Different Perspectives and Meaning of Veiling

After reading this article, it made me realize that I was overall very limited to the amount of information I knew about veiling in Islamic cultures. Before reading this article my perspective of the veiling was due to religion and culture purposes. I knew before that women tend to cover up outside of the household because their body could not be revealed to others-especially if they are married. After reading this article the author went in dept about the fact that the veiling had more of a symbolic overall meaning for a women. It makes them feel that they belong to a certain group. However she also embraces the term-freedom. She embraces on the term freedom and the overall meaning. After reading the whole article it made me realize and connect to the reality show on Bravo- Shahs of Sunset. The overall show is about a group of friends who are Persian that juggle their social life with new and old traditions. In the clip below Asa talks about how women should have the choice to either veil or unveil, which connects to freedom that women. The author also elaborates on the freedom that these women have. Here is the small clip of the show....Asa's Veiled Performance Art

The veil

After reading this passage, it gives me a lot of information about the standard beauty that people make up with. There are one inportant fact that who makes up the standard of beauty, i think is the film of Hollywood. Their point of view change a lot through out the time. First, they think blonde with blue eyes is a standard of beauty. For now, they can make anyone to be pretty. They photoshop every secen which can make most ugliest person to become the most beautiful person.

eastern veiling western freedom

After reading this article, I really thought about how people in our country thinks about the veiling and women that practice this. I remember the first time seeing a friend of mine, having her hair, her entire body covered with a black cloth, at that time i still did not know why she did this. But later on i learned that it is part of a culture. This article helps explain a lot. A lot of people in our country see it as a 'threat' and look at them like muslims are all bad people and only cover their face because if they do something wrong people can't see their faces. But maybe we should try to accept this culture. We have our own, a lot of young teens wear fewer and fewer clothes than the generation before us did, and they don't comment on any of this, then why should we not accept it and see it as a beauty, too.

Eastern Veiling Western Freedom

One part of the passage that sparked my interest was the part that said the western feminists make the standard of beauty and westerners say that wearing a veil is not considered pretty, and since the eastern women wear the veils they are not considered beautiful. I think this subject has a lot to do with today's society in the United States, I feel like Hollywood makes up the rules on what is pretty and and what is accepted and everyone is supposed to follow that standard or they are not pretty. I see this daily people trying to copy movie stars all of the time and I think it is sad because we all need to be individuals because we are all special in our own ways and we need to embrace who we are. We also need to need to be more confident in ourselves and be able to stray away from the norm and really not worry what others think. Although the article is called Eastern Veiling Western Freedom I think that it should be Eastern Veiling Western Creating because the western civilization is making the standard that is to be followed.

How "The Veil" is Viewed

     After reading this article, I was able to enhance my limited perspective on veiling. I always saw it as a part of religion  and culture, but never thought much about the concept. Veiling by many has been seen as a form of oppression and domestic violence. Eastern veiling, Western freedom? talked about Westerners focusing on veiling as a form of assault from men to women when one of the first people to use veiling as a symbol were Egyptian university women. The meaning of veiling seems to have shifted over the years. I found interesting that the article states that European women are "more" virtuous because of their freedom, but they're also indecent because of it. It gives the example that men don't want to feel threaten by women and so deny them freedom to anything including education. I don't particularly agree with either of these statements because European women can have freedom and not be virtuous at all by not acting upon that freedom they hold. The fairness with the second statement is self explanatory. Women shouldn't be denied freedom simply because men feel threatened by it. A statement that was new to me was that which was on page 476. I've never heard of using the seclusion from the veil as a way to "avoid" men's attention as well as avoid unwanted attention of other women seen by them. It's an interesting perspective from women using this to their convenience. Overall, I enjoyed reading this article. It gave great insight on opposite views on veiling from a Western and Eastern view in topics relating to freedom, feminism, politics, power, religion, culture, oppression, and convenience.

'Eastern Veling, Western Freedom"

After reading the article "Eastern Veling, Western Freedom" I gained a unique perspective on understanding Middle Eastern Religions. Before reading this article I never really understood why women wore veils in  Middle East cultures. I always thought it was part of Religion but never understood why. I was always quick to judge woman who wore them because of the many stereotypes that are associated with them and how its not common in American culture. However now after reading this article I can now have a basic understanding to why they wear the vails and tis significance make an impact a girl life.

Another day

Not many Americans, like myself, are not educated or aware when it comes to other religions, especially Middle Eastern religions. After reading the article it has came to my attention that us Westerns do see veiling as a symbol to the Eastern women and are not aware that it could be voluntarily due to religion practice or the true meaning. My good friend I had met here in college is Syrian and actually came to the United States about 8 years ago. Out of the 4 years I have known her I have never seen her with a veil and I never had thought about it till now, why doesn't she wear one. Funny thing is when I asked her what she thought about veils, she said they were pretty and suddenly changed the subject. Maybe I'll ask her another day about this article and get her feedback.