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Egypt head coverings and veils
Electoral candidates in Egypt January 3, 2012
My mum took this picture of candidates for the Shura Council in Egypt. Electors were being asked which candidate will represent the El Nur Salafist party.
The 3 men look fairly normal, but who is that under a blanket? Yes it’s a woman.
Women in Egypt in the late 60's experienced little harassment
A lot of people think this is traditional dress in Egypt and that women choose to wear it. However it is only quite recently that there has been renewed pressure to show you are a virtuous woman by covering up.
It seems that although women say they choose to cover their heads and faces, they seem to choose to do this much more when male religious leaders tell them to.
This picture of Blogger Dew’s mother in the late 60′s shows women in western style dress. She says “ Virtually every Egyptian woman over 55 will recount stories of how she and her friends wore short dresses and sleeveless tops in the 1950s and 60s—and no man dared to harass them.”
Cairo University graduates 1951
Cairo University graduates 1978
Cairo University graduates 2004
Cairo University graduates 2004
Theses pictures of Cairo university graduates show how it is relatively recently that the headscarf has come back. In fact between the 20′s and the 50′s The veil gradually disappeared so much so that by 1958 this article reported Samia Gamal as saying ” Egyptian Women have always been ahead of their muslim sisters. The veil is almost unknown here, Men and women have been going to school side by side. there are dozens of female lawyers in the country. One of its top surgeons is a woman. Mrs Shafic declared that “Egyptian women are for all purposes practically emancipated”
Although these attempts at modesty and being virtuous are supposed to stop unwanted male attention, most women seem to report that the amount of harassment, threats to safety and restrictions of women freedom had all increased markedly. The men who are required to lower their gaze modestly pile all of the responsibility for modesty onto the women.
My mum who had been living in Luxor experienced lots of harassment living there She also sees lots of men taking their sky boxes in to be unblocked so they can see porn.
The programme on Radio 4 Beyond belief yesterday explained that the more a woman covers up the more virtuous she is. How about the men showing that it doesn’t matter how uncovered a woman is he will lower his gaze, and treat her with respect? That would show some real virtue.
4 Responses to Egypt head coverings and veils
sally
January 10, 2012 at 5:28 pm
They tell women stupid things like if she doesn’t wear hijab here hair will catch fire in hell.
Anonymous
March 8, 2012 at 10:52 am
Sally that is incorrect.
A common misconception is that Muslim women are the only ones who cover their hair. It may be true that Islam is the only religion in which most women follow its directives to cover the hair, but it is not the only religion to have such directives.
I find your comment irnonic considering your profile image. Do you cover your head?
It is particularly interesting to look at the case of Christianity, since Christianity is the predominant religion in the West, and it is Westerners, including observant Christians, who are often the first to criticize Islam because of the hijab (modest dress, including headcovering).
Looks to your own scriptures for guidance re female and head covering.
Many Christian women do not cover their hair, and many don’t take other teachings of the Bible (against pre-marital sex, adultery, etc) literally either.
It would be interesting to see if this article gets published or is removed becuase it highlights hypocrisy (like the main article sets to do).
Anonymous
May 22, 2012 at 6:36 pm
To add to the point that anonymous was making about Christian scriptures suggesting that females cover their hair. The simplest evidence of this fact is that nuns cover their hair completely. So that is something hypocritical in itself.
Anonymous
May 25, 2012 at 9:58 am
Jewish women are also required to cover their head. This is why they shave their hair and wear a wig (so they are covering their head without the neeed to wear a veil).
Women from the indian tradition also cover their heads as they beleive they are in the presence of God at all times. If the lord is omnipresent then their conduct is always correct and glorious. Look at the Sikhs, they defended defended our country with a turban on their head. 180,00 died for a country they had never been to, a language they had no understanding of and a queen they had never met – why? Because of their faith..
We should be applauding the egyptians for going back to their faith – its a great thing as nothing but good emanates from faith. It is the writters preception it is a bad thing.
With regarfs to chrsitinaity and the veil..
But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man
Corinthians 11: 1-16