Leila Ahmed
In A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America, Leila Ahmed explores the evolution of veiling beginning with Cairo in the 1940s and culminating in the 21st Century. She grounds her research on the influence of historical and political movements in Egypt, the permutations of various Islamic groups, and the role of Saudi Arabia in spreading Wahhabism in the United States and Europe.
Veiling has always been embroiled with political movements in one way or another. During the 1940s and 1950s, while Cairo was under the influence of Western colonialism, veiling was deemed a relic of the “backwardness” of the Arab world, a symbol of the culture’s misogynistic treatment of women. Accordingly, educated middle-class women removed the veil and entered the work force and institutions of higher education in increasing numbers.
Since then, veiling has experienced a resurgence. Ahmed conducts interviews with both veiled and unveiled women to chart the changing attitudes toward veiling. She learns why they chose to veil or why they chose to remove their veils. Their reasons are diverse but, surprisingly, their choice was not indicative of their commitment or lack of commitment to Islam. Some women did not veil because they were convinced the religion doesn’t require it. Other pursued the opposite trajectory, arguing their choice of clothing symbolizes pride in their identity. But in all cases, their belief in Islam as a religion of political activism advocating for social equity, including gender equity, is unwavering.
Ahmed claims the new generation of American Muslims do not see a contradiction between being American and being a Muslim. In fact, the opposite is true. They argue Islam promotes the same ideals espoused in America and are vocal in their support for minorities and in their demands for social justice. They challenge traditional readings of the role of women in Islam, insisting Islam does not advocate the subordination of women since it is a religion of social justice and equity. As Ahmed says:
It is not, by and large, secular American Muslims nor American Muslims for whom religion is a private matter but rather the children of Islamists who are notably present in and at the forefront of the activist American and American Muslim struggles of our times: be it against torture, erosions of civil rights, racial profiling, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other foreign policy issues, and also in the cause of women’s rights and gay rights in relation to Islam.
At the conclusion of her study, Ahmed admits her research has caused her to experience a change in attitude about the veil.
Following out this story and focusing in particular in the last chapters on American Muslim women’s activism in relation to gender and women’s rights has brought me to the astonishing conclusion that it is after all Islamists and the children of Islamists—the very people whose presence in this country had originally alarmed me—who were now in the vanguard of those who were most fully and rapidly assimilating into the distinctively American tradition of activism in pursuit of justice and who now essentially made up the vanguard of those who are struggling for women’s rights in Islam.
Ahmed includes extensive notes, bibliography, and index in her insightful study of the veil’s resurgence and the growing activism of Muslim American women. The work is highly recommended for any who seek an understanding of women’s changing role in Islam.