This dissertation explores the socio-cultural aspects of veiling among Bangladeshi middle-class women, particularly Mathar Orna. In this regard, rigid religious attributes can be separated from veiling practices to allow for a much broader understanding of a social symbol such as the mathar orna and how it defines various facets of women's daily lives.
Introduction
Veiling and the Mathar Orna
Such an understanding helps reveal invisible power relations and agency efforts that are not noticeable because of how simple a social symbol, which in this case is the mathar orna, may appear. Discussions of the hijab and burqa do so much justice to the multitude of applications that the veil embodies, and so mathar orna is a better term in the sense that it allows for a break from the persistent religious and traditional attributes attached to it. the other two terms.
Objectives and Research Questions
Methodology
Literature Review
The Veil and the West
She explains how Lerner's analysis demonstrates that the veil not only marked the upper classes, but also served to distinguish between "respectable women" and women who were "publicly accessible." These ideas were supported by apparent evidence that pointed to the biological inferiority of women and their confinement to domesticity. He opposed women's suffrage and resisted feminism at home, but encouraged it in projects of white male supremacy.
Although the 9/11 incident provided an opportunity to recognize the “plurality of Muslim women's voices,” this was consistently thwarted by an obsession with “covering/revealing” ( Macdonald, 2006 ). A very interesting point that Macdonald (2006) points out is the persistent accusation of harems for degrading Muslim women. Insisting on the idea that the harem symbolizes the suppression of Muslim women's sexuality, the Western depiction of the harem and the veiling and seclusion that accompanies it as barbaric and degrading to women, completely ignored the fact that the harem served as a practical and safe outlet for most women. .
Moreover, the way in which women themselves become involved in beauty rituals within oppressive patriarchal regimes is also ignored in the process of 'differentizing the harem'. Most notable is the way in which women's diverse voices and subjectivities are erased in films and documentaries (e.g. Beneath the Veil, Unholy War).
Veiling Minus Religion: Veiling as Lived Experience
An example of this would be the underground beauty salons in Kabul, where the dangers involved in visiting those salons illustrate the women's own way of protesting against the Taliban. Macdonald (2006) sums it all up like this: “That the site can be so invested in a symbol of religious adherence suggests the continuing power of a trajectory of repeated images and narratives, and the efficacy of those modes of representation in silencing the diversity. the voices of Muslim women.” Even the covering of the face varies, ranging from the "filmed white yashmak (face veil) known in late Ottoman society, to a niqab, which allows only the eyes to be seen, to the all-encompassing burqa" (Shaheed, 2008). .
Therefore, because of all the variations in "acceptable Muslim dress" from place to place, we must move away from analyzes of a single "Islamic culture" and consider women "in multiple Muslim contexts, in Islamic states, in secular Muslim-majority states." , in Muslim families and communities in the diaspora, among Muslim migrant communities, for non-Muslim women who are subject to Muslim laws because of their country of residence or that of their children, and for women who do not identify as Muslim but are automatically categorized as such because of their family heritage or the laws of their country” (Shaheed, 2008). Furthermore, dress codes for Muslim men are still missing from analyzes of clothing in Muslim contexts, which typically focus on women's clothing (Shaheed, 2008). Shaheed (2008) asks: “whose honor is protected: that of the woman under the clothes, that of her father, her husband, her family, her community or that of her state?” Furthermore, Shaheed (2008) explains how dress codes for women are often political in nature, to maintain social control over women's sexuality in many forms, including veil policies (such as bans on veils, or legally mandated veils). ).
Therefore, Shaheed (2008) offers an explanation or understanding of the veil that is "politically informed" and separate from religion, because otherwise all other forms of clothing and their cultural particularities become invalidated if we continue to mark the veil as specifically 'Muslim women's clothing '. Lived experiences give us a more insightful understanding of the complexities that women's lives encompass.
Veiling in Bangladesh
History of Veiling
New Veiling in Cairo
In her study of the new veil in Cairo, Arlene Elowe Macleod (1992) asserts how the idea that Middle Eastern women are oppressed by Islam through forced veiling cannot be substantiated by the "assertive behavior and position of influence of women in many Middle Eastern settings". . Thus, Macleod (1992) suggests that such power relations be described as "a constant relationship of war" rather than the simple image of passive dominance/submission. She discusses this in relation to the lifting of the veil in Cairo, which she defines not as a “remnants of traditional culture or a reactionary return to traditional patterns, but as a form of hegemonic politics in a modernizing environment, making meaning its important to women in other such settings as well' (Macleod, 1992).
In Cairo, Macleod (1992) defines veil as "a subtle and evocative symbol with multiple meanings that cultural participants articulate, read and manipulate". Some cases of veiling are as follows: where it is used to say which interactions are appropriate and to establish differences in family relationships; where it indicates class standing; where it is used to make underlying political statements about 'cultural authenticity' or political and religious associations; and where it functions as a 'two-way mode of communication' between the. Thus, the new veil seemed to be crucial to Cairene women's identities within a transforming Cairo.
Macleod (1992) says conversely, even though the new veiling movement is practiced as a kind of protest, there are "more ambivalent" intentions behind it, where women "accommodate as well as resist", a way of protest she defines as "accommodative". protest". This is because, according to her, veiled Cairene women fight for the preservation of their identities and status, while simultaneously accepting the perception of women as "sexually suspect and naturally bound to the home" (Macleod, 1992).
Findings
The mathar orna also protects her hair from heat and dust, and she believes it also helped with her fall. Fakera Zaman, 32 years old, has three other sisters and all of them have worn the mathar orna all their lives. Juthi Rahman, 33 years old, wears the mathar orna when she meets strangers at home and when she goes out.
She is also adored by her in-laws who endearingly call her 'bou', and she believes that wearing the mathar orna has enabled her to achieve all this. Many Muslim women from Bangladesh who have not worn the mathar orna all their lives somehow feel obliged to don it after they get married. It is true that some conservative families require their newlywed daughters-in-law to wear the mathar orna as a symbol of respect and honor of bridal status.
Women who wear the mathar orna to maintain this authority are well aware of the position they hold and they use it to their full advantage. We choose to wear the mathar orna in front of whoever we think is appropriate.
Counter-Arguments…
Honestly, women should stop doing this kind of thing so that people understand that Bengali women take their traditions and their religion very seriously.” Another thing that many Bangladeshi women suffer from is a kind of psychologically imposed veil. Since I was a young girl, I have witnessed this tendency among my nieces and friends to reach for a scarf or orna when they felt it was only appropriate to cover their heads when in the presence of other veiled women were or during azaan.
What is really surprising is that all the time I had felt such inclinations to reach for my chair it was because I wanted to fit in and not seem to lack religious etiquette and modesty . Although I am a practicing Muslim, I do not feel that my piety and modesty are necessarily tied to whether or not I veil. In this sense, then, veiling acts as a means of oppression to some extent, adding to already misunderstood ideas about the veil.
Despite these difficulties, more and more Bangladeshi women, even younger ones, have adopted some form of veil, especially the mathar orna, once they have realized the level of mobility, flexibility and convenience it offers, in addition to being a marker and even be a practitioner. of modesty and piety. For most of them it is an encouraging and reassuring fact that they have perfect control over their own lives and veil because they want it, and not because someone else wants it for them.
Limitations of the study…
Conclusion
Seeking security, safety and spirituality: religious conditioning and everyday aspirations among female university students in Bangladesh. Do you wear it regularly, or are there specific circumstances under which you wear it? Do you feel completely comfortable wearing it, or do you feel like there is some kind of pressure when wearing it?
Many people think that wearing the mathar orna is deeply connected with Islamic spirituality and piety. Because you are a Muslim, you believe it is your duty to wear the mathar orna. How would you characterize the way veiling has changed in your family over the course of these four generations?