Berkley Center

When walking around the streets of Cairo, especially away from the more cosmopolitan downtown areas, it is rare to see a woman whose head is not covered in some variation of the hijab. When I first arrived here nearly three months ago, I was so taken aback on my drive from the airport to the American University in Cairo dormitory, during which I saw no uncovered women, that I began to doubt the wisdom of choosing Egypt as a study abroad destination. What kind of ultra-conservative, restrictive experience had I gotten myself into? And why hadn’t I packed more long-sleeved shirts?

In truth, Egyptians’ relationship to the headscarf is far more complex than my initial, jet-lagged perception indicates. There are many different opinions when it comes to the hijab: whether women should wear it, how they should wear it, and why. The basic idea behind the hijab as an Islamic practice is that it is a demonstration of modesty and submission to the will of Allah. However, some do not believe that the scarf is a necessary practice for good Muslim women, arguing that veiling was a pre-Islamic practice from various cultures that infiltrated the religion. Even among those who believe that veiling is compulsory, there are disagreements about what constitutes “real” hijab. Do the neck and shoulders need to be covered by the scarf? What about the face? Sometimes the hijab constitutes a long, flowing veil that extends all the way down to the waist. It may simply be loose clothing that covers the arms and legs combined with a headscarf that covers the neck and shoulders, sometimes trailing down the back in a way particularly fashionable in Egypt. Many poorer and older women wear the abaya, a long dress that comes up and covers the head as well, in one piece. Some women wear the niqab, which leaves only the eyes uncovered, even including gloves to cover the hands.

Some teenage girls dress essentially like their non-Muslim counterparts, except that they wear long-sleeved shirts and pants under their dresses or tops, adding on a color-coordinated headscarf. Their form-fitting outfits are often from designer labels. Many women state frankly that these girls are not wearing hijab because they are still showing off the shape of their bodies and drawing attention to themselves by the fashionable nature of their clothing. This is antithetical to the point of hijab, which is to demonstrate modesty and avoid drawing attention to oneself. Others point out that with the evolution of hijab into something “fashionable,” whether a girl veils or not is no longer necessarily telling of her morality. Many women who do not veil are pious, while some who do veil flout Islamic rules in other areas.

Most people I have encountered stress the empowering aspect of veiling and the importance of a woman’s personal decision to veil—sometimes against her family’s wishes. They view the veil as a way of expressing their religious devotion. It also allows them to move about in public, in a job or otherwise, more easily, because the veil communicates their piety and respectability, opening up more opportunities for them in a very male-dominated society. Furthermore, many people find it offensive when it is suggested that women are somehow forced into veiling because Egyptian society is repressive. This a typical Western view, they say, when in reality Western norms of dress, which show off women’s bodies, are truly repressive because they turn women into sex objects. At the same time, however, some women complain that they feel social pressure to veil, especially if they work, and fashion-conscious teenagers show how veiling is sometimes as much a fad as a demonstration of religious resurgence.

I tend to think that the debates about hijab are somewhat overblown: it is, after all, just clothing. But it is true that the strong opinions that veiling and styles of dress arouse in public debate point to the way that ideas about women and their bodies are sites of struggle—among Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Whether women are oppressed or liberated by veiling seems less important than the fact that veiling continues to be an emotionally charged topic of interest to politicians, academics, and religious leaders.