Abstract
This communication centers on the argument that there is an ideological tug-of-war over the Muslim female body. The author discusses how religious and secular patriarchies, as well as feminism all make claims to the bodies of Muslim women and purport to know what is best for her. With particular focus on the headscarf and using comparisons with how non-Muslim women’s bodies are fought over, the author argues that there is a common thread connecting the warring sides as they each employ patriarchal and imperialist views of the Muslim woman that attempt to consume her agency. As the author examines the personal agency and veiling motives of Muslim woman, she counters the idea of Muslim women as passive recipients of mainstream religious and secular narratives imposed upon them by sharing different ways in which they self-author their own narratives in a post-9/11 USA.
Highlights
The Muslim woman’s body is like a battleground upon which patriarchy and feminism are at ideological war, with the most brutal battles taking place upon her head
Mainstream feminism that looks with an imperialist gaze [7] through a prism of essentialized feminism [8] sees Muslim women as less intelligent, oppressed, culturally depraved, passive, less likely to engage and succeed, and even dangerous due to tribal stigma [3,9,10] with her hijab being seen as an “abomination of the body” ([3], p. 4; [9])
Anti-hijab feminists presume to know these women better than they know themselves, thereby consuming Muslim women’s agency and exerting their ideological power and dominance over them much like what they accuse pro-hijab Muslim men of doing. In their attempts at solidarity and to present counter-hegemonic practices and tools of resistance, they often isolate the very women they claim to speak on behalf of by introducing their own form of cultural hegemony based in orientalism [9,11] and clothed in patriarchal social structures, a male gaze [7] and with hatred for the hijab [8] and even Islam at the core
Summary
The Muslim woman’s body is like a battleground upon which patriarchy (both religious and secular) and feminism are at ideological war, with the most brutal battles taking place upon her head. All warring sides are obsessed with the Muslim female body focusing on covering her up, fashioning her wardrobe, or disrobing her. Patriarchy and feminism attempt to control Muslim women through their ability to define their identities, roles [1], and the manner in which they should dress to either showcase their religious piety by covering, their worth and sex appeal through fashion, or their. This results in many Muslim women often carefully navigating between religiosity and secularity while maintaining their ideas of ideal Muslim womanhood [2]
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