Moral ambivalence and veiling amongst British Pakistani women in Sheffield

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores perceptions and performances of veiling as they are mediated by notions of piety, overlapping and alternative moral narratives, and understandings of belonging. For the young British Pakistani women I met in Sheffield, expressions of piety such as veiling, are negotiated through an underlying understanding of possessing ‘good intention’ and related moral discourses of being a ‘good person’ and a ‘good girl’. Discussions of what it means to be ‘good’, whether explored through narratives of piety, universal personhood or gendered ethnic identity, are mediated by relations with kin, the wider Pakistani community and understanding of British multiculturalism. In this article, the author argues that veiling practices should be explored not only through the multiple moral discourses which influence women's choices, but the wider raced and classed structures in which such choices are embedded.