{"id":19194,"date":"2014-10-14T06:57:36","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T13:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=19194"},"modified":"2014-10-19T21:10:46","modified_gmt":"2014-10-20T04:10:46","slug":"a-conversation-with-sahar-amer-author-of-what-is-veiling-transcultural-islam-research-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=19194","title":{"rendered":"A Conversation with Sahar Amer, Author of \u2018What is Veiling?\u2019 \u00ab Transcultural Islam Research Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the\u00a0Transcultural Islam Research Network<\/a>, an interview with Sahar Amer, whose book,\u00a0What Is Veiling?<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>was published by The University of North Carolina Press in September of this year. I found this passage particularly interesting:<\/p>\n

CR: Throughout your extensive research on the topic, have you found that veiling is more a product of religious and cultural circumstances or personal choice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SA:<\/strong>\u00a0I would say that veiling is a product of all of the above, and many other reasons as well. Veiling is due to a variety of reasons, including social, political, cultural, and economic, as well as personal and spiritual ones. While some women indeed must wear the veil because it is imposed upon them by a society with a conservative reading of Islamic traditions, others wear it proudly out of deep piety and conviction that it is an Islamic prescription. Yet other women wear the veil as a political assertion of their national identity, or as an expression of their disappointment in the failure of Arab nationalism and of the postcolonial world, as a tool of resistance to Euro-American stereotypes and policies towards Muslims, or as a means of declaring their opposition to the commodification of women\u2019s bodies in Euro-American societies. Still others wear it for socio-economic reasons, either because it allows them to forego the expense of new clothes and a hairdresser, or because it gives them the confidence to go out in public, hold jobs, and become financially independent in a society only recently accustomed to having women mingle alongside men in public and work spaces. Perhaps the most important thing to understand about veiling is that there is not and has never been one singular reason for wearing hijab that one can consider valid for all peoples or all times or all societies. Variation is truly the norm.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have rarely read, listened to, or been part of a discussion of veiling that does not assume\u00a0the simplistic, single-minded template of\u00a0the “imposed veil”\u00a0(whether that imposition is governmental, as in Iran, familial or communal)\u00a0and its corresponding and ostensibly by-definition<\/del> oppression of women as\u00a0the only one in which discussion of veiling can be meaningful.<\/p>\n

Cross-posted<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the\u00a0Transcultural Islam Research Network, an interview with Sahar Amer, whose book,\u00a0What Is Veiling?,\u00a0was published by The University of North Carolina Press in September of this year. I found this passage particularly interesting: CR: Throughout your extensive research on the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19194"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19210,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19194\/revisions\/19210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}