The Veil in the Abrahamic Faiths: A Cross-National and Interfaith Analysis

• In Event: 30854 - Religious Identities, Displays, and Meanings

Abstract

Explanations for a shift in sartorial practice of unveiled Muslim women to veiling are dominated by two clusters of ethnographic studies. The first highlights female agency in donning the veil to reach an outcome other than what the veil purportedly stood for. But their data indicates the influence of fundamentalism on veiling. The second explains why women doffed the veil. Viewed side-by-side, these clusters reveal a pattern that reflected the difference in the Geist of time – veiling was associated with fundamentalism, unveiling with its decline. Employing a clash-of-values perspective, veiling preference is a function of conflicts between fundamentalism and liberal values. Analyzing data from ten Middle Eastern countries, the results show countries with greater freedom, female labor force participation, and access to Internet, preferred more liberal veiling, while those with a higher proportion of men, younger population, and more exclusivist politics more conservative. Among individuals and followers of the Abrahamic faiths, religiosity, fundamentalism, and gender segregation were linked to conservative veiling, while liberal values and socioeconomic status to liberal veiling. For future research, given that clothing projects power, it is important to consider how religion-clothing relationship is mediated by the character and function of political power.

Author

• Mansoor Moaddel, University of Maryland-College Park