Alexa Rahman ’08 believes that of all the differences between American Muslim women and Muslim women abroad, the greatest is a simple article of clothing – the headscarf. After a summer of research, Rahman wrote a paper studying Muslim-American women and the headscarf. Last Monday, Rahman, the first of four Brace Center Student Fellows, presented her findings. Though many Muslim females are moving away from wearing headscarves in an effort to distance themselves from traditions sometimes considered archaic, Rahman discovered a somewhat paradoxical phenomenon. Accompanying the “disappearing veil” is the “reappearing veil”: many Muslim-American girls are beginning to wear veils in an effort to connect more deeply with their roots and show pride for their background. Many Muslim-American girls wear veils even if their parents do not, said Rahman, a practicing Muslim. This, she said, is a “burgeoning group that will hopefully gain more prevalence in the coming years.” One line in the Koran is the source of much debate. Some believe that it requires women to cover themselves almost completely. Others think that it says wearing a veil is a choice and not a requirement. Rahman detailed ways in which Muslims in America and abroad are exercising this freedom of choice. Many Muslim-Americans who wear headscarves consider it a personal decision and not a religious obligation. They are comfortable displaying their religion without worrying about being judged. Islamic culture is not static. Rahman’s research also uncovered ways in which Islamic culture is matching the demands of modernity. The fashion industry has recently begun marketing the “burqini,” a swimsuit that covers the body and enables modesty but is light enough to allow swimming. The Muslim version of the Barbie, Fulla, also reflects Islamic values. The doll wears a headscarf. Rahman became interested in the subject due to her own background. “The first thing I thinks about and the first thing everyone talks about is the scarf,” she said. “But ‘Muslim women in the U.S.’ is an untouched topic. I wanted to do a project on the subject to get people thinking about us, and I found some hard statistics.” She specifically looked at statistics on America and Western Europe. She found that only 47 percent of the Muslims in America identify themselves as being primarily “Muslim” before “American.” This figure is much lower than that of western European countries. In England, for example, 81 percent of Muslims describe themselves by their religion before identifying themselves as “British.” This disparity, according to Rahman, is most likely a reflection of America’s pluralism. More residents feel comfortable affiliating themselves with a larger community while still maintaining their individual identities than in other countries, where minorities stand out. There has been some tumult in France about banning headscarves in public schools. Rahman said that this effort, instead of achieving its intention and causing Muslim women to look more ‘French,’ has just increased worry among Muslim women. Though wearing a hijab, another form of covering, can make a girl stand out in a crowd of her peers, knowing that she is not allowed to wear this emblem of her culture probably places a similar burden of self-doubt on the girl’s shoulders, Rahman found. The confidence of 53 percent of America’s Muslim population is also probably a side effect of the fact that, on average, Muslims in the United States are more prosperous than those in Western European countries. Being in a generally higher socio-economic class, Muslim-American women are in a better place to consider the issue of the veil than Muslim women in other countries. “I’m pleased to see that the Muslim population in this country is doing so well. Of American Muslims, only 22 percent are really worried that Muslim women wearing the veil might be discriminated against because the scarf identifies them as Islamic adherents,” said Rahman. Still, Rahman found room for American improvement, describing Canada as being more progressive than America. Rahman concluded that the “mystery of the disappearing veil” is probably due to multiple reasons: a general trend toward “Americanization,” fear on the parts of some Muslim women and the declining number of women who view the veil as a necessary article.
