Abstract
Thinking of Muslim women, the first image that usually comes to mind is a veiled woman or, especially after 11 September 2001, the burqa (Afghan name and form of veiling) in Afghanistan. This image of prescriptive veiling is immediately viewed as oppressive and as an indication of the inferior status of women in Islam. In this article an attempt is made to present the different ways in which hijab (Islamic practice of veiling) is interpreted and applied, followed by an analysis of Islamic identity as reflected in Islamic scripts. Personal identity is discussed according to Jensen’s distinction that sheds some light on the different spheres of human reality within Islam, that is: the social person, the legal person and the religious person. This article aims to present orthodox and feminist views on personal identity that should be informative of the orientation of Muslims within society at large.
Highlights
This article aims to present orthodox and feminist views on personal identity that should be informative of the orientation of Muslims within society at large
Leaders who went overboard in their pro-Western orientation found themselves facing a backlash. Out of these reports it is evident that women in or out of hijab are appropriated by opposing socio-political forces as a symbolic representation of ideology
The Gröningen Working Group for the Study of Religious Symbols constructed the following general assumption for the identity of person, which is the point of departure for this article: Every individual obtains self-awareness only by being an object to others: the individual both internalises the attitudes of other people towards him/her3 as social relations and presents her/himself to others through means provided by the culture to which s/he belongs
Summary
According to Den Heyer and Schelling’s Symbolen in de bijbel (2000), clothing functions as protection against cold and heat or as a means of beautification, but has an overall social function: “Kleding schept duidelijkheid over wie wat is en waartoe behoort. Daardoor draagt zij bij aan intermenselijke communicatie” (Den Heyer & Schelling, 2000:586). It is against this background that the prohibition in Deuteronomy 22:5 must be seen, where women and men are warned against wearing one another’s clothes. Further Den Heyer and Schelling (2000: 233) propose that people derive their identity from their clothing or that clothing mirrors the identity. Clothing can be understood as an expression of the way in which one understands oneself to be. Clothing relates the person as an individual in or as part of a communal setting expressing the acceptance or denial of propositional values of the community one belongs to
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