Women and the veil in Morocco

During our orientation, one of our instructors gave a talk about the history of the veil and the political implications that went with it, and what she had to say was actually very interesting and made me think of the veil in a new way.

She started by telling the story of her grandmother, who could count the number of times she left the house in her life on both hands, and who wore the full veil each of those times she left her house.
She was very proud of this, and said that she was proud to have a husband who was kind enough to never make her leave the house. The grandmother explained to her that from where she was from, in rural Morocco in the early 1900s, women were used sort of as pack mules, and that it was common practice for a man to go to his neighbor’s house and ask to borrow the neighbor’s wife to help carry something heavy into town. So, it was a sort of a symbol of prestige for a woman to wear the veil and to have the freedom to stay inside her house.

Much later, around the 1970s, our instructor told us that hardly any women wore veil or even a headscarf, and that at that time the literacy rate for women was very low. There was also a lot of sexism regarding religious practice, ie. women were not encouraged to go to the mosque to pray, but instead were encouraged to pray at home, and they were not encouraged to read the Koran. In the 1980s there was a feminist movement where more women were being educated, and wearing the head scarf became a women’s movement as a symbol of being able to read the Koran and interpret it for themselves without having men interpret it for them. Many women began to wear the headscarf and go to the mosque to pray as sort of a symbol of defiance against men who had told them that it was not necessary to do so before.

So, that is the history of the veil and the headscarf, and it’s a bit more complicated today. Most middle aged and older women wear the headscarf, and most younger women do not. People wear it for a wide variety of reasons, too – some for religious piety, some because they like the way it looks, some for traditional reasons, some because their families want them to, some because of just general societal pressure. Our instructor does not wear the headscarf, and she says she gets questions all the time from other women about why she doesn’t wear it. So there is definitely some community judgment against middle aged women who don’t wear it. Most younger and unmarried girls don’t wear it though, and there’s no pressure for them to.

I must say, just as a personal observation, it was very shocking to see women wearing the full veil. Very few women wear the full veil here (only showing a slit for your eyes). I did sort of a double take at one woman in head to toe black robes with black gloves. My first impression of her was that she was sort of faceless. I had an interesting conversation with one girl in my program about it – she commented that the face is such an important part of communication and expression, and that by covering up your avenues of expression, you’re covering up your humanity. It was eerie, almost, to see this woman walking around with no face. I’ve gotten more used to it, though, and it’s not as shocking anymore. One interesting thing I saw was a woman wearing the full veil with lots of eye makeup. I did not know what to make of this at all. It feels contradictory to try to cover up your whole body and face, but then wear lots of eye makeup. Maybe her family makes her wear the veil and that’s her way of feeling attractive? I don’t know. Make of that what you will.

The instructor closed the session by repeating what one woman who wore the full veil once told her. The woman said that she felt the most free she ever had when she started wearing the full veil. Now, after seeing the way Moroccan men treat women in the streets, I can actually understand this sentiment.  Moroccan men make you feel very objectified by staring at you and making comments all the time, with no shame at all, and I can understand why this woman would feel free walking in the streets not being overly scrutinized and bothered by men. It is sad, though, that some women here go to those lengths to feel comfortable and free walking around in the streets. I think that shows the problems with what is acceptable for men more than anything.

Anyways, all in all I think my conceptions of the veil have definitely changed, or at least I can kind of commiserate with it a little more. It doesn’t seem quite so foreign to me anymore. I think people in the US have sort of a phobia with all things foreign, and the ideas of the veil and Islam seem very foreign to people in the US. It is important to note that, at least in Morocco, wearing the headscarf is a personal choice for women (with a little bit of societal pressure). It’s not encouraged by the government at all.