veiled4allah: when men veil

Veiled Men, Private Women contains selections from Veil: Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance by USC anthropologist Fadwa El Guindi and explains how her observations of Muslim men in Egypt engaging in screening behavior or "veiling" led her to write the book. She explains,

Through both this incident and additional observations, and also after examining text and ethnography, it became evident that in order to understand the phenomenon of veiling, the study cannot be restricted to the superficially obvious or the obviously visible (women veiling). It must, rather, extend to intangible spheres and hidden codes. The 'dress' movement, as it turned out, was carried out by men and by women, and was similar in manifestation among both. The empirical inference that men do 'veil' opened the research exploration further and led to findings on men's veiling in various Arabo-Islamic contexts. This challenged single gender explanations for veiling. And it was not a matter of 'add men and stir'. The overall approach was to be reconsidered.

The book itself contains a whole chapter on "The Veil of Masculinity" which discusses historical and anthropological evidence of men veiling, including covering their faces, in Muslim and Arab cultures. The Tuareg (one of whom is pictured in this blog entry) are the most notable example of male veiling in the Muslim world, but not the only one.

The hadiths even mention some instances of men veiling, for example:

Sahih Bukhari Book 52, Number 319 - Narrated Anas bin Malik: That he and Abu Talha came in the company of the Prophet and Safiya was accompanying the Prophet, who let her ride behind him on his she-camel. During the journey, the she-camel slipped and both the Prophet and (his) wife fell down. Abu Talha (the sub-narrator thinks that Anas said that Abu Talha jumped from his camel quickly) said, "O Allah's Apostle! May Allah sacrifice me for your sake! Did you get hurt?" The Prophet replied,"No, but take care of the lady." Abu Talha covered his face with his garment and proceeded towards her and covered her with his garment, and she got up. He then set right the condition of their she-camel and both of them (i.e. the Prophet and his wife) rode and proceeded till they approached Medina. The Prophet said, "We are returning with repentance and worshipping and praising our Lord." The Prophet kept on saying this statement till he entered Medina.

This instance is similar to the one that El Guindi observed, in which a man covered his face to help maintain a screen while interacting with women. The book mentions several hadiths in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) himself covered his face for one reason or another. There's also a discussion of veiling among Sufi men.

The book as a whole is excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about veiling in Muslim culture.