The Horror of Life Uncovered

I have mixed feelings about the veiling of women in Islam. This video, which a Muslim friend sent to me after a discussion about veiling, exemplifies many of my problems with it.

This video preys on and encourages fear. Men are wolves on the prowl, incapable of seeing anything but a woman’s body and sexuality. They are waiting in the dark to pounce on her. They are also snakes, hissing and tempting in the shadows. The world itself is an ominous place where danger lurks around every corner. The only acceptable response to this world is to run, terrified, from the unseen monsters.

Unless, of course, one dons the magic hijab. The veil is presented as a literal lifeline, and protective armor. One of the most common explanations for veiling is that it prevents men from seeing women as sex objects; it forces them to interact on an intellectual level. Veiling, however, far from guarantees that men cease to see women as sex objects. If a man is a pervert he is going to stare whether he can see your hair, or your knees, or not. And for some men, veiling increases the objectification of women. Hijab and burka pornography is extremely popular here (if you have a proxy server to get around the UAE’s decency laws, that is. And everyone has a proxy server). In those images, the veil adds a level of debasement. The anonymous porn star becomes much more anonymous when her face is covered.

Just as veiling does not prevent perverted or socially inept men from objectifying women, visible hair does not cast a spell that causes men to turn into Neanderthals or rapists. Whenever my Muslim friends tell me about how men are animals, I always feel slightly confused. What about all the men who are not animals, who are just people? The vast majority of men that I know and care about do not stare or photograph strangers on their cell phones, and they are not wolves. They are attracted to women and appreciate female beauty – just as I appreciate male beauty – but they see women as people and interact with them as such. Are all these decent men I know completely emasculated? I think that really it comes down to cultural differences and what you are accustomed to. After all, shoulders can be a big deal if you’re not used to seeing them. But videos like this perpetuate the idea that this is standard, normal male behavior.

In this video, the only acceptable way to view men is as animals, and the only acceptable response is either to cover yourself up or to be terribly afraid. There is no alternative, such as, say, viewing men as people instead of animals and talking to them. It propagates a false understanding of everyday male-female interaction. And not only does this video give women a false impression of men, it gives men a false impression of men. It teaches men that they are predators instead of people. Men who are raised to respect women and to see them as fellow human beings have a greater sense of their own humanity. It warps a man’s sense of self to see his entire gender depicted as animals, just as it warps a woman’s sense of self to see her entire gender depicted as victims.

And by giving men the sense that what is masculine is what is animal, inappropriate, and dehumanizing, it gives them permission to act that way. Some men take advantage of this permission; they stare and stare hard. In the video, permission to behave inappropriately is underscored by the movie’s imagery. The uncovered woman wears a slinky red dress – the color of seduction – and red lipstick. She is, in the world of this little movie, asking for it. It is only when she puts of a hijab – here shown in virginal white – that she is saved.

The whole system seems so backwards to me. If you want men to respect women, teach them that women are people and not sex objects. And, if you really want to protect women from dangerous men, encourage self-defense classes. Covering up the woman is dealing with a symptom rather than the root problem.

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Tags: body image, Culture Shock, Gender, religion, safety, sex