Gender and Globalization

Dr. Carl DavilaThe College at Brockport

The “Headscarf Affair”

S.U.N.Y. Global Workforce Project

Veiling, Segregation and Gender Among Muslims

Key pointsGender segregation: A complex social form that involves both feminine and masculine values at many levels.

Most basic: Men and women traditionally prefer to socialize separately

Predates Islam: Was practiced by the Greeks and Romans, as well as the early Hebrews and Christians.

For Muslims: Privacy is sacred, as is women’s reproductive capacity. Segregation is meant to protect both.

Veiling, Segregation and Gender Among Muslims

Key points

Gender segregation: A complex social form that involves both feminine and masculine values at many levels.

A downside: often seen as bearers of family honor ♀♀

through their reproductive capacity.

For women, this leads to a kind of empowerment: Social networking.

Thus: Segregation often is used to limit a woman’s potential to “dishonor” the family through contact with men

not related to her.

Veiling, Segregation and Gender Among MuslimsKey points

Gender segregation: A complex social form that involves both feminine and masculine values at many levels.

Not at all uniform across the Islamic world:some societies are more strongly segregated than others

some social classes (mostly middle and upper) are more strongly segregated than others

likewise, there are generational differences, as wellYoung Syrians in a cafe

Women in Yemen

Veiling, Segregation and Gender Among Muslims

Key pointsThe “veil”: Also a very complex symbol with many social meanings.

Predates Islam: Was practiced in Mesopotamia, Christian Byzantium and pre-Islamic Persia.

Full face veil does not appear in the Qur’an.

It probably was adopted by early Muslim community copying wealthy Christian families in cities conquered by

Muslims.

Veiling, Segregation and Gender Among MuslimsKey points

The “veil”: Also a very complex symbol with many social meanings.

Most veiling practices are tied to local traditions, as well as to sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.

There are many forms: BBC on the veil

Veiled woman and son in MoroccoVeiled woman in India

Veiled woman and son in Mali

Veiling, Segregation and Gender Among Muslims

Key pointsThe “veil”: Also a very complex symbol with many social meanings.

May be understood as any combination of …

a way to discourage unwanted sexual attention from men

communal or ethnic identity/belonging

a way to distinguish male from female

piety social class

tradition

All of these are linked to some degree of religious identity/belief

Veiling, Segregation and Gender Among Muslims

The “take-away” points:

Veiling and segregation have many, many social dimensions.

For many (not all) Muslims, the veil has become a marker of piety and of social identity.

Piety, identity and sexual propriety (family honor) are culturally linked in many societies influenced by

IslamIt can be difficult to separate the various meanings that veiling

and segregation represent ... all at the same time.

Case Study: The “Headscarf Affair”

"Meanings of all kinds flow though the figures of women, and they often do not include who she herself is. Women attest the identity and value of someone or

something else, and the beholder's reaction is necessary to complete their meaning."

~ Marina Warner, Monuments and Maidens (New York: Atheneum, 1985)

Case Study: The “Headscarf Affair”

Major themes to keep in mind:

N. African (“Maghribin”) identity bound up to a large extent with religious beliefs and practices.

Migration: a very significant impact of globalization

French concept of national identity = secularism and integration (“melting pot” vs. “salad”)

The “special relationship” former colonies often have with former conlonizers (neo-colonialism)

Case Study: The “Headscarf Affair”

Questions to consider:

Q: What’s at stake for each side in this affair?

Q: Why women’s clothing? Why is that such a loaded matter?

Case Study: The “Headscarf Affair”

Scenario:

“What does the Frenchman say,What does the Algerian migrant woman do?”