Veiling the Obvious: African feminist theory and the hijab in the African novel

Abstract

This article is predicated on the view that African Muslim women do not necessarily perceive Islam or Islamic practice as incompatible with their goals and aspirations of education, independence or leadership. Drawing on the representations of the hijab in three African novels, this paper will simultaneously affirm and challenge certain orientations within African and particularly African feminist theories vis-á-vis African Muslim women and Islam. In responding to the claims by certain African feminist thinkers that Islam is incompatible with female leadership, that African Muslim women mostly practice Islam against their will and that forms of Islamic practice, in this case the hijab, are of little religious significance to African Muslim women, this paper will demonstrate that not only do African Muslim women choose to practice Islam by consciously and voluntarily situating themselves as agents of Islamic practice, but, in so doing, they, in fact, embody leadership, education, independence and consequently a re-affirmation of their religious identity. Islamic practice among African Muslim women, as will be explored in this analysis of the hijab, therefore, is infused with a deeper religious meaning and it cannot be convincingly concluded that the women have little regard for it.