Re-casting the veil: Situated meanings of covering

Abstract

This commentary offers a socio-cultural anthropological critical overview of studies of covering, popularly called “veiling” and “the veil” as practiced predominantly (though not exclusively) by some (though not all) Muslim women. The goal is to review studies that enhance understanding of this practice by detaching it from ethnocentric and culture-bound images of gender and religion—especially women and Islam—pervasive in some media portrayals and implied in some political policies in the West, for example, France. Drawing on these works, this commentary will also discuss the essay on this topic by Wagner, Sen, Permanadeli, and Howarth, outlining the contributions, issues raised, and areas of further inquiry suggested by these authors’ and others’ research on the veil in relation to Muslim women’s identity in contexts of religion and symbolism, aesthetics, political pressures and resistance to stereotyping.