It's interesting to say the least how much controversy a piece of clothing can cause. It's interesting how words to describe a piece of clothing can take on a universal symbolic meaning. It's interesting how this symbol can be used to help warrant an unnecessary war in Afghanistan. This is exactly what the Islamic veil has done.
It's commonly understood that the West sees the veil as a universal symbol of oppression. However, Brigitte Johnson wants to take this further. In this article, she "explores the ways in which dominant Western rhetoric of veiled Muslim women subject these women to a kind of double oppression—by constructing them as universal victims of “barbaric” Islamic patriarchy, and by implicitly erasing their agency and appropriating their actions and voices—and how this kind of Western discourse can be manipulated to reinforce Western hegemonies."
Western language towards the veil ignores the historical background of why it is worn. And thus, Western language has consistently constructed veiling practices as ahistorical, monolithic, and homogenous—a set of unchanging, one-dimensional religious practices that illustrate the oppressiveness of Islamic society. The consequence of this type of language is grave and occurring right now. This discourse shapes Western identity just as much as it shapes Islamic identity. The West sees itself as superior, better, higher. The veil becomes a reassuring confirmation of the East's inferiority.
This misrepresentation through language can direct action. During America's 2002 military intervention in Afghanistan, universalized images of Afghani women burqas spread rapidly. Seeing it as a symbol of oppression, the media helped "dehistoricize the US invasion of Afghanistan by erasing its 20-year track record of financing and equipping mujahideen rebels and later the Taliban itself, and in which the trope of the oppressed, veiled Muslim woman was used explicitly as justification for the war."
The manner in which the media talked about the veil persuaded its viewers to see the intervention in a new light. We, America, would become saviors for those oppressed.
The media constructed Afghani women as victims in need of saving by the US, while it refrained from analyzing how the US had been complicit with the Taliban’s abuses, which US officials had had full knowledge of when they were funding the mujahideen and later the Taliban.
It's interesting how misunderstanding the meaning of an object can cause us to act. Sometimes, we need to be the ones to shed our veil of ignorance.
