Modesty

path_of_one said:
Almost all of the Muslim women I have spoken to in the U.S. who choose to wear hijab have said they do so for religious reasons. These may be interpretive reasons (i.e., that hijab is not the only proper interpretation of the Quran verses on modesty, but rather it is a culturally acceptable and readily available way to physically interpret those verses).
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I don't know if there is a conscious connection between practice and perceived doctrine or scripture. It's unclear whether there is any religious reflection at all in predominantly Muslim countries where certain dress is merely a custom, so that there is actually very little thought even given to it. I would be reluctant to generalize from a sample of expatriates because their circumstances would be totally different from an indigenous environment.

There have been numerous studies on dress code with samples of immigrants. A dominant theme is that wearing "traditional" clothes is a way that immigrant Muslim women choose to distinguish themselves from mainstream Western society and this is positively reinforcing in a way that is actually incidental to religious concepts.

Basically, the dress practice is an opportunity to exercise choice and a way to crystalize personal identity. The Muslim identity aspect might be more obvious for someone who considers themselves religious. But even then it's ambiguous. It's totally possible that women start to see themselves as being more religious as a kind of side effect of wearing clothes that are symbolic of Islamic identity. That's different from them choosing to wear certain clothes they as consistent with a certain religious identity. It could work both ways, of course.

At any rate, choice of clothes can be a way of organizing one's relationship to the world. This make sense for immigrant Muslim women since the thought of just blending in would likely be consciously considered by someone who chooses not to dress like everyone else. In the words of one self-identified Muslim woman, it is a way to demonstrate "having the courage to stand out from the crowd." It has the quality of being an almost defiant way to define one's personal identity by making a point of not living for other people's approval - i.e., disengaging from "other people’s opinion and wishing them to like you and accept you. It’s a great feeling, not allowing other people to change your mood or influence your decisions."

Similarly, another survey respondent mentioned "liking the fact that i was doing what i wanted to do" regardless of social perceptions.
“Hijab Survey” – Help unveiling the mystery The Hijablog

These kinds of concerns may not come up in indigenous samples at all.

It should be noted that the religious meaning that Hijab has for Muslim women in Western countries may be quite different from Western stereotypes. When the choice of dress has involved reflection and conscious choice, it seems to help reinforce a sense of personal powerr in terms of the ability to exercise autonomy. It can also be socially rewarding their reference group. These "fringe benefits" for choice of dress are extrinsic to any religious considerations.

Suffice it to say that people are complicated and that they have complex reasons for doing what they do. Sadly, I am very interested in people's attitudes and motivations and predictably I get caught up in these kinds of discussions every time. :mad::mad::mad: :p
 
I get what you're saying, Netti, and have read various anthropological discussions saying the same thing. However, I think it is problematic to segregate religious life from other aspects of identity, perhaps particularly for some Muslims, as one's religion is supposed to be an act of submission in all aspects of life. I suppose it whether one is looking at it from an etic or emic perspective. For example, the determination to "be me" as a reason to wear hijab, in opposition to assimilation... I am not so sure that this is not religious. If one sees the self as first a Muslim, in submission to God alone, and in seeing that assimilation would cause one to be less concerned about God and more concerned about others' opinions, then the determination to "be myself" and defy such assimilation could be a religious act. Overall, in my studies of identity, I find that people have a sort of blurring of identities... so frequently they cannot separate one aspect of themselves from another, and if this is the case I am not sure that artificially separating them for theory is useful or accurate.

I was primarily discussing the difficulties of modesty being variously culturally conceived, and how when one version of modesty is embedded in a religious viewpoint, it can be difficult to make sense of in a different cultural context than the original.

I would not doubt that where hijab is more culturally prevalent, less thought may go into its meaning for each individual woman. Yet, then there is the aspect of niqab, which still seems to be self-consciously chosen and to have meaning for some women. I'm thinking, in part, of the recent post MuslimWoman made on her new blog, which got me thinking.

All of that still begs the question, at least for the U.S., where any sort of head-covering/"traditional" religious garb stands out on women and is self-consciously worn.
 
path_of_one said:
I get what you're saying, Netti, and have read various anthropological discussions saying the same thing. However, I think it is problematic to segregate religious life from other aspects of identity, perhaps particularly for some Muslims, as one's religion is supposed to be an act of submission in all aspects of life. I suppose it whether one is looking at it from an etic or emic perspective. For example, the determination to "be me" as a reason to wear hijab, in opposition to assimilation... I am not so sure that this is not religious.
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It would probably depend on how the person defines religion. Some people mean morals or social customs or how they want to represent their values when they talk about "religion."
 
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