University of California Press Blog

The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics

Jennifer Heath is the author of eight books, an activist, curator and editor of The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics (UC Press, May 2008). In her book and the blog below, Jennifer explores the meaning and mystery of veils worn by women and men across the globe. You can also check out the book's website here.

Please Note:  Embedded at the end of the blog is a silent, loop video called AmbiVEILant by Tania Kamal-Eldin  

By Jennifer Heath

In Turkey and France, it is outlawed. In Iran and Saudi Arabia, it is mandated.

The veil is deeply polarizing, a locus for the struggle between Islam and the West and between contemporary and traditional interpretations of Islam.

Yet veiling – of women, of men, and of sacred places and objects – has existed in countless cultures and religions for centuries. Perhaps it began when humans watched eclipses and observed the periodic shedding of animals’ outer bodily layer (feathers, skin, fur or horn, even pupas). Veils and veiling are found in the oldest myths, in folklore and fairytale and in the arts. The veil itself is mystery, even as it is the shroud that guards the mystery. As much as the veil is fabric or a garment, it is also a concept. Veils are the ethers beyond consciousness, the hidden hundredth name of god, the final passage into death, even the biblical apocalypse – the lifting of god’s veil to signal the “end times.”

I grew up in heavily Roman Catholic and later in Muslim countries, where veiling was common. In those days – as Egyptian feminist Huda Shaarawi observed in an earlier decade – a rural Italian or Greek woman looked not much different from, say, a rural Egyptian woman. How and why have we politicized customs so ancient their origins and meanings cannot necessarily be traced and certainly can’t be “blamed” on any group or event? When I say “we,” I do indeed mean all of us, East and West. We all collude in turning women’s bodies into battlegrounds – nowadays signified by the veil.

For The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics, I assembled twenty writers and scholars – Kecia Ali, Michelle Auerbach, Sarah C. Bell, Barbara Goldman Carrel, Eve Grubin, Roxanne Kamayani Gupta, Jana M. Hawley, Jasbir Jain, Mohja Kahf, Desiree Koslin, Laurene Lafontain, Shireen Malik, Maliha Masood, Marjane Satrapi, Aisha Shaheed, Rita Stephan, Pamela K. Taylor, Ashraf Zahedi, Dinah Zeiger and Sherifa Zuhur – to engage received wisdom about the veil, to explore its multiple histories and layered sacred, sensual, and socio-political truths in memory- and research-based chapters that speak to the veil throughout human imagination. These marvelous contributors, who represent a wide range of societies, religions, ages, location, races, and accomplishments, examine the veil in its myriad guises; they elucidate, criticize, and/or praise the practice.

The overriding concern expressed in these chapters is the exploitation of the veil for political agendas. Across time, veiling and unveiling have been forced upon women. Demonization seems especially virulent today with respect to the Muslim veil, perceived by the West as a challenge to modernity and secular enlightenment and even as a terrorist threat, while among some Muslims, it has become a symbol of solidarity and resistance.

But today’s ideological battles are merely subterfuge, distraction hindering feminist progress and blinding us to the increasing feminization of poverty. Conflicts over covering actually veil the realities we must face -- and fix -- of women’s disadvantages, which feed a destructive spiral of impoverishment, population growth, and environmental degradation worldwide.

Meanwhile, veiling is a woman’s – or a man’s – right to choose.

AmbiVEILant by Tania Kamal-Eldin

Audio Interview with Kasra Naji, author of Ahmadinejad

Kasra Naji, author of Ahmadinejad: The Secret History of Iran's Radical Leader (UC Press, February 2008), was recently interviewed by Fresh Air at WHYY/NPR. In the interview, Naji talks about the controversial leader and his rise to power. You can find his interview on the NPR website.

The Atlas of Religion on NYLA's Best of Reference List

We are happy to announce that the New York Library Association has named The Atlas of Religion to its Best of Reference list for 2008. A panel of librarians compiles the list each year, selecting the top print and electronic library resources. Atlas authors Joanne O'Brien and Martin Palmer explore the intricate origins, beliefs, and challenges of the most popular religions across the globe, providing a color-coded, all-inclusive map of the interconnections between these complex spiritual, political, economic, and cultural systems.

Click here to see the entire 2008 Best of Reference list.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Honored by UC Press, Stanford

Some thirty-nine years after his tragic death, Martin Luther King, Jr. remains a central force in the American battle for equality and peace. This Monday, the nation paused to celebrate his birthday. But the celebration doesn’t end with a day off from work.

The University of California Press and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University are in their fifteenth year of collaborative celebration through the publication of King’s Papers. Volume VI of the series, subtitled Advocate of the Social Gospel, gathers the preacher and peacemaker’s sermons and ecclesiastical notes, unveiling the scrawled beginnings of the preacher’s renowned orations.

On Thursday, January 18th, the co-editors of the book will introduce the volume at a celebration on the Stanford campus with a talk on King’s current relevance as a religious leader. All are welcome to attend.

Holiday Shopping with UC Press

It’s that time of year again: chestnuts are roasting, sleigh bells are ringing, and yes, UC Press books are selling. Have you ever thought of giving a UC Press book as a gift? Well, in case you haven’t purchased your presents yet, then let us suggest a few.

For the history buff in us all, why not give our highly regarded book, Historical Atlas of the United States? This fascinating and beautiful book showcases more than five hundred historical maps, uniquely telling America’s story from a geographical perspective.

Like wine? No amateur vintner can resist
The Way to Make Wine: How to Craft Superb Table Wines at Home. This easy-to-read manual was written by Sheridan Warrick, a vintner and science editor with over twenty-five years’ experience. Another popular wine book is the Wine Atlas of Australia, a comprehensive guide to the increasingly popular wine-grape-growing regions of Australia.

Finally, are you feeling contemplative this holiday season? Then perhaps you need to pick up Arthur J. Magida’s
Opening the Doors of Wonder. This superb book explores religious rites of passage.

For more holiday gift ideas from UC Press click here.

Magida Expounds on Rites of Passage

As part of our ongoing effort to help readers get to know our authors a little better, we asked Arthur J. Magida to discuss some of the ideas presented in his book, Opening the Doors of Wonder: Reflections on Religious Rites of Passage.

Magida: Rites of passage may contain some of the most pivotal moments in our lives, even if they seem to have little effect on us at the moment. They provide a psychic charge, a spiritual direction, a communal identification, which is, ultimately, hard to shake and hard to deny. Without bar and bat mitzvahs, baptisms, and confirmations, Zen Buddhist jukais, Hindu sacred thread ceremonies, and Muslim shahadas, life might be a blur—a shapeless, endless stream of time and energy. These ceremonies provide the lulls—the time out, if you will—to consider where we're going, and why; and where we've come from, and why; and what the rhythm of life is, and why. As the hurdy-gurdy of life speeds up in our ever more "modern" age, it's a relief to be thrown back—at least momentarily—on a steadier rock where time slows down to a crawl, and we are almost palpably certain that we are not alone. The brilliance of these ceremonies is how well they connect us to an almost infinite DNA of time and space. They are our antennae outward, inward, and God-ward. These rituals are an atlas of our soul. They can introduce us to what Martin Buber called a “Presence,” and they can introduce us to our self, although there are no certainties that either of these introductions will occur. Rather, they are a testimony to our possibilities, to seeking William Blake's most shining, most rudimentary of proclamations: "Everything that lives is holy."

Opening the Doors of Wonder: Reflections on Religious Rites of Passage is a collection of interviews with celebrities, journalists, and artists on the importance of religious rites of passage ceremonies in their lives. Included are interviews with Deepak Chopra, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Julia Sweeny, Huston Smith, among others.

Magida is a columnist/contributing editor for the online religion magazine Beliefnet.com, a contributing correspondent for PBS's Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, senior editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, and a speechwriter for Ralph Nader.