Monday Feb. 09 HW

             Veiling amongst the Muslim community is a very common practice around the nation and the world today. However, is can also be said that there are many misinterpretations, stereotypes, and wrongs about what one may perceive as a bystander looking from the outside in. The same can be said from the Muslin women’s sides as both Haydar and Abu-Lughod point out in their articles “Veiled Intentions: Don’t Judge a Muslim Girl by Her Covering” and “The Muslim Woman: The Power of Images and the Danger of Pity”, respectively. Maysan Haydar, a young woman from the Midwestern United States, is a respected copy editor for the magazine “In these Times” based in Chicago, Illinois. In her article she writes in a casual way to speak to readers in a sort of conversation, mainly directing her points at an all female audience. Haydar’s main argument regarding the Muslim veiling tradition is blatantly the title of her article as well. The veil is not what you see in cartoons, or news, or whatever other assumption one may have; it has hidden meaning and that meaning varies upon the wearer. The heart of veiling is personal freedom; that is of course according to Haydar. Then there is Lila Abu-Lughod; an Anthropology as well as a Women’s and Gender Studies professor at Columbia University of New York City who follows the same general subject but just sheds a different light onto the situation than Haydar does. This article is more of a scholarly piece aimed to speak to feminists everywhere in the veiling debate. Abu-Lughod argues that images of Middle Eastern women have been problematic simply because they are inaccurate and plain wrong. The veil must be “redefined”, to reflect what the veil truly represents to a Muslim woman, and should not be mistaken for what it is not. In order to better understand these articles, I will discuss the analyzation I have done of them and the claims that are provided in each.

            The first to be discussed will be the article, “Veiled Intentions: Don’t Judge a Muslim Girl by her Covering” by Maysan Haydar. As briefly addressed in the introductory of this paper Haydar’s main argument is that the veil is a positive, affirming choice for many Muslim women because it can reduce objectification, promote authentic relationships between men and women, and foster some important kinds of freedom. She claims that the veil can help women avoid “damaging” experiences and express values such as modesty, yet she also makes a controversial claim that specifically people in the US hold mistaken assumptions regarding the veil and that Americans also possess “out of line” cultural values. In order to elaborate on her claims Haydar utilized a lot of personal anecdotes and experiences of her own life. In these efforts it was clear that she tried to connect with the audience on a level where we are all familiar, emotionally; otherwise known as pathos. This is especially relevant when she talks about her first claim, she states, “