Week 7- Agency, Gender, and Embodiment

            In the chapter, Agency, Gender and Embodiment by Saba Mahmood, Mahmood explains the definition of what it means to wear the veil. The veil is not only a sacred piece of clothing but it is also used as a particular guide on how to behave. With the veil comes with certain responsibility. Mahmood explains, “To practice al-haya means to be diffident, modest, and able to feel and enact shyness (Mahmood, p. 156). Therefore with the veil you also have to have the ability be reserved which makes it harder for women whose personality isn’t quite shy. One of the women that Mahmood studied said, “It’s just like the veil [hijab]. In the beginning when you wear it, you’re embarrassed and don’t want to wear it because people say that you look older and unattractive, that you wont get marries, and never find a husband. But you must wear the veil, first because it is God’s command, and then, with time, because your inside leans to feel shy without the veil, and if you take it off, your entire being feels uncomfortable about it” (Mahmood, p.157). Eventually women who wear the veil accept the terms and conditions that come with it.

            With recent events at the New York Fashion Week, modern clothing made a debut on the runway with all kinds of women wearing a veil (hijab). I understand that this is a great way to market veils to Muslim women and represent the Muslim community in women’s fashion. Diversity is what we need in all types of media and outlets. However what does that mean to non-Muslim women who see that veils as a piece of fashion? Non-Muslim models just wear the hijabs just on the runway and then they take it off after the show, when in fact Mahmood explains that its not really meant to be taken off whenever.  If western women see hijabs as just a fashionable scarf based on the runway does that degrade the sacredness of the veil?