Images of veiled women in enveloping clothes, as promoted by the Western media as well as Muslim pol

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Images of veiled women in enveloping clothes, as
promoted by the Western media as well as Muslim
politico-religious groups, have become the one
stereotype of Muslim Women. However Hijab
or veil can be traced back to early
civilizations. It can be found in early and late
Roman and Greek art. The evidence can be seen in
archaeological discoveries whether in pottery
fragments, paintings or recorded civil laws. In
Greco-Roman culture, both women and men wore head
covering in religious contexts. The tradition of
wearing the veil (by women) and the headcover (by
men) was then adopted by the Jews who wrote it in
the Talmud, and then the Christians adopted the
same. Women dress code in Islam historical
background, Ahmed Okla website
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3rd century BC pottery figurines from Alexandria
(left) and Tanagra/Greece (right) British Museum
Statuette of a Roman priest, 2nd/3rd century AD,
Kent, UK. Royal Museum, Canterbury
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Early 15th century painting of women at the
Crucifixion Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de
Berry, Musée Condé
Jews of Bokhara (now in Uzbekistan) Pictorial
History of the Jewish People, 1953
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Early 15th France Les Très Riche Heures de Duc de
Berry, Musée Condé
Meidum, Egypt, 1824. John Gardiner Wilkinson,
National Trust

• A head cover, and sometimes a face cover, is an
  extremely practical answer to problems of dust,
  dirt, cold, sun, wind, flies, head-lice and
  trying to get work done without hair falling over
  ones eyes. But the covering of the head, and of
  hair, especially womens hair, became imbued with
  strong non-rational, non-utilitarian
  notions/ideas/associations.

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• Women working on the land and tending their
  animals, in regions where they wore clothes, have
  often worn loose long garments with head-covers.

Tea Pluckers at work. This image shows
headcovering adopted by women for occupational
and not religious reasons. Most tea pickers in
Ceylon were Indian, non-Muslim Tamils. Post card,
1910-20
Inside a village courtyard, Pakistan. Women of
Pakistan, Government of Pakistan, 1975
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• This comment regarding European Dress Codes
  during the 5th - 11th century period has
  relevance to Muslim rural contexts as well
• Loose robes were worn by both sexes, styles
  were simple and unchanging. Societies existed
  for the most part at subsistence level, and were
  in many respects free from marked differences in
  wealth and class. Dress distinguished rich from
  poor, rulers from ruled only in that working
  people wore more wool and no silk, rougher
  materials with less ornamentation than their
  masters.
• Adorned in Dreams, Elizabeth Wilson, 1987

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• The woman on the left of this detail from a
  larger painting, is one of over forty-five women
  in the picture. We see her through the window of
  an upstairs room, and she is the only woman
  heavily draped. She is most likely an older
  woman, and a visitor.

Birth of a Prince, Mughal India, painted by
Bishndas, 1605-10. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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• The covering of the head in religious ceremonies
  and situations has a long history predating
  both Islam and Christianity. However, very short
  references to dress in both the Bible and the
  Quran have been interpreted and re-interpreted
  for centuries leading to controversies and
  outright violence. In these two images the
  uniformity of dress code blurs the individual
  identity of the woman at prayer and the woman
  devoted to the spiritual life.

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The Nuns of Hohenburg, Near Strasbourg,
c.1170. Hortus Deliciarum a book compiled for
her nuns by the Abbess
Prayers on the morning of the Fetr holiday, end
of Ramadan, Mossalla, Iran. Javad Montazeri, 2001
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Continuity over time and place

• Rather than showing the instability of social
  systems, dress styles show their inherent
  stability. Seen across space and time, dress
  patterns show remarkably regular alternation from
  one socially determined extreme to another. It
  is in the dialectic of extremes that variety and
  continuous connection are discovered.
• Reveal and Conceal, Andrea B Rugh, 1986

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Women selling their produce at the local market
wore long skirts, multiple layers and head covers.
Portuguese women at Coimbra. Paul Popper, 1948
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Lugano Market, Italy/Switzerland, c.1900
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Vegetable Market, Jerusalem, 1908 Israel Museum,
Jerusalem
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• These two photos of Bedouin women show little
  change in dress over one hundred years.

Bedouin women c.1885. attrib Marie Lydie
Cobanis
Dhiyabat Bedouin, south Jordan. Shelagh Weir,
1974
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In most cultures and communities there are women
who practice their skills as midwives. These
women would have work stories to swap across
continents and centuries.
Midwife carrying her payment in kind, rural Upper
Egypt, 1920s. The Fellahin of Upper Egypt,
Winifred S Blackman, 1927
Egyptian midwives in the Delta region. Sean
Sprague, 2000
Turkey, 17th century. Istanbul University Library
The Hour of Birth, Baghdad, 1237. painting by
al-Wasiti
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• A long life of hard work is what shows in the
  faces of these women.
• Guess where they come from!
• (answers to follow)

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Hungary
Ireland
Spain
Iran
A Palestinian Christian Arab living in Israel
Sources Ireland National Museum of
Ireland Iran Pioneering Women of Iran,
1995 Spain Women of All Lands,
1939 Palestine/Israel Warda Rohana, Hodas
Granny, 1982 Hungary Paul Popper c. 1950 Central
Turkey Women of Nar, 1974
Central Turkey
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• Practical Clothing
• Large pieces of woven cloth can be draped and
  worn unsewn or sewn into simple garments. They
  can be modesty garments or overdresses, or
  complete outfits worn indoors and out with
  portions used to cover the head if required.
  Here we look at three types of multi-purpose
  dress.

Two early stages in how to put on the haik - the
voluminous cloak and veil of Morocco and Algeria.
G G de Clérambault, Morocco, 1917, Images of
Women, Sarah Graham-Brown, 1988
The haik
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The thob ob dress, undredress and veil all in
one
The double dress (thob ob) was worn by Bedouin
and settled people of south Jordan in 19th and
early 20th century. A girdle of plaited wool was
tied over the dress and around the waist, and the
material was pulled up and through the belt until
the hem was level with the ground and the excess
material fell in a baggy fold. The points of one
or both sleeves were thrown over the head as a
veil, and secured with a band (asbeh) The
Bedouin, Shelagh Weir, 1968
Woman of the Adwan Bedouin wearing the double
dress. Matson, 1920-48
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The Sari
The sari adapted itself to situations requiring
modesty ie. if an elderly person was in the
room, or for religious observances. The pallaw
the bit over the shoulder could be used to
cover the head or even the head and face.
Clothing Matters, Emma Tarlo
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This comment regarding Western fashion has
relevance to changes in dress code
fashions At one period the breasts are
bared, at another even a V-neck is daring. At
one time the rich wear cloth of gold embroidered
with pearls, at another beige cashmere and grey
suiting. In one epoch man parade in ringlets,
high heels and rouge, at another to do so is to
court outcast status and physical abuse. re
Western fashion, Adorned in Dreams, Elizabeth
Wilson 1987 Fashions change and come round
again, reflecting a change in perceptions of
morality and the influence of class and political
forces
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The Strand Magazine, April 1891
Istanbul, 1870s. Fashion and Womens Clothing in
the Satirical Press of Istanbul at the end of the
19th century, Nora Seni, 1991
Woman being dressed in gilded leather breast
plate for a fashion show in Turkey. Alex Webb,
2002, National Geographic
Punch magazine, 1915
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Indoors and Outdoors Urban North Africa
In order to prevent sexual interaction between
members of the umma and members of the domestic
universe, seclusion and veiling (a symbolic form
of seclusion) were developed. The veil is worn
by Moroccan (and other North African) women only
when they leave the house and walk through the
street, which is a mans space. The veil means
that the woman is present in the mens world, but
invisible she has no right to be in the
street. Beyond the Veil, Fatima Mernissi, 1975
Sketches of Moroccan women, 1832. Eugene
Delacroix, Musée Condé
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Early 20th Century Postcard Photos There were
thousands of photographs and paintings of North
African Women, which ranged from the pornographic
and erotic, through general Orientalist and
anthropological to the more unusual, simple
un-posed snap. The images here are at the more
representative end of the spectrum.
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• The outer layer represents the external or
  public person and the inner one his or her
  private self.
• The Language of Clothes, Alison Lurie, 1981

An Algerian woman protests as she casts her vote
in the countrys elections. Contributor to OK
magazine
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The People of the Veil

• The veil, most associated in the West with
  Muslim women, is fundamental to the self-image of
  male Tuareg, who call themselves The People of
  the Veil.

Three wheeling through Africa, James C Wilson,
1937
Whatever the social position of the men, the
Veil is invariably worn by day and by night,
while the women go unveiled. People of the
Veil, Francis Rennell Rodd , 1926
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Touareg, Niger, NouvellesImages, 1998

• The Tuareg are the most well-known of the veiled
  nomadic people. The Western travellers romance
  with the desert and the East in the 19th and
  early 20th century led to many images of the
  seductive veiled male. Recently there is a new
  genre of postcards available in High Street shops
  and through International NGO catalogues, this
  could be called the New Ethnic Orientalism
  veiled tribal women, lightly clothed tribal
  women, and yet again the Tuareg male.

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Political Contexts
In a context where women were seen, by both
colonisers and nationalists, as recipients and
guarantors of the indigenous culture, the rise,
fall and aftermaths of empires and colonies
strongly influenced dress.
Nationalist movements often promoted
traditional dress codes for women, while their
male leaders often adopted Western costumes.
Current codes and modes, together with veiling,
unveiling and re-veiling can be seen as part of
the continuing reverberation.
The function of dress is much more than simply
to mark differences and similarities within the
indigenous society. It has also provided a way
to express a particular attitude towards foreign
cultural and political influences. Sarong,
jubbah, and trousers, Kees van Dijk,. Outward
Appearances Dress, state and society in
Indonesia, 1997
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Maps, Tim Simpson, 2002
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Maps, Tim Simpson, 2002
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Maps, Tim Simpson, 2002