Challenging Media Representations of the Veil

Abstract

The image of the Muslim woman’s veil in the popular western media is that it is a symbol of oppression and violence in Islam. The forced covering of women in postrevolutionary Iran, or lately, under the Taliban in Afghanistan seems to confirm this image of the veil. But this singular image of the ‘veil’ is not the whole story of covering. Since the late 1970s scores of Muslim women, from Arabia to Asia to the West, have been voluntarily covering. The re-covering movement challenges the reductive image of the veil as a symbol of Muslim women’s oppression. Due to the ubiquitous image of the veil as a symbol of oppression or violence, Muslim women living in the West who cover often suffer discrimination, harassment, even assault. Hence, it is important to understand the multiple meanings of the veil, and to challenge the media to improve their representation of its meanings.