Figure 1.--Here we see the inside of an Arab tent. We are not sure just where, but the photograph was taken in 1965. Notice the mask that the boy's mother wears. The photographer was Paul K. Kopper. Wevknow nothing about him.

The Koran does not mention a veil or mask covering a woman's face face. This tradition was introduced in many places, without Koranic authority. Some think that originally the veil was imposed to destinguish free from slave women; only later it became a sign of modesty. The history of the veil is a long one. It was not worn in what is now the Arab world and Iran until the Arab outburtst from the Arabian Peninsula (8th century). Various forms of the veil became common as Islam was spread to The Middle East, North Africa, and central Asia. The justification was that it imposed modesty and helped to regulte the relations between the genders in public. Most of the restrictions imposed by Islam, such as the veil, affected women to a far greater extent than men. Of course a less covering veil was worn in medieval Christian Europe as well, but only for nobel women. Peasant women never were veiled. In the Islamic Mideast and North Africa, not only was much more covering, but it congtinued into the modern world. The movement for women to 'un-veil' did not begin until the later phase of the colonial era. Arabs often refer to the colonial era as the 19th century when European countries established various degrees of colonial control. Actually the colonial era began with the Ottomans conquered most Arab countrie (16th century). The Arabs were also Muslims abd did not interfere with local customs like the veil. The Europeans colonial experience was different. Here there were two impacts. Arab women began to see uncovered European women. Also European administrators fostered policies that promoted modern attituides toward women. Developments in Egypt were particularly important. Here ironically the movement to unveil became seen as a modernizing anti-British movement at the same time that British administrator Evelyn Baring (1883-1907), who opposed women's sufferage in Britain, saw unveiling as a civilizing reform. One author writes that unveiling became a symbol of longings within Egypt for a less oppressive society, a national identity, and shaking off colonial control. [Ahmed] Notably an Egyptian sculptor advocating independence fro Britain created a sculpture--The Awakening of Egypt, It depicted a young peasant woman throwing off her veil. The issue of the veil has emerged in recent years as head covering since the 1970s has been promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, arguably the most modern of the Arab states. It reached the West when Mulim women in Europe began wearing veils and covering their heads. This led to the French Government banning the niqab, the full face veil (2011).

Created: 10:22 AM 11/15/2017
Last updated: 10:22 AM 11/15/2017