Letters to the Editor
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Veiling cetegories
When the media says "veil," they seldom explain what garment they are referring to. I hear the terms "veil" and "hibjab" used interchangably, so I do not know exactly what sort of clothing Mr. Straw was requesting the women remove. I may have missed a previous letter on this, but I think it is important to point out that women who "veil" cover in different degrees including: covering the hair only, covering hair and neck, covering hair, neck, forehead to the eybrows and chin to the bottom lip, and covering the the entire face. I suspect that the women Mr. Straw asked to uncover were wearing niquaab, or a full face veil, covering everything but the eyes. (Some women wear veils that cover even the eyes with a semi-sheer subtance, then there is the burqa, which also can obscure even the eyes depending on which fabric layer is down.) I think it is completely reasonable to request that someone speaking to you take steps to facilitate communication. I also think that if the woman doesn't want to remove her veil, no big deal should be made about that choice. For many women the veil is oppressive, for many women the veil is liberating, and for what I suspect is the vast majority, it is just a cultural given. There is no inherent reason to assume that a woman will be offended if asked to remove her veil, although women who believe Allah has commanded them to cover in the way that they do will be offended, and the proper response to such offense is a quick apology.
I doubt Mr. Straw is in any way illiterate to Islamic/Muslim culture. I suspect his experience is not too different from mine. Living in the area with the greatest concentration of people of Middle Eastern descent in North America, I find most women who wear the veil do it because it is assumed that they will: by their family and by their community. The assumption that the veil indicates a pious and humble woman is frequently false. I have seen women of all ages in very form fitted clothing and makeup three inches deep with their hair and neck perfectly obscured. I once stood in line behind a young woman wearing black veil that covered her to her waist but had embroidered writing on the butt of her sweat pants.
I heard on the BBC this morning a Muslim woman saying that if a Muslim requested a woman visiting him put on more clothes before visiting him, it would been treated with outrage. This has not been my experience. Liberal, non-Middle Eastern descent American women protesting Israel's attacks on Lebanon voluntarily wore long-sleeves and reasonable pants before meeting outside an Islamic center, per the request of Muslim leaders. Any female visitor to any of the mosques and Islamic halls around here must put on a headscarf before going in. No one rants and raves about, it is simply respecting another culture.