veiled4allah: going undercover in Cairo

Kerry McIntosh, an American student in Cairo, writes about her experiment wearing the niqab (face veil):

Toward the end of the fall semester, I decided to change my look for a day. One afternoon I went downtown and in the only public bathroom I knew of — which ironically happened to be at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant — changed into a “niqab,” a full Islamic veil. I would spend the afternoon as a veiled woman and go shopping at an outdoor market, for once not being an obvious Westerner.

She discusses why women may choose this form of dress:

Theological reasons for wearing the niqab in Islam are complex and numerous. The increasing popularity of the niqab and other more conservative forms of women’s dress may also reflect a backlash against the Western conceptualization of feminism and the objectification of women’s bodies in both Arabic and Western pop cultures. The niqab can also be worn for more practical reasons. In Egypt, men vastly outnumber women in nearly every public setting, and even the most modestly dressed woman on the street is not immune to the incessant hissing, catcalls and sexual comments from men. The niqab offers a way for women to fully conceal their bodies in hopes of defraying such negative attention and keeping their sexuality hidden from the public eye.

Women who wear the niqab are neither out of touch with modern society nor always conservative when not in public. A friend of mine who frequents a gym popular with upper-class Egyptians recalled once seeing a woman come dressed in full niqab who, once in the privacy of the locker room, stripped down to Spandex shorts and a sports bra. The wearers of the niqab, I feel, are keenly aware of the intricacies and paradoxes of the women’s roles in contemporary Egyptian society, and they choose to dress as they do in order to reshape their role within that society.

Although her experiment didn't last long, she learned a few things from it:

To wear such a covering, to present oneself in such a way, takes an incredible amount of inner conviction, which I lack. And whatever sentiment is driving that conviction must be strongly and deeply felt. My experiment with the niqab, if nothing else, allowed me to step outside myself in order to see better how those around me and I fit into Egyptian society, in all its complexity and chaos. And while I doubt I’m going to wear the niqab again anytime soon, I have a greater respect for those who do wear it.

The next day, when my American friends and I returned to the market and bought pastries from a woman dressed in a niqab, I looked at her and remembered how, if only for three hours, I’d had a glimpse into her world.

Via Dervish.