Book - The Veil

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

The veil can be an instrument of feminist empowerment, and veiled anonymity can confer power to women. Starting from her own marriage ceremony at which she first wore a full veil, Rafia Zakaria examines how veils do more than they get credit for.

Part memoir and part philosophical investigation, Veil questions that what is seen is always good and free, and that what is veiled can only signal servility and subterfuge. From personal encounters with the veil in France (where it is banned) to Iran (where it is compulsory), Zakaria shows how the garment's reputation as a pre-modern relic is fraught and up for grabs. The veil is an object in constant transformation, whose myriad meanings challenge the absolute truths of patriarchy.

Veil by Rafia Zakaria is a powerful meditation on the most visible emblem of the Islamic faith, its symbolic impact upon Muslims and non-Muslims and the controversy surrounding variations of the veil, including the headscarf, hijab and burqa.

Zakaria, a journalist and author (The Upstairs Wife), informs readers that "there are no verses in the Holy Quran that specifically prescribe the veil for women," and yet Muslim women who choose not to veil are often judged harshly by other Muslims. Zakaria herself is subjected to "moral disciplining" by male colleagues when she attends an academic conference in Egypt without a headscarf. She talks of the "fissure created by the veil," quoting female scholars who reject the male-centric interpretations of religious doctrine that have led to the elevation of veiling as a requirement.

If not compulsory within Islam, why do women wear the veil? Zakaria recounts her experience in a hospital waiting room in Pakistan. As an unveiled but modestly dressed woman, she was subjected to constant attention by men in the waiting room, as though her uncovered state entitled them to stare at her every movement. She envied a fully veiled woman in the same room who did as she pleased; talking loudly on the phone, she drew no attention at all. The veil grants anonymity, and anonymity is its own form of empowerment, transforming a public space like a waiting room into a place of privacy.

According to Zakaria, the Western media is too preoccupied with the veil as an obstacle to women's independence, the burqa being the "ultimate yardstick of female oppression." She urges the reader to consider a woman's choice--her right--to veil or not veil as far more relevant, since it is only when women are at liberty to make that choice that they will be free. --Shahina Piyarali, writer and reviewer