Laura Morlock

A Barbaric Cultural Practice?

(A post originally published October 5, 2015)

Many argue that it’s just a cultural practice. That it has nothing to do with religion, at least not anymore, even if God’s name is invoked. Families argue over it. Is she ready? Is she too young? Will it interfere with her ability to move forward in her life with her goals and aspirations?

A swath of fabric that covers the face. Its origins are non-debatable. From a time and culture that viewed women as less than human — the head religious authorities even debated whether or not a woman could have a soul. Sold to the highest bidder in ostensibly civilized ways, women nonetheless served as means for their family (namely their fathers and brothers) to secure goods, land, and status. This cloth served two purposes: to protect women (who were considered fragile and vulnerable) from evil forces and to obscure her from men’s gaze. You see, since most of the marriages were arranged, women wore veils to obscure or hide their features just in case the groom did not like what he saw and changed his mind at the altar.

Wait. Did I forget to mention I’m talking about the wedding veil? Why? What did you think I was talking about?

Roman wedding veils were traditionally red. Greek ones were orange.
Roman wedding veils were traditionally red.
Greek ones were orange.

Oh, and let’s not forget that a bride’s veil traditionally symbolized purity and modesty. But we’ve moved beyond these ideas, right? Women pick spouses for themselves, dowries aren’t usually exchanged in North America anymore, and we can pretty safely assume that the soon-to-be-spouse has seen the bride before the day of the wedding.

But even if that’s all true, and the wedding veil has little or nothing to do with its roots in “barbaric cultural practices,” isn’t it time we did away with them? As the enlightened and progressive society we are, how can we not all be offended at the site of a woman, on what should be one of the happiest days of her life, expected (read: pressured) to don an item of dress that is undeniably rooted in such anti-woman practices? How can we condone this ongoing barbarism? If we no longer need a dowry or a matchmaker or anyone’s permission to marry the love of our life, why do we still need this mysoginistic slave cloth repressing us?

Where’s the movement to remove Today’s Brides and Bride Guides from the shelves of our stores? Why does no one demand bridal boutiques stop carrying the offensive items? veil5

Where is the government sponsored hotline for people to report this barbaric cultural practice? Is your neighbour’s daughter getting married? Do you suspect her parents are pressuring her to wear a veil? Sure, she may say it’s what she wants, but how can she know what she really wants when her whole life she’s grown up dressing up her dolls in wedding veils? She’s never known another way?

In two weeks (edit: October 2015), we’re having a federal election here in Canada. The Conservative Party, which currently holds power, has been slipping in the polls. That is, they were until they breathed new life into the debate on whether or not women “should be allowed” to wear niqabs during citizenship ceremonies. See, this question was already settled. More than once, actually. The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of a woman’s right to choose. (Yeah, I just did that) In Canada, you can’t arbitrarily ban religious or cultural practices just because you don’t like them or it makes you uncomfortable. It’s in the Charter. If you can prove that the niqab is in some way inciting hatred or violence against an identifiable group (i.e. women) or that the practice (in and of itself) causes harm, then you’ve got some game. If not, then it falls into the same category as Scots eating haggis though that may gross the heck out of you (especially if you’re vegetarian), and northern men wearing too much plaid and large ear flaps.

But this hasn’t stopped the fear mongering in this election.

Only, when you start pulling at the strings the whole thing quickly unravels. There is no way that allowing a woman to wear a niqab while she swears an oath (AFTER having being unproblematically identified to ensure her identity is correct – somehow that keeps getting skipped over in the debate) in any way reduces her effectiveness at that task, or threatens the heart of Canadian democracy. People just don’t like it. Because it makes them uncomfortable.superthumb

For those who may not know, scholars from Hoodfar to Ahmed to McDonough have found the same thing I have: that these women veil because they want to be judged for WHO they are, what their ideas are, rather than on how they look. It also acts as an identification marker communicating to the world that they are Muslim and proud of their faith.

Did my little rant against the wedding veil sound silly? Trumpeted up? Grasping at straws really to create a bogeyman that doesn’t exist?

Yeah. That’s how the niqab debate sounds to women who wear it.

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