Wearing Identity in the Time of Globalism
Despite much research and a considerable number of publications indicating the complexities of the Muslim veil and its versatility, Western public discourse and state interventions that have aimed to ban the veil continue to associate veiling largely with its colonial representation as a tool of oppression and subordination. The embedded subtext is that women’s bodily visibility in « modern », Western fashions is a necessary step to emancipate women from the bonds of patriarchy and to declare their agency. In a not unsimilar manner, political Islamists, regardless of whether they occupy state power or are non-state actors, insist that the veil is a major tool to preserve Muslim culture and identity, and by its very presence, represents an anti-cultural imperialism. Given that state intervention in both Muslim and Western contexts have re-opened the discussion on Muslim women’s dressed bodies, this article, through a review of existing research publications and discourses, aims to delve into two critical issues : 1) the Western public perception of equating veiling with oppression, which ignores, and subsequently denies, the agency of Muslim women ; and 2) the role that clothing, as a political institution, plays in Muslim and non-Muslim nationalistic contexts to include or exclude members from its civic body. Through the examination of some developments of alternative fashions from across Iran, Turkey, Europe and North America, this paper outlines the different ways that women have utilized and refashioned the veil and Muslim clothing styles to gain and expand their sphere of power while resisting and subverting patriarchal institutions within Muslim and secular spaces. Indeed, through fashion and dress, women are expanding their public role while constructing new forms of femininities. In doing this, they are asserting their agency while simultaneously expanding their options. This paper suggests that the preoccupation with the regulation of Muslim women’s clothing and dress codes in both Muslim and secular contexts stem from a desire to depict a unified, rather than pluralistic democracy and national identity, which is often translated into exclusionary practices.