ความคิดเห็นที่ 46
Hijab is a 1970s conspiracy???
http://www.maryams.net/dervish/archives/000014.html
I've been studying Islam at tertiary level since 1996 now. I'm a compulsive reader on Islamic studies. I wrote two undergraduate research papers on veiling, and recently began a Masters thesis on an issue to do with gender justice. Until this last August I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life as the following.
An Iranian chap by the name of Amir Taheri claimed in his August 15 2003 article published in the New York Post, that the practice of Muslim women wearing a headcover (popularly referred to as hijab) has nothing to do with Islam but was an invented by an Iranian by the name of Mussa Sadr in the 1970s.
Laughing yet? A lot of people are taking him seriously and quoting him everytime the issue of hijab comes up.
Now, I've read a lot of material to do with Muslim veiling practices. And in my whole life this is the FIRST time I've ever heard it was a 1970s conspiracy. If it weren't that it was published in the New York Times and that people are quoting it, I'd laugh it off as belonging to those great hoaxes such as, oh I dunno, Elvis was seen working in a Seven Eleven in Mexico.
Muslim veiling practices can be quite controversial, but whether you like the practice or not, no single serious Islamic studies scholar would suggest that it was made up in the 1970s.
So I thought I'd cobble together some resources on the issue of Muslim female veiling practices for those interested in the issue, and who think (like me) that Amir Taheri is either:
a) a bit looney
b) has some sort of agenda
c) cannot speak or read Arabic
d) all of the above
Offline resources
*El-Guindi, Fadwa, Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance, (Oxford: Berg, 1999).
Anthropologically based look at Muslim female and male veiling practices. This references is absolutely excellent.
*Roald, Anne Sofie, Women in Islam: The Western Experience, (London and New York: Routledge, 2001) 254-294.
A thorough description of the debate surrounding veiling. Roald also gives us classical sources such as:
- relevant Qur'anic passages: 24:30-1; 24:60; 33:59; 33:53
- relevant passages in hadith literature (for example see (1) below)
- the four Sunni law schools positions on veiling ie. that Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali hold that face-veiling is compulsory however Hanafi's do not require face-veiling
- positions of classical scholars on female dress: Muhammad Ibn Sirin (d.729); at-Tabari (d.923); Ibn Manzur (d.1311) etc.
*Bullock, Katherine, Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil: Challenging Historical and Modern Stereotypes, (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2002).
Taheri was rather dismissive of Bullock's research, but she gives an excellent summary of veiling and unveiling after the colonialist incursion into the Muslim world among other things. Furthermore, she didn't become a Muslim because she fell in love with veiling, she began veiling because she fell in love with Islam.
*al-Misri, Ahmad ibn Naqib, Reliance of the Traveller: A Classical Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, trans. Nuh Ha Mim Keller, (Maryland, USA: amana publications, 1999) 512-513; 899; 321.
This deals with the 14th century CE Shafi`i point of view on women's dress and holds that it is compulsory for women to cover her whole body including her face except when on hajj, in the privacy of her own home, or in front of certain close relatives.
*Kahf, Mohja. Western Representations of the Muslim Woman: From Termagant to Odalisque, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999).
A thorough look at how Muslim women have been (mis)represented in Western works from medieval to current times.
*Amin,Qasim, The Liberation of Women: A Document in the History of Egyptian Feminism, trans. Samiha Sidhom Peterson, (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 1992).
This is a reprint of an early twentieth century work in which Amin argues that in order to modernise the Muslim woman, they should unveil. He is extremely dismissive of Muslim women, but this is useful to see modernizing attitudes toward veiling from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
*Lewis,B., V.L. Menage, Ch. Pellat and J. Schacht, ed. "Hidjab" in Encyclopedia of Islam, new ed., vol. 3, (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971).
Basic orientalist article on hijab including its dictionary meaning, Qur'anic usage, and religious female veiling usage.If hijab was invented in the 1970s, these guys were pretty quick on the uptake, given that the Encyclopedia was published in 1971 (therefore the entry had to be written and edited prior to that date).
*Ahmed, Leila, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992) .
There are quite a number of references so I won't list them all here, except to say that she refers to unveiling as a symbol of reform, and generally holds that veiling was a pre-Islamic custom adopted by Muslims (particularly upper-class women) when they encountered foreign civilisations (Byzantinian and Persian) in the century or so following the Prophet's passing however it was originally only the Prophet's wives who were required to veil. (This is a problematic argument for me, as the Qur'an specifies references to telling "the believing women" to veil).
*Hughes, Thomas Patrick, Dictionary of Islam: Being a cyclopedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological terms of the Muslim religion, (USA: Kazi Publications, 1994) 92-99.
This was originally published in 1886 and richly describes, with illustrations, various forms of Muslim male and female dress including headcovering.
Online material
*What is the final rule on hijab?
*Hanafi rulings on female dress
Footnotes
-----------
(1) Here are two well-known ahadith on female veiling
'A'isha told that once Asma' the daughter of Abu Bakr entered the house of the Prophet (pbuh) and she was wearing transparent clothes. The Prophet said: 'O Asma! When a woman comes to the age of menstruation she should show only this', and he pointed at his face and his hands. (Abu Dawud, Chapter on Dressing, no. 3580)
When the Koranic verse [the jilbab-verse 33:59] was revealed, the women of al-ansar tribe [in Medina] when out [of their houses] with a block cloth on their heads (ru'usihinna). (Sunan Abi Dawud, Chapter on Dressing, no.3578).
Posted by Maryam at September 1, 2003 12:42 AM | TrackBack
จากคุณ :
mp
- [
28 ธ.ค. 46 08:01:21
A:128.250.6.246 X:128.250.181.174
]
|
|
|
Happy Chanukkah and Merry Christmas! 