article of clothing that all reputable Muslim women must wear to save themselves from fires of hell. The threat of Hell is often used as the argument of last resort, but I digress! Is it truly the case that the powers on high condemned Muslim women to cover their face? Despite what the Islamic fundamentalist tell you, the Quran does not explicitly tell women to wear the veil. Rather, if you dig deep enough, one will find the veil is a custom the Muslims adopted from the upper classes of Byzantine society and made their own.

Nothing seems to get people more fired up than when the issue of veil wearing gets public attention. The wearing of a veil is probably the most visibly contentious sexual identity issue around. For many Westerners, the veil is a symbol of oppression and the misogyny. For the followers of Islam, the veil is a symbol of empowerment. The wearing of the veil has become the single most potent representation of Islam with its explicit rejection of Western ideology and its implicit value as a status symbol. Emotions on both sides of the issue can get quite excited with opinions getting mean spirited and crude. Just take a look at the following comments below:

Until the Imperialists invaded Muslim Countries and the Muslims started mixing with non-believers, all our Muslim women walked in this world with great respect and dignity. The non-believers were finding it very difficult to come anywhere near the border of our Muslim sisters purity. The Hijab (Islamic dress for women) did not only protect them from those evil eyes of non-believers but also gave them freedom and independence from being misused by them. The non-believers planned to destroy their barrier through removal of Hijab (Hejab, Hijaab) and unfortunately, many of our sisters, without realizing what shame and destruction they were bringing to themselves, removed the Hijab (Muslim Veil) and exposed themselves.

—Akramulla Syed

If Muslim men are so keen on seeing their headscarf introduced into Irish society, they should wear it as well as their women. Let them cover up, too. Otherwise there must be no place for the hijab in civic life here. Not in banks, hospitals or libraries, not in the guards or civil service and most definitely not in schools.

—Martina Devlin

And my personal favorite:

If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it … whose fault is it, the cats’ or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.

—Taj El-Din Hilal

The current debate over the veil is the battle ground for our clash of civilizations. However, I do not intend to delve any deeper into the current controversy because the veiling in the 21st century has almost nothing in common with ancient custom of veiling. Rather, I will explore the origins of veiling and how it gained prominence in the Islamic world in my next post in the veil series.