The Veil in Kuwait: An Empirical Study

Manuscript! (This is not the final book text) The Veil in Kuwait: An Empirical Study Thorsten Botz-Bornstein* and Noreen Abdullah-Khan Abstract In April 2013 we conducted a survey on Islamic veiling at the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) in Kuwait. The purpose of the survey was to view the veil through the prism of recent international developments that have transformed veiling, at least partially, into a fashion phenomenon. It became obvious that most veiled students at GUST recognize that, in religious terms, hijab and fashion are incompatible. However, they do not “solve” the contradiction by transforming the hijab into a merely cultural item, thus fusing traditional veiling and contemporary fashion in order to create a new ethos of “veiling fashion.” Nor do they solve the contradiction by stating that the hijab has been forced upon them and that they are trying to soften its effects by combining it with modern influences. Instead, they separate the hijab as a religious phenomenon conceptually from the cultural phenomenon called fashion. By doing so, they hope to establish a moral justification of their engagement in fashion. * We thank Ahmed Al Saber from the Gulf University for Science and Technology for his help with the statistics. Contents 1. Introduction 1.1. Significance of the Study 1.2. Previous Research 1.3. Kuwaiti Society 1.4. Gulf University for Science and Technology 1.5. Methodology 2. The Survey 2.1 Survey Measures 2.2. Family Background 2.3. Limitations 2.3.1. General Context and Difficulties of the Survey 2.3.2. The “East-West” Problem 2.4. Preliminary Conclusion 3. Results and Discussions 3.1. The Central Question: Why do you Veil? 3.1.1. First Findings: Answers of ‘Covered Girls’ 3.1.2. Second Findings: Answers of ‘Uncovered Girls’ 3.1.3. Third Findings: Answers of ‘Male Students’ 3.2. The “Protect Women from Men” Argument 3.3. The Feminist Argument 3.4. Preliminary Conclusion 3.5. Religion as a Factor 3.5.1. Praying Attitudes 3.5.2. Knowledge of the Scriptures 3.5.3. The Qur’anic Passages 3.6. Social Interactions and Mutual Perceptions 3.6.1. Culture and Religion 3.6.2. Perception and Self-Perception 3.6.3. Respect and Virtue 3.6.4. Different Perceptions of “Male Attention” 3.6.5. Combining the Hijab with Western Clothes and “Veiling Fashion” 3.6.6. Does the Hijab Enhance the Woman’s Beauty? 3.6.7. Preliminary Conclusion: Unequal Perceptions and the Question of Tolerance 4. The Guilt/Shame Paradigm 4.1. Modesty and Fitna 4.2. Shame and Guilt in Islamic Culture 5. Conclusion 5.1. The Paradox of Veiling Fashion 5.2. Overall Evaluation of Responses Bibliography Appendix: The Questionnaires 2 1. Introduction 1.1. Significance of the Study In April 2013 we conducted a survey on Islamic veiling at the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) in Kuwait. The purpose of the survey was to establish reasons for veiling within the complex society of Kuwait and, in particular, to view the veil through the prism of recent international developments that have transformed veiling, at least partially, into a fashion phenomenon. International research has shown that in many Muslim and non-Muslim countries the veil is no longer necessarily a traditional item but is influenced by fashion and other contemporary phenomena. Such research has been undertaken since the late 1990s in several countries such as Egypt, Iran, the USA, the Netherlands, France, and Turkey (Gökariksel and Anna Secor 2012; Hoodfar, Homa. 2001; Karim 2006; Killian 2003; Laborde 2006; MacLeod 1993; Mir-Hosseini 2007; Nieukerk 2008; Sandikci and Ger 2010; Williams and Vashi 2007; Zuhur, Sherifa. 1992; Williams 1979). In North America, Williams and Vashi observed how “girls and young women talk about hijab with each other as if they were talking about their clothes from the mall. Further, the ways in which it is wrapped about the head and draped down over the shoulders, is subject to fashion, innovation, and trend” (Williams and Vashi 2007: 285). Over the last thirty years everywhere in the Middle East, veiling has increased.1 A recent survey from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research conducted in Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, finds that most people in those countries (except in Turkey and Lebanon) prefer women to cover their hair in public. For Kuwait such data are not available, but it is clear that here too, veiling has increased over the last thirty years. Jennifer Hargreaves reports that following the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, when Islamism became more influential as Kuwaiti refuges who had fled to more conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia, returned home, “there was a marked increase in the number of veiled women than in previous years; and then, following the bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York, in 2001, anti-Western feeling in Kuwait resulted in a 1 See Ahmed 2011 on the fact that today the majority of Muslim women throughout the Islamic world again wear the veil. 3 further increase of Islamism and the veiling of even more women than before” (Hargreaves 2006: 78). How could a phenomenon like “veiling fashion” develop in the relatively conservative society of Kuwait? So far, not much research has been done on modern aspects of veiling (that is the veil as a not merely traditional item but as an item influenced by fashion) in the Gulf region. The only existing study is the one conducted by Sobh et al. (2011). This is surprising because the Gulf States are an interesting territory for such research. On the one hand, a distinct ethos of traditional dress for both men and women does still exist and on the other hand, Kuwait is a country tolerant enough to permit the coexistence of both veiling and non-veiling practices as well as the combination of the hijab with Western clothes. The editor of the Kuwait-based Pan-Arab fashion magazine Alef explains: “We only tend to see the negative thing, overhyped Dubai [or] conflict zones.... But we don’t really see the subtleties of Kuwaiti society that is (...) Kuwait which is traditional and modern and semi-democratic, but also very conservative at the same time” (Lewis 2010: 73). Kuwaiti clothing culture is intriguing because it contains in itself two extremes: conservative religious traditions (more so conservative than in many other Middle Eastern countries) are combined with features of a frenetic Western-style consumer culture bolstered by oil-money. The present study tries to explore any internal logic that may exist which sustains the coexistence of these opposed elements. Is Kuwait the country of hijab-wearing fashion victims or do religion/tradition and modernity communicate along reasonable lines? From this follow further questions: Does the present re-veiling wave in Kuwait express frustration and resentment in the face of broken promises of modernity? Is there a real desire to return to the values of the past? Does the combination of the hijab with modern clothes represent a compromise of modernity and tradition? How do those patterns function within a reality influenced by mass media, mass communication and globalization in which unilinear scenarios of identities and worldviews become increasingly impossible? In summary, the study focuses on the following aspects of the veiling phenomenon: • To what extent do local woman strive to emphasize their authenticity and ethnic affiliation through the wearing of modest dress? 4 • How do consumption styles such as extravagant and conspicuous fashion interfere with this ambition? • How important is religion in the decision to veil? • Are young Kuwaiti women aware that the adoption of new clothing styles and adornment practices can potentially conflict with traditional values requiring modesty in the public domain? • Is veiling a matter of identity search and/or a rejection of Western values? If it is an authentic form of a stable cultural or religious essence, how is this essence experienced within social interaction including traditional, modern, as well as fractured values? • Is the veil merely perceived as a symbol enhancing traditional values or can decisions to veil also be supported by feminist justifications? • Is the act of veiling voluntary or dependent on parental, social or religious influence or on any combination of those three influences? • How do men relate to the veiling of women within the above contexts? The strong point of our study is that we did not only ask covered students why they veil but also asked uncovered students what they believe to be their classmates’ reasons for veiling. Naturally, such a comparative approach invites critical reflections on the veiled students’ statements. By considering responses from subjects who are not directly but only indirectly concerned (because they do not wear the hijab themselves), we realize that not all of the veiled students’ answers can be taken for granted but must be submitted to a critical reading. 1.2. Previous Research Macleod (1993) and Zuhur, (1992) conducted research in the 1980s in Egypt. As Ahmed (2011) has noted, though interviewing similar populations, Macleod’s and Zuhur’s results are antagonistic. Zuhur’s respondents, while not Islamist activists themselves, veiled because they were self-consciously affiliating themselves with the goals of Islamism; while Macleod’s interviewees seemed to be adopting the hijab mostly to resolve personal dilemmas. Williams (1979) received stock responses from women affirming that veiling had helped them “to know who they really were.” In Macleod’s later survey on the other hand, 56% of the women interviewed suggested that veiling is a matter of fashion for which they could provide no 5 further explanation. For example, one respondent commented the veiling phenomenon like this: “I don’t know why fashions change in this way, no one knows why, one day everyone wears dresses and even pants” (from Ahmed 2011: 120). The ambition to distinguish “veiling fashion” from those motivations by which veiling has been determined in the past, has become more current. Williams and Vashi find that “wearing hijab has a fashion dynamic that cannot be fully accounted for by religious motivations or social, ethnic, or class backgrounds” (Williams and Vashi 2007: 284). This contradicts other recent surveys, like that undertaken by Hoodfar in Quebec which brought to the foreground an unambiguously religious attitude with regards to veiling: “Only four out of fifty-nine veiled women claimed the veil to be part of their Arab or Muslim identity and not an Islamic requirement” (Hoodfar 2003: 17). Neither a militant political consciousness nor a cultural interpretation of the veil as a fashion phenomenon account here for the veiling phenomenon, but simply the will to follow one’s religion. On a first level, this corresponds to our own findings; however, because of conflicting results provided by other target groups (uncovered students and male students) we had to submit those findings to a further critical reading. The practical and theoretical implications of this point will be explained in Chapter 2.3. on the survey’s limitations. 1.3. Kuwaiti Society Kuwait is among the richest countries in the world per capita and has all features of modern consumer societies like malls and a large number of restaurants and luxury cars. The literacy rate of Kuwait is one of the Arab world’s highest (93.3% according to the CIA World Factbook 2013). Public primary and secondary school education is free; university education is also free through graduate school if the student qualifies. Most Kuwaitis are bilingual because English primary and secondary education is popular. English is also popular because of TV and movies. Of Kuwait’s 2.7 million people, 1.7 million are non-nationals (Factbook).2 Though 96% of Kuwait’s population is considered urbanized and only 4% nomadic or seminomadic (Demographics of Kuwait), the distinction between “city dwellers” (hadhar, ‫)حضر‬ and people of Bedouin origin (badu, ‫ )بدو‬is far from being erased but is reflected in Numbers vary very much. Often Kuwait's current population is estimated at 3-3.5 million people with 1 million of Kuwait's population being Kuwaiti nationals (Demographics of Kuwait). 2 6 contemporary social life (see Longva 2006 and al-Nakib 2014). Post World War II population growth has brought the proportion of people who can trace their origins to Bedouins up to 40% of the Kuwaiti national population.3 The differences between hadhar and Bedouins (or rather the descendants of Bedouins) are spelled out in terms of tribal, cultural and religious identities. In general, Bedouins are conservative and often have strict religious dress codes. The hadhar-badu distinction has gained a political dimension during Kuwait’s recent political crises where one of the political cleavages was produced by the Emir’s and the hadhar class’s opposition to Bedouin demands of more political influence. To a limited extent, social interactions at our university are determined by those differences. Kuwaiti society maintains similarly clear distinctions between Sunni and Sh’ia Muslims (the Shi’a population represents between 20 and 40% according to sources consulted). Shi’a can come from both the badu and hadhar classes though most Shi’a are hadhar. Furthermore, a considerable portion of Kuwaiti nationals is not only Shi’a but also ethnically Persian. In our study we decided to neglect the above social divides for two reasons. First, the student body of our university does not fully reflect the differences present in Kuwaiti society but is relatively homogenous. Second, the study would have changed its focus because direct questions about tribal or religious identities could have led both participants and audience to the conclusion that the purpose of this survey is to inquire into the sensitive topic of Kuwaiti communities though this was not the case. Additionally, it would have been difficult to establish those differences because direct questions inquiring about students’ religious or ethnic affiliation would most likely have been unacceptable to the university administration as well as many students. 1.4. Gulf University for Science and Technology The Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) is a Kuwaiti owned private English speaking university with currently 3113 students enrolled (2013). 85% of our students are Kuwaiti nationals; the majority of the other 15% have nationalities from other Arab countries though most of them are born in Kuwait or have spent the largest part of their lives in Kuwait. 60% of the students are female and 40% are male. The tuition fees are relatively high (about 3 Indications about how many individuals with a strong Bedouin identity live in Kuwait vary but there might be between 100.000 and 260.000. 7 US$19,000 per year) but a generous government scholarship system makes GUST accessible to all students who have a moderately high GPA, provided they are Kuwaiti nationals. 24% of our students come from English or American private schools, 11% from other private schools, and 65% from government schools. The large proportion of Western teachers as well as a Western-style curriculum established in collaboration with American universities creates a relatively liberal environment. It is no exaggeration to say that our university is one of the most open-minded places in the country. The typical age group of our students is 18-23 years. Gender segregation is applied in classes. The pressure from conservative political groups in Kuwait made this measure necessary in March 2008. Though some other private universities in Kuwait recently began to circumvent it, radical gender segregation is increasingly practiced in Kuwaiti national educational institutions. One of Kuwait University’s new campuses has different sections for male and female students with separate gates and a motorway running between the two. The bridge uniting them is guarded and can only be used by teachers. At GUST however, male and female students can come together in all areas outside the classrooms though a considerable amount of “self-segregation” persists. 1.5. Methodology In selecting the questionnaire as the research tool for this study, there was little doubt that in order to understand the complexities of veiling in Kuwait it was essential to have female participants who veil and those who do not veil as well. Similarly, the male perspectives were deemed important to ascertain male views on veiling. The questionnaire contained a combination of open-ended and closed-ended questions, thus generating both quantitative and qualitative data. The closed-ended questions focused on obtaining demographical data whilst the main research questions sought more qualitative responses. 4 The main aim of our study was to seek the meaning that people attribute to their behaviors (veiling or not veiling). It has frequently been suggested that positivist or quantitative researchers distance themselves from the research process whereas supporters of qualitative 4 The debate on how to conduct research in the social sciences between the two traditions of qualitative and quantitative research is ongoing (Bulmer 1979; Kirk and Miller 1986; Marshall and Rossman 1989; Neuman, 2003; Silverman 2011; Bryman 2008). Bryman points out that qualitative research is a “research strategy that usually emphasizes words rather than quantification (…) it is inductivist, constructionist, and interpretivist” (2008: 366). Here it is clear that the aim is to study the social world in depth, using descriptive writings and to interpret the social events through the meaning that actors attach to their actions (Taylor 1993: 7). 8 research methods immerse themselves into the research process.5 While our survey did combine some elements of quantitative data collection, the emphasis was on studying the social world according to the meanings that respondents attach to their world. When exploring social experiences using human subjects, it is vital that some consideration be given to ethics. Discussions of ethical concerns around questionnaires have concentrated on the right to privacy, informed consent and confidentiality. The right to privacy may be challenged when students are approached to complete the questionnaire. Furthermore, the right to privacy may also refer to the students’ right to control data about themselves. We may ask questions but the student has the right not to answer if she/he feels that it is sensitive or if she/he feels that she/he does not wish to share this information with others. Our survey’s results indicate that students did at times exercise this right to privacy. Informed consent suggests that respondents should be made aware of how the data may be used, something we made evident in the beginning of the questionnaire. Furthermore, informed consent is measured by the level of potential harm to the respondents from participating in the research. Our project was approved by the IRB within the Research and Development Office at GUST, which has a rigorous peer-reviewed assessment process for approving research conducted on human subjects. To preserve confidentiality, all identifying data was omitted and not made available during any part of the research process. Both researchers have also successfully undertaken IRB training to ensure that the welfare of the participants remains paramount. 2. The Survey 2.1. Survey Measures The general and official title of our survey was “Cultural Attitudes to Dress Code.” We distributed three distinct surveys: one for female students who cover (with hijab, abaya or 5 Patton (2002: 14) points out that whilst in quantitative research, credibility is measured in terms of instrument construction, in qualitative research, ‘the researcher is the instrument’. Kvale (1995) argues that validity is an expression of craftsmanship, with an emphasis on quality of research by checking, questioning, and theorizing on the nature of the phenomena investigated. 9 niqab);6 one for female students who wear no hijab; and one for male students. Each survey contained twenty-five questions concerning attitudes, habit, and perceptions of veiling. The surveys were distributed online, separating male and female students and were processed through SPSS software. All surveys were anonymous. Female participants could choose between an “I wear a hijab” and an “I wear no hijab” survey. We received 1662 responses: 1236 responses from female students and 426 responses from male students. Group Female students Male students Total n Percent 1236 74.40 426 25.60 1662 100 The participation rate of 1662 individuals (53% of the current enrollment rate) can be considered high. It could be expected that male students would be less interested in a survey on a female clothing item (34% of all male students responded). A female participation rate of 66% shows that this topic is popular. We, and some of our colleagues offered extra credits to students who participated.7 It turned out that over 1000 students participated without receiving extra credits, which is unusual for surveys at our university. 816 female students (65.8% of all females) chose the “I wear a hijab” survey and 421 individuals (34.2%) chose the “I wear no hijab” survey. Female students n Covered 816 66.01 Uncovered 421 34.06 1236 100 Total Percent 167 individuals (13.5% of all female students) indicated that they wear not only a hijab but also an abaya, and 23 individuals (0.18% of all female students) indicated that they wear also a niqab. This distribution overlaps very precisely with manual counts (done by counting incoming students at certain hours of the day) undertaken in 2011 out of a sample of 500 6 Hijab is here, as in most instances in Kuwait, defined as the headscarf worn in an Islamic way covering also the neck and leaving only the face visible. The abaya is an all-covering black cloak and the niqab is a face cover that leaves only the eyes free. 7 The IT could document the names of participants but we could not see the answers in connection with the names, thus keeping the responses anonymous 10 students. Covered Girls n Percent Wearing hijab only 625 76.59 Wearing also an abaya Wearing also abaya and niqab Total 168 23 816 20.59 2.82 100 The sample of the students wearing a niqab is very small (only 15 completed questionnaires) but in certain contexts its consideration permits interesting observations. 8 Target Groups We distinguished five target groups whom we named (for convenience sake) as follows: (1) ‘Hijab wearing girls’ (meaning female students wearing a hijab but no abaya or niqab); (2) ‘Abaya wearing girls’ (meaning female students wearing a hijab and an abaya); (3) ‘Niqab wearing girls’ (meaning female students wearing a hijab, an abaya, and a niqab); (4) ‘Uncovered Girls’ (meaning female students who do not cover); (5) ‘Male students.’ In this text we most often group together (1) (2) and (3) and speak of ‘Covered Girls’. The Comments Option Students could leave comments after most questions and made extensive use of this option; we received around 4500 comments.9 Numerous conversations with students about the survey as well as veiling in general have also provided relevant information that has been used in this book. 8 Of the 1235”female” surveys, 297 questionnaires were incomplete (though only 1 out of the 428 “male” surveys was incomplete). 235 of those 297 incomplete “female” surveys were incomplete in the sense that only the first question had been answered (“Do you wear a hijab, abaya, niqab or no hijab?”). Obviously those students had been under the impression that the survey ends right after the first page. The incompleteness concerns all categories except the males. We could not consider those incomplete surveys except for an evaluation of the first question, that is, we could use it in order to establish whether they wear a hijab or not, and whether they wear an abaya or a niqab. We received 678 complete responses from ‘Covered Girls’ (137 incomplete), 323 complete responses from ‘Uncovered Girls’ (98 incomplete), and 425 responses from ‘Male Students’ (1 incomplete). This brings the total number of female respondents down to exactly 1000 and of all respondents to 1426. In this text, from Chapter 2.2. onwards, we consider only questionnaires in which more than the first page has been completed. 9 When dealing with comments, we filtered out all “fake comments,” that is, comments merely saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (if yes/no options had been given beforehand) or simply write “no comment.” All numbers in this article refer to the comment count after ‘fake comments’ have been filtered out. 11 2.2. Family Background of Students The family background of students is not homogenous in terms of education. 68% of the ‘Covered Girls’’ fathers have university degrees against 79% of the ‘Uncovered Girls.’ The difference is important. In the two independent sample T-test, the two-tailed P-value (indicating statistical significance) falls underneath 0.01 points when calculating the above values, which means that the difference is significant by conventional criteria. In spite of this, we hold that the difference is not important enough to speak of an educational gap between ‘Covered Girls’’ and ‘Uncovered Girls’ parents. 70% of the ‘Male Students’’ fathers have university degrees. Within the ‘Covered Girls’ category, the fathers’ education rate goes down for ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’ (64%) and ‘Niqab Wearing Girls’ (53%). The proportions remain almost the same when it comes to the mother’s education. 66% of the ‘Covered Girls’ mothers have a university degree against 77% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’. Again only 57% of ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’’ and only 40% of the ‘Niqab Wearing Girls’’ mothers have a university education. Father has University Degree (n) 83 Father has University Degree (in %) 63.84 Mother has University Degree (n) 71 Mother has University Degree (in %) 54.61 Girls wearing also abaya and niqab All covered girls together Uncovered girls 9 461 255 50.00 67.99 78.94 7 447 248 38.88 65.92 76.78 Male students 297 69.88 284 66.82 Group Girls wearing an abaya Cultural attitudes towards the status of women in society do not seem to vary very much. Around 70% of all groups answer ‘yes’ to the question “Do you believe that men women are equal?” with a slight upward tendency from male to female students. Only 54% of the ‘Covered Girls’ state that their mothers have worn the hijab since their early youth (and did not start, for example, after marriage), which shows that for a large part of these students veiling has started at an earlier age than for their mothers. 82% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ say that they are open to wearing the hijab in the future and 68% of the males affirm that their future wife should wear the hijab. 12 Transmission plays a major role in veiling. 97% of the ‘Covered Girls’’ mothers wear the hijab against 67% of the ‘Uncovered Girls.’ The use of the niqab, on the other hand, has decreased from one generation to the next. While only 0.02% (n = 23) of the ‘Covered Girls’ group (n = 814) wear a niqab, 19% of their mothers are wearing it. 2.3. Limitations 2.3.1. General Difficulties Before passing to the central part of the survey, it is necessary to elucidate the special circumstances surrounding the research. The hijab is considered a sensitive topic in the Middle East and we had great concerns as to whether or not our university would grant us the permission to conduct this survey. In general, the mere fact to talk openly and critically (that means, most of the time, not in a religious context) about religious matters is new in this culture and still very much frowned upon. As one ‘Covered Girl’ formulates it in a typical comment: “The only thing I can tell is that we can’t argue or even discuss the hijab issue [and] if is it a must or not, as long as it has been mentioned by ALLAH.” The GUST administration turned out to be liberal enough to grant permission, but once it was obtained, we had to fear protests or other negative responses from conservative faculty or students. Though no protests were voiced officially, it appears that the survey was not welcomed by all students (we had no negative reactions from faculty). Several students told us, sometimes weeks afterwards, that many of their comrades had felt “shocked,” “offended,” or “insulted” by the research. As a result, many had decided not to participate. One Covered Student came to the first author’s office and explained (by considerably raising her voice) that this survey “simply cannot be done in Kuwait” because “there are no answers to such questions.” To show her that he does not agree, the author pointed to the option “Because my family asked me to wear the hijab” as a possible answer and said that he does not understand why this answer cannot represent a valid option at least for some people. “You, for example, why do you wear the hijab?” he asked her. “Because my family asked me to wear it,” she replied. “In that case, why don’t you check this answer?” “Because I don’t want to check it,” was the reply. “And why do you not want to check it?” “Because I don’t like the question.” The dialogue shows that some questions are so heavily connoted with elements that people prefer not to think about, let alone talk about, that they will either not answer those questions 13 or produce answers that do not reflect their genuine thoughts. In the latter case, they will most probably produce answers that conform to socially or religiously sanctioned model-answers. In many cases, this is not done in order to avoid a conflict with society (after all, the survey was anonymous), but rather to avoid a confrontation with the problem evoked. A male student posted in response to the question “Do you think that the hijab can be seen as a fashion phenomenon?” the comment: “Offensive question!” However, the question is totally legitimate, which is shown by the fact that 41% of the ‘Covered Girls’ do see the hijab as a fashion item and willingly checked this answer. Apparently, the question pointed the above male student to existing contradictions between his modern and his traditional self, which his culture had taught him to ignore rather than to approach critically. Another such example is the comment from a female student who indicates that she wears the hijab mainly for reasons of peer pressure and family pressure but also points out that “I don’t want to write my opinions and I do not like this survey.” Naturally, the above described psychological phenomenon becomes most obvious with regard to the answer “Because my family asked me to wear it,” an answer which the complaining student who came to the first author’s office, so obviously abhorred. Strictly speaking, for this student, like for many others who provided similar replies, this answer was socially and religiously unacceptable. As many respondents explain in their comments, one should not wear the hijab merely because one has been asked (or forced) to wear it. Wearing it only because one has to is like not wearing it at all and thus contradicts basic religious principles. The difficulty to which women are submitted becomes obvious when looking at the fact that in most Muslim countries surveyed by the Washington based PEW Research Center, majorities of women as well as men agree that a wife is always obliged to obey her husband,10 but affirm at the same time that a woman should be able to decide for herself whether to wear a veil. Here, as with all social phenomena but in particular fashion, “successful incorporation into bourgeois social order involves not a person’s subjugation of his own will to that of the ‘law’ but the absence of any distance between that will and the law,” as Erin Mackie explains in her book on fashion (1997: 21). This point turned out to be important for our survey. 10 More than nine in ten Muslims in Iraq (92%), Morocco (92%), Tunisia (93%), Indonesia (93%), Afghanistan (94%) and Malaysia (95%) express this view. From PEW Forum 2013. 14 2.3.2. The “East-West” Problem Another problem was represented by what can be called the “post-colonial context” of the survey. According to what could be derived from conversations with students, the project had been perceived by some as one of those typically “western” attempts to examine non-western cultures, which those westerners neither understand nor respect. As a consequence, as we were told by several students, many students announced that they intended to participate in the survey merely as an act of defiance. They planned to refute the image of the downtrodden and oppressed Muslim woman (which they thought “westerners” would expect to encounter) at any cost. Accordingly, one male student writes in the comments: “Just please accept Islam and don’t make a big scene;” and a female student writes at the end of the survey: “Now I will advise all my friends who do not wear hijab to think of wearing it ASAP.” Some students announced (according to reports we received from other students) that they planned to “annoy those foreigners who are against Islam.” When reading the students’ comments, the constant justifications of Islam in places where they are entirely off topic (because the corresponding question did not deal with religious matters at all) raise indeed suspicions of a post-colonial complex. The above reactions are in keeping with what Esposito and Mogahed report in their Gallup documentation about frustrations of “Third World” women at the dictations of “First World” women and how Muslim women often resent Western women’s perceptions that Muslim women lack modernity. In the eyes of those women, this perception “signals their degraded cultural status” (Esposito & Mogahed: 110). As an example, Mogahed reports how during a talk with American diplomat Karen Hughes in 2005 some women in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, challenged Hughes by saying: “We are not only content, we’re happy. So what steps are you taking to show that image?” Mogahed recognizes this as an act of defiance (124) and other researchers have called this phenomenon the “optimism gap.” Himmelfarb, in a study of American culture, has named it the “I’m O.K., you’re not” attitude and writes: “According to one survey, two-thirds of the people ‘feel good’ about their own communities, but only onethird have good feelings about America in general. This resembles the ‘self-esteem syndrome’ which induces people to have a higher opinion of their own abilities than others have of them 15 (or than is warranted by objective measures). The optimism gap, like the spurious self-esteem, is a kind of dissonance, a reluctance to confront reality” (Himmelfarb: 20-21).11 There are reasons to assume that those students who wanted to “annoy those foreigners” decided to stage the image of an ideal culture in which their religion and their culture make everybody happy and in which free will and obedience perfectly overlap. The words “proud” and “pride” (in connection with being Muslim and with wearing the hijab) appear 35 times in the comments drafted by the ‘Covered Girls’ group. A male student refers to another problem but his motivations remain the same when asking (apparently without referring to any particular question in the survey): “Do you think anyone should be discriminated against just for following their religious beliefs or expressing themselves? (…) Equality, Freedom of expression and Freedom in practicing religious beliefs should be rights that no one has to argue for or against.” He had perceived the mere fact of conducting such a survey as a potential attack against his religion and his culture though there were no particular indications in the survey that would have made him suspect this. A further limitation must be acknowledged. In a country such as Kuwait where Muslim women are the majority, Muslim dress code such as the hijab is not a contested issue and is not openly questioned, similarly to how Western women are most generally not questioned for wearing short skirts (cf. Gill 2007). It is thus probable that our question of “Why do you veil?” was regarded as bizarre to some of our female respondents, in a similar way to Western women being asked why they wear short skirts. The backlash or disdain expressed by some students may also be attributed to this fact, as our questions may have been seen as challenging their everyday norms of appropriate dress code. Research by Wager et al. (2012) illustrates how Muslim women in a Muslim majority society are more likely to explain wearing the hijab in terms of convenience, fashion and modesty, whereas Muslim minority women or most women in a minority Muslim society see the veil as a way of affirming their cultural identity. Our own findings demonstrate that Muslim young women in Kuwait do not have a challenging relationship with dress code and their Muslim reality. Sometimes it can actually be a political statement not to veil. The need to demonstrate a different identity from non-Muslims is not so important in a society like Kuwait where the majority is Muslim. 11 With regard to the “optimism gap” Himmelfarb also refers to Ladd & Browman 1998 and to Whitman 1998. 16 During the weeks we were working on this survey, the above “East-West” dissonances produced a certain feeling of uneasiness on both sides. In principle, our intention had not been to reveal a tale of oppression, nor did we want to liberate our students from their hijabs, but we were simply interested in interferences between religious dress (or religious values) and (modern) fashion. We were not searching for elements that could put participants down. On the contrary, ideally, we were looking for the image of the modern, educated woman able to handle her religious heritage responsibly and critically by combining veiling with fashion. Our ideas were supported by observations other researchers had made about “veiling fashion” in countries like Turkey as well as in Western emigrant communities. Mogahed rightly states that stories of oppressed women normally revolve around women without education, but here our main respondents were female university students whom we knew to be, in general, smarter, more engaged and more curious than their male counterparts. Mogahed complains in her chapter “What do Women Want?” that Western researchers and media rarely present the voices of women themselves, but like to portrait them as silent. Through our survey, those young women could speak. In doing so, they clearly wanted to contradict certain western clichés. On the other hand, instead of providing critical analyses or some sort of feminist thought, most of them preferred to indulge in formulaic and exalted reinstatement of religious beliefs. Statements like the following are typical: “Islam saves our rights in everything. We won’t find any [other] religion or country that saves women’s rights [in the way in which] Islam did.” There are reasons to assume that if the survey had been conducted by local professors (possibly by a women-only team wearing the hijab) the students’ attitude would not have been the same. However, even then, the fact that the study of cultures is often per se perceived as an exclusively Western phenomenon might have produced similar results. On the other hand, one of the two researchers, Dr. Noreen Abdullah-Khan, is English of Pakistani origin and wears the hijab herself. However, it is not measurable as to how much this helped students feel less defensive, given that not all participants knew her. Furthermore, it is also possible that there may be a reverse effect: some students might have felt more comfortable submitting their thoughts to westerners, that is, to people from outside their community or religion. 17 2.4. Preliminary Conclusion Though the surveys were anonymous, experiences (conversations and more personal comments) during and after the survey lead us to the conclusion that students did not always say what they believed to be true but instead presented what they thought they are supposed to say in order to conform to social standards or to defend their culture and religion in front of foreign spectators. On the following pages, several findings will provide evidence of this. At this stage it can be stated that the respondents’ answers were determined at least partly by two important criteria: (1) The survey itself might be part of a Western conspiracy that needs to be encountered by advertising pride and contentment. (2) Wearing the hijab because one has been forced to wear it is a “haram” position that needs to be contradicted at any cost by choosing other options. In the end this means that many students were not so much lying to us but rather to themselves. Of course, it is difficult to prove such a claim in an empirical study. However, in particular cases, contradictions within the surveys provide evidence of this. The finding is interesting in itself; it does not invalidate the results of the survey but rather equips this research with supplementary and instructive dimensions whose analysis is one of the tasks of this study. That is not to say that none of the students presented the truth, but that a large part of the answers seem to follow strikingly standardized patterns that can be traced to one of the two strategies indicated above. Such assumptions are also supported by the “optimism gap” theory developed by other researchers. As will become clear below, the explicit character of many of the religiously-minded comments suggests that many students felt that this survey challenges definitions of their selves, which they want to see as coherent but which they feel contain contradictions. 3. Results and Discussions 3.1. The Central Question: Why do you Veil? The main purpose of the survey was to explore the reasons students veil and what attitude students who do not veil (females and males) have towards veiling. Instead of limiting the 18 answer to one option we asked students to select four options (or three for ‘Uncovered Girls’) from a list of eight (or seven) and to rank them according to importance. For Covered Girls the nine options (preceded by the sentence “Select four reasons why you are wearing the veil from most important to least important”) were: 1. My family told me to do so 2. Islam tells us to wear the hijab and I simply want to obey my religion 3. Many of my friends wear it and I want to be part of the group 4. I seek to affirm my Muslim identity and show that I am different from non-Muslims 5. I want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 6. I am bothered by the attention that male students will give me if I do not wear a hijab 7. Simply because I find it nice and fashionable 8. Wearing a hijab gives you a better public reputation 9. Other reason 3.1.1. First Findings: Answers of ‘Covered Girls’ ‘Covered Girls’ ranked answers to the question “Why do you wear the hijab?” like this: Options ranked first: n Islam tells us to wear the hijab and I simply want to obey my religion 482 71.09 My family told me to do so 45 6.63 I seek to affirm my Muslim identity and show that I am different from non-Muslims 41 6.04 Wearing a hijab gives you a better public reputation 24 3.53 I am bothered by the attention that male students will give me if I do not wear a hijab 20 2.94 Many of my friends wear it and I want to be part of the group 11 1.62 Simply because I find it nice and fashionable 6 0.08 I want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 6 0.08 43 6.34 678 100 Other reasons Total Percent 19 Options ranked second: n I seek to affirm my Muslim identity and show that I am different from non-Muslims 177 26.10 Islam tells us to wear the hijab and I simply want to obey my religion 162 23.89 Wearing a hijab gives you a better public reputation 88 1.29 My family told me to do so 89 13.12 Simply because I find it nice and fashionable 33 4.86 I am bothered by the attention that male students will give me if I do not wear a hijab 27 3.98 Many of my friends wear it and I want to be part of the group 28 4.12 I want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 13 1.91 Other reasons: 61 8.99 Total 678 100 Options ranked third: n Wearing a hijab gives you a better public reputation 180 26.54 I seek to affirm my Muslim identity and show that I am different from non-Muslims 108 16.11 My family told me to do so 82 12.09 Simply because I find it nice and fashionable 74 10.91 I want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 55 8.11 I am bothered by the attention that male students will give me if I do not wear a hijab 47 6.93 Many of my friends wear it and I want to be part of the group 47 6.93 Islam tells us to wear the hijab and I simply want to obey my religion 30 4.42 Other reasons 55 8.11 678 100 Total Options ranked fourth: Wearing a hijab gives you a better public reputation Percent Percent N Percent 129 19.02 Simply because I find it nice and fashionable 91 13.42 I seek to affirm my Muslim identity and show that I am different from non-Muslims 81 11.94 I am bothered by the attention that male students will give me if I do not wear a hijab 68 10.02 20 I want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 54 7.96 Many of my friends wear it and I want to be part of the group 48 7.07 Islam tells us to wear the hijab and I simply want to obey my religion 24 3.53 My family told me to do so 88 12.97 Other reasons 95 14.01 678 100 Total Weighted Average of ‘Covered Girls’ Answers to the Question “Why do wear the hijab?”12 Option I seek to affirm my Muslim identity and show that I am different from non-Muslims I want to make a statement against Western consumer culture Islam tells us to wear the hijab and I simply want to obey my religion Many of my friends wear it and I want to be part of the group My family told me to do so Simply because I find it nice and fashionable Wearing a hijab gives you a better public reputation weighted Avg. 162.36 40.74 415.75 45.30 126.68 66.35 142.81 The weighted average, which compares frequency and weight, has been calculated in the following fashion: we granted four points on a scale out of four to ‘first rank’ options, three points to ‘second rank’ options, etc. The above table shows that the “Islam tells us” option is the option with the highest weight (415.75) followed by the “…Muslim identity” option which has a much lower weight (162.36). The “my family told me so” option receives a weight of only 126.68. At the end of this section, the above weighted averages will be compared with the weighted average of ‘Uncovered Girls’. For the measurement of the weighted average the “Other reasons” option had been filtered out. The option referring to the avoidance of male attention” has also been filtered out because this option had not been offered to ‘Uncovered Girls’. 12 21 Selected Data Analysis The most striking finding in this part of the survey is that 71% (n = 481) of the ‘Covered Girls’ group indicate “Islam tells us to wear the hijab and I simply want to obey my religion” as the first reason, and that only 6.6% (n = 45) check “My family told me to do so” as the first reason. All other options receive relatively small or completely insignificant scores as the first reason. As the second reason, the option “I want to obey my religion” receives again a significant 24%, just a little less than the option “I seek to affirm my Muslim identity” and the option “It gives me a better public reputation.” The latter two options stick out among the low scores of the other options. “My family told me so” receives only 13% as the second reason; and it receives just as little as a third reason. The “My family told me so” option does not appear as a fourth reason at all. The “In order to be fashionable” option appears only as the second, third and fourth reasons (between 5 and 13%). The “To avoid male attention” option has even lower scores: from 1 to 10% in increasing sequences from first reason to second reason. Even less represented are the “I want to make a statement against Western consumer culture” option (between 2 and 8 % from reason two to four). “To obey my religion” option is thus the overwhelmingly strongest reason for veiling that ‘veiled students’ indicated. It receives 71% as a first reason, still 24% as a second reason and does practically not appear as a third or fourth reason. “Because my family told me” receives only 6.6% as a first reason and between 12 and 13% as a second, third and fourth reason. ‘Abaya wearing girls’ and ‘Niqab Wearing Girls’ reinforce this pattern though the ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’ give a more important rank to the “It gives me a better reputation” option (33% chose this as a third reason and 19% as a fourth reason). ‘Niqab wearing girls’ give the “To avoid male attention” option a more important rank (13% rank it first). Because many ‘Covered Girls’ used the “Other reason” option in the “First Rank” field to indicate reasons that had already been listed among the initial eight options, we had to 22 distribute those votes among the eight existing options (for the calculation of the weighted average the “Other reasons” option had simply been filtered out, see note 12). There are a few “Other reasons” different from the suggested eight options. The most popular one is the statement “I simply like it,” which 38 individuals (6%) of the ‘Covered Girls’ group chose as a first reason. One might consider this “reason” not as a supplementary option (because it is not said why they like it). It rather appears to be meant as a comment seeking to emphasize the voluntary and pleasant character of veiling. Should it be considered a “real reason,” one must conclude that 6% of ‘Covered Girls’ wear the hijab without thinking about it any further and thus wear it for mainly cultural and not religious reasons. The only new and real “other” reason is the one indicating practical aspects like “it protects my hair,” which only two individuals chose. Eight students used the “Other reason” option to express the fact that they do not like the hijab and that they have been forced by a particular person (father, mother, brother, husband) to wear it (all but one of those indicated persons are male and all persons are family members). Another “Other reason” (added by 16 individuals or 2%) is “It’s my tradition or culture,” which we initially believed to be contained in the “I seek to affirm my Muslim identity” option. However, those students preferred to rephrase the option in a less aggressive or combative tone. Covered Girls’ Comments Two students report in the comments that they had been too young (10 and 11 years old) when they started wearing the hijab; one student says that she found it adventurous at the age of 12 to wear something new; and another one writes that she was very religious when she started wearing it (and apparently no longer is). One student explains that “wearing a hijab in front of foreigners makes my husband a special person.” Answers and comments of one and the same person do sometimes contradict each other, thus confirming the psychological complexities that this survey encountered. For example, a student who indicates as a first reason for veiling “My family asked me to” and who writes in a comment that she is “against it although I am wearing it since 4th grade [because] I was forced to,” will still check as the second reason the option “I want to obey my religion.” The two comments contradict each other. Apart from that, the comments of the ‘Covered Girls’ group abound with religious statements like “I don’t want to go to hell,” “I want to be an Angel,” “I am proud to be Muslim,” “I love 23 God,” “God is beautiful,” “What a great feeling it is to wear hijab” as well as many unsolicited and unrelated explanations of details of the Islamic faith. Very many students also produce dogmatic statements such as: Who does not wear a hijab will be hanged with their hair and put to fire. The Quran is basically what GOD tells us to do. If you read the Quran you will discover things not even scientist discovered. Even prophet Mohammed’s wives and daughters used to cover themselves in black, isn’t that evidence enough? My sisters, do not be deceived by Satan, because he knows if your heart is vulnerable to manipulation. Of the approximate 280 comments that have been submitted by ‘Covered Girls’ and ‘Male Students’ in reply to the three religion-related questions (“Why do you wear the hijab?” “How important is religion for wearing the hijab,” and “Is the hijab obligatory in Islam?”), about 70% are of an eagerly religious character. The enthusiastic religiosity ceases a little when other questions such as virtue or respect are commented upon. However, spontaneous comments like “I want to be close to God” or “Islam is the right thing” in places where such comments were not solicited because they do not contribute to a clarification of the subject matter, appear very regularly in all comment sections posted by ‘Covered Girls’. The religiousness flares up particularly strongly at the end of the survey where all participants are invited to add comments about whatever aspects they want. 270 out of 415 of the ‘Covered Girls’’ comments read like this: Wearing hijab is absolutely obligatory for Muslims women because it gives women security and purity. If God in the Quran and our Prophet ordered to wear it, we have to do it. Personally, I wear it with complete conviction because of the reasons and the evidences. When I see those girls who don’t wear hijab I feel happy in my heart. I say thanks God I’m wearing hijab, I have a house in heaven. Hijab is a beautiful thing! You are lucky if God chose you out of all those people in the world that you would wear it. 24 No discussion in this issue because God told us to wear hijab and we must follow it. What’s the point of being a Muslim if you don’t like what your religion is telling you! Hijab is such a beautiful item, it covers you, makes people respect you more and you are also obeying Allah and he’s pleased with you and what can a girl asks for more… The remaining 145 final comments provided by ‘Covered Girls’ express criticism towards their classmates’ incorrect way of wearing the hijab (28), insist that it protects them from males (22), but also that one should never force a girl to wear the hijab (13). Only 11 use the opportunity to write something critical about the hijab. 3.1.2. Second Findings: Answers of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ Question: “What do you think is the reason why girls wear the hijab? Select three reasons and rank them from most important to least important.” The options to be ranked were: 1. Their family told them to do so 2. They want to obey to their religion 3. Many of their friends wear it and they want to be part of the group 4. They seek to affirm my Muslim identity 5. They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 6. Simply because they find it nice and fashionable 7. They believe it gives them a better public reputation 8. Other reason ‘Uncovered Girls’ ranked the answers like this: Options ranked first n Percent Their family told them to do so 129 39.93 They want to obey to their religion 87 26.93 Many of their friends wear it and they want to be part of the group 11 3.40 They seek to affirm my Muslim identity 10 3.09 25 They believe it gives them a better public reputation They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture Simply because they find it nice and fashionable Other reasons 6 1.85 1 0.30 3 76 0.92 23.53 Total 323 100 Options ranked second n Percent They want to obey to their religion 87 26.93 Their family told them to do so 77 23.83 They seek to affirm my Muslim identity 47 14.55 They believe it gives them a better public reputation Many of their friends wear it and they want to be part of the group 45 13.93 35 10.83 Simply because they find it nice and fashionable 7 2.16 They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 7 2.16 18 5.57 Total 323 100 Options ranked third n Other reason Percent They believe it gives them a better public reputation 79 24.45 Many of their friends wear it and they want to be part of the group 47 14.55 They seek to affirm my Muslim identity 45 13.93 Their family told them to do so 46 14.24 They want to obey to their religion They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 39 12.07 6 1.85 Simply because they find it nice and fashionable 26 8.04 Other reasons 35 10.83 323 100 Total Weighted Average of ‘Uncovered Girls’ Answers to the Question “Why Do You Believe that Covered Girls Wear the Hijab?”13 Option 13 Weighted Avg. For the Weighted Average, the “Other reasons” option has been filtered out. 26 They seek to affirm my Muslim identity and show that they are different from non-Muslims 94.25 They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 13.37 They want to obey their religion Many of their friends wear it and I want to be part of the group Their family told them to do so They find it nice and fashionable They believe it gives them a better public reputation 254.19 81.43 316.61 29.93 112.00 The weighted average has been calculated by granting three points on a scale out of three14 to ‘first rank’ options, two points to ‘second rank’ options, etc. The above table illustrates that “Their family told them to do so” is the selected option with the highest weight (316.61). “They want to obey their religion” receives the much lower weight of only 254.19. Comparative Analysis of Selected Data of Covered and Uncovered Girls: Many of the above numbers collected from the ‘Covered Girls’ group are contradicted by the survey of ‘Uncovered Girls’ at the moment they express their opinions about why their classmates do veil. The discrepancies between those two surveys represent the most spectacular finding of the research. To the question “What is, in your opinion, the main reason why students wear the hijab?” 40% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ (n = 129) check “Because their family told them” as a first reason, 24% (n = 77) check the same option once more as the second reason, and still 14% (n = 45) check it as a third reason. On the other hand, “Because they want to obey their religion” receives only around 26% (n = 84) as both the first and the second reason. This contrasts very much with the ‘Covered Girls’ own statements, which credited the “I want to obey my religion” option with 71% and “Because my family told me” with only 6.6% as a first reason; and even as a second reason the “Because my family told me” option received only 13% from ‘Covered Girls’. “To get a better reputation” as well as “I am bothered by male attention,” on the other hand, are credited by both veiled and unveiled girls to a similarly insignificant extent. The graphs below show the ‘first rank’ answers of both covered and uncovered girls: 14 ‘Uncovered Girls’ had to establish only three ranks while ‘Covered Girls’ had four. 27 I want to obey my religion My family told me so I want to be different from non-Muslims It gives me a better reputation I want to avoid male attention In find it fashionable Make a statement against Western consumer culture Peerpressure/I want to be part of the group Other ‘Covered Girls’’ first rank answers Their family told them to wear it They want to obey their religion Peer pressure/want to be part of the group Seek to affirm their Muslim identity They believe it gives them a better reputation Make a statement against Western consumer culture They find it fashionable Other reasons ‘Uncovered Girls’’ first rank answers The family pressure argument that ‘Uncovered Girls’ credit with 40% as a First Reason for veiling, is linked to personal experiences to which they have been submitted. As is shown by 28 the answers to further questions, 14% of ‘Uncovered Girls’ report to have been pressured to wear the hijab. The pressure came almost exclusively from their family members. In the comments appended to this question, 22 individuals out of 47 report that they have been pressured, most of the time by “parents or family.” Six specify that it has been the father who pressured them, three that it has been the mother, two the grandmother and two the aunt, one the siblings. Only five say that it has been their friends, three experienced pressure in school and two by other non-family members. Nobody in all three surveys mentions advice (directly or indirectly) received from a mosque or from any official religious person in any context. Compared Weighted Averages A comparative analysis of weighted averages yields the same results. Among ‘Uncovered Girls’, a weighted average of 254.19 believes that the hijab is worn to obey religion against a weighted average of 415.75 of ‘Covered Girls’. Among ‘Uncovered Girls’ a weighted average of 314.61 believes that the hijab is worn because of family pressure while Covered Girls present for this option only a weighted average of 126.68. Two-independent-sample T-tests that have been undertaken for all seven questions show P-values of less than 0.01. This value is statistically extremely significant by conventional criteria. Covered Uncovered 415.75 314.61 254.19 162.36 142.81 112.00 126.68 94.47 40.74 13.37 81.43 45.30 Affirm Muslim Want to make Want to obey Peer pressure/ Family told religion want to be them/me identity a statement part of the against group Western consumer culture 66.35 29.93 Find it nice Gives a better and public fashionable reputation Weighted averages of covered and uncovered girls compared 29 Covered Affirm Muslim identity Want to make a statement against… Want to obey religion Peer pressure Family told them/me Find it nice and fashionable Gives better public reputation Uncovered Covered SD Uncovered SD P-Value 162.360 94.470 4.176 3.419 < 0.01** 40.740 13.370 16.642 24.159 < 0.01** 415.750 254.190 1.631 1.271 < 0.01** 45.300 81.430 14.967 3.967 < 0.01** 126.680 314.610 5.352 1.027 < 0.01** 66.350 29.930 10.219 10.792 < 0.01** 142.810 112.000 4.748 2.884 < 0.01** T-tests results of weighted averages of covered and uncovered girls Mann-Whitney Test Also the Mann-Whitney Test shows significant differences between answers of Covered and Uncovered Girls for ranks 1 and 2. ‘Uncovered Girls’’ Comments By and large, the ‘Uncovered Girls’’ comments to the question “Is there any particular reason why you do not wear the hijab?” do not refer to any religious topics. 48% simply say that there is no particular reason for this and 2% say that it is a personal matter, which they cannot disclose (in spite of the fact that the questionnaire was anonymous). 20% take the opportunity to point out that they might wear the hijab in the future and are simply not ready for it now. Later, 82% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ will answer the question “Are you open to wearing the hijab in the future” with ‘yes’ and only 16% with ‘no’. This is an interesting finding that will be discussed below. 35% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ use the comment section appended to this question to specify that in their opinion, the hijab is not a requirement in Islam (though with regards to the corresponding question about Islamic requirements that will occur later, only 18% say that they do not believe that the hijab is required in the Islam). 1.5% (n = 5) of ‘Uncovered Girls’ state that they are non-believers. A few students offer statements like “it’s ridiculous,” “it’s against fashion,” or “it’s physically uncomfortable.” One student also points out an identity problem because the hijab “does not reflect who I am.” 30 Another main contrast between covered and uncovered students’ approaches is represented by the fact that the strong insistence on “pride” that has been so flagrant in the ‘Covered Girls’’ comments does not occur at all in the ‘Uncovered Girls’’ comments. While the ‘Covered Girls’ use the words ‘proud’ and ‘pride’ 35 times, the ‘Uncovered Girls’ use them only twice and both are in the following sentences: “I pray and I have little knowledge of Islam. However I’m not proud of it;” and “I may be agnostic, but I am not fake like them, which makes me proud.” Equally interesting is a further contrast in tone and content between surveys of veiled and unveiled girls, which will be further analyzed below. Though, for example, the question about the equality of men and women is answered similarly by all groups, ‘Uncovered Girls’ offer here more criticism of Kuwaiti society. The most critical comment by an ‘Uncovered Girl’ is this one: The hijab does nothing but suppress women and give men the upper hand and allow them to control you. Unfortunately I was born in to a society where women do not believe in equality between themselves and men. So they allow themselves to be abused and forced in to god knows what. Only a minority of the families in Kuwait believe in true equality. 3.1.3. Third Findings: Answers of ‘Male Students’ Question: “What do you think is the reason girls wear the hijab? Select four reasons and rank them from most important to least important.” The answers to be ranked were: 1. Their family told them to do so 2. They want to obey their religion 3. Peer pressure. Their friends wear and they don’t want to stick out 4. They seek to affirm their Muslim identity and show that they are different from nonMuslims 5. They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 6. They do not appreciate the attention that male students give them if they do not wear a hijab 7. Simply because they find it nice and fashionable 8. Wearing a hijab gives them a better public reputation 9. Other reason 31 ‘Male Students’ ranked the answers like this: Options ranked first n Percent They want to obey their religion 166 39.05 Their family told them to do so 98 23.05 They seek to affirm their Muslim identity and show that they are different from non-Muslims 9 2.11 Simply because they find it nice and fashionable 8 1.88 Peer pressure. Their friends wear and they don’t want to stick out 6 1.41 Wearing a hijab gives them a better public reputation 4 0.94 They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 2 0.47 They do not appreciate the attention that male students give them if they do not wear a hijab 5 1.17 Other reason 127 29.88 Total 425 100 Options ranked second n Percent Their family told them to do so 127 29.88 They want to obey their religion 106 24.94 Wearing a hijab gives them a better public reputation 64 15.05 Peer pressure. Their friends wear and they don’t want to stick out 30 7.05 They do not appreciate the attention that male students give them if they do not wear a hijab 28 6.58 Simply because they find it nice and fashionable 21 4.94 They seek to affirm their Muslim identity and show that they are different from non-Muslims 19 4.47 They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 13 3.05 Other reason 17 4.00 425 100 Total Options ranked third n Wearing a hijab gives them a better public reputation 108 25.41 51 12.00 Simply because they find it nice and fashionable Percent 32 They do not appreciate the attention that male students give them if they do not wear a hijab 45 10.59 Peer pressure. Their friends wear and they don’t want to stick out 34 8.00 36 8.47 26 6.11 42 9.88 Their family told them to do so 60 14.11 Other reasons 23 5.54 425 100 They seek to affirm their Muslim identity and show that they are different from non-Muslims They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture They want to obey their religion Total Options ranked fourth n Percent Wearing a hijab gives them a better public reputation 85 20.00 Simply because they find it nice and fashionable 76 17.88 49 11.52 49 11.52 48 11.29 30 7.56 30 7.56 18 4.23 40 9.41 425 100 They do not appreciate the attention that male students give them if they do not wear a hijab Peer pressure. Their friends wear and they don’t want to stick out Their family told them to do so They want to obey their religion They seek to affirm their Muslim identity and show that they are different from non-Muslims They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture Other reasons Total Weighted Average of ‘Male Students’’ Answers to the Question “Why Do You Believe that Covered Girls Wear the Hijab?”15 Option Weighted Avg. They seek to affirm their Muslim identity and show that they are different from non-Muslims 44.62 They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture 26.63 They want to obey their religion Many of their friends wear it and I want to be part of the group Their family told them to do so They find it nice and fashionable 15 255.60 54.20 217.28 64.01 Also here the “Other reasons” option has been filtered out. 33 They want to avoid the male attention They believe it gives them a better public reputation 54.09 133.17 Selected Data Analysis of Male Students’ Survey: Given that the ‘‘Male Students’’ group contains individuals who support the veil as well as individuals who support it much less (the former group being the larger one), it could have been expected that the answers of ‘Male Students’ will confirm the above findings. At least 68% (n = 289) of the males are very supportive of the veil because, as mentioned, 68% state that their future wife should wear the hijab. However, in spite of this, the ‘Male Students’’ answers do not match the ‘Covered Girls’’ answers but come closer to the ‘Uncovered Girls’’ answers. When asked what they think why girls are wearing the hijab, only 39% indicate religious motivations as the first reason, thus much less than what the ‘Covered Girls’ (71%) had indicated themselves. 22% check “Their family told them” as the first reason. 30% choose “Their family told them” also as the second reason, while only 25% check “They want to obey their religion” as the second reason. “Their family told them” appears again as a third reason with 15%. Apart from those two options, ‘Male Students’ give only “They want to get a better reputation” a higher score (26% as the Third Reason) than to all other options. The percentage of 26% as a Third Reason for the “It gives me a better reputation” option is more or less the same in all target groups. Male Students’ Comments 27 male students use the “Other reason” option but they do so mainly in order to express their faith and to elucidate (most of the time unrelated) religious details, though they do so to a much lesser extent than the ‘Covered Girls’. Three male students point to the “hypocrisy” of girls who wear the hijab and one student finds that “men are forcing women” to wear it. The same tendency persists in the final comments, except that here complaints about “improper veiling” dominate. Also, a very large number of male students points out in their comments that women should never be forced to wear the hijab. In the entire survey not a single respondent (male or female) recommends to force women into veiling in any way. In the 240 comments drafted by ‘Male Students’ for the “final comments” section, only two express 34 criticism of veiling. It is evident therefore that respondents are clear that while veiling is desirable, it should be the chosen way for women, rather than one dictated to them. The results contrast with Williams and Vashi’s study of American Muslims, in which “fire and brimstone speeches and warnings of moral danger among young women” have been common among men but almost absent among women. The latter preferred to discuss interpersonal issues “visibility, social ostracism and public reputation” (Williams and Vashi 2007: 281) but not modesty and moral purity. In our survey, such reputation issues were almost neglected by Kuwaiti respondents. 3.2. The “Protect Women from Men” Argument Does the hijab protect women from the male gaze? Surprisingly, the “protect women” argument, which had in our survey been phrased as the “I wear it because I am bothered by the attention that male students will give me if I do not wear a hijab” option, receives relatively little attention in all target groups. This is surprising because internationally, defenders of the hijab do often put forward the “protection” argument as primordial. Messini’s (1994) research indicates that her sample group in Morocco equates being unveiled to being naked since there exists a deep rooted belief that unveiled women are guilty of provoking unwanted male attention. Covered women are therefore regarded as being clothed. In our surveys, this option receives only between 1 and 10% in increasing sequences from First Reason to Second Reason among ‘Covered Girls’. Also ‘Male Students’ did not see this option as an essential argument. Only 19% believed that “women without hijab are exposed to unpleasant male attention” and 45% answered here “sometimes.” The tendency is even more extreme in the ‘Uncovered Girls’’ survey. Of those girls who obviously have first-hand knowledge of the matter, 73% answered that they have “never” been exposed to unpleasant male attention and 24% answered “sometimes, but I can deal with it,” and only 2% stated that they had been confronted with an unpleasant male gaze quite often. This survey renders the “bothered by male attention” argument insignificant while the “family pressure” argument turned out to be more important than initially assumed. 35 3.3. The “Feminist Argument” Considerations of the “protect women” argument lead to reflections about arguments offered by “pro-veiling feminism,” that is, by those women who see their veiling as an act of resistance and liberation. The Middle-Eastern world has particularly created its own feminisms without merely deriving its ideologies from Western models. Pro-veiling feminism is not the equivalent of Islamic feminism, which emerged in the early 1990s when some Muslim feminists began to interpret feminist problems through re-readings of the Qur’an and other religious texts and attempted to reconcile Islamic faith with international human rights. Asma Barlas, Leila Ahmed and Fatima Mernissi are Islamic or Muslim feminists. There is also a Western pro-veiling feminist position adopted by Western feminists who defend veiling on a feminist basis. Martha Nussbaum in her often-quoted article “Veiled Threats?” adopts such a position. The juxtaposition of veiling and feminism can adopt curious traits. In Turkey, for example, the commonly called “veiled feminists” “do not want to be called feminists, and neither do they want to emphasize gender in their way of thinking” (Sakaranaho 2008: 53). In our survey, the feminist pro-veiling argument that women need to be protected from the male gaze in order to be recognized as intelligent human beings is practically absent in all groups. In the entire survey, only one student mentions the word “feminism” and justifies her veiling thus: People underestimate inner beauty and ignore women as thinkers, and they focus on her physical beauty and the shallow things that don’t matter. Hijab is a concept, not just a piece of cloth of one’s head, a way to behave, act, live, it is not to oppress women, but rather to let their minds, ideas, and personalities shine in a world that is, and always has been, let’s be honest, dominated by men. I see as part of feminism and part of the women’s liberation movements, not something those movements should fight against. 3.4. Preliminary Conclusion What dominates in the “reasons for veiling” section in the ‘Covered Girls’ and ‘Male Students’ groups is the “obedience to religion” theme. However, there is a gap between the ‘Covered Girls’’ affirmation that they wear the hijab for religious reasons, and the assumptions of ‘Uncovered Girls’ and ‘Male Students’ who do not confirm this perspective 36 but attribute hijab wearing to following family wishes. The contradiction between the different positions concerning “reasons for veiling” has been highlighted in this research through qualitative analysis as well as through quantitative research employing T-tests designed to compare the weighted averages of covered and uncovered girls’ results. 3.5. Religion as a Factor The detection of religious motivations was central to this survey. The majority of the respondents (between 80 and 90%) believe that religion is either a “very important” or an “important” factor for veiling in Kuwait. It was important to check whether this is true. It may be evident that students are religious; but it is hasty to conclude that the hijab is generally worn for religious reasons. Are our Students Religious? If we measure the degree of religiosity by way of questions about the knowledge of Islam or the dedication to prayer, we can find only small differences between covered and uncovered female students. Around 64% of the ‘Covered Girls’ consider their knowledge of Islam ‘good’ (even ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’ score here only slightly more) against 54% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’. Equally, only 0.7% of ‘Covered Girls’ and 3% of ‘Uncovered Girls’ consider their knowledge of Islam ‘poor’. 92% of ‘Covered Girls’ and 74% of ‘Uncovered Girls’ affirm to pray daily. This is a 18% less for the ‘Uncovered Girls’; still, the number of devote Muslims even among ‘Uncovered Girls’ remains impressive. If at least 74% of them pray daily, our student population needs to be considered as predominantly religious. The conclusion is that overall, veiling or not veiling is not really dependent on religious practice because almost all respondents through all categories can be considered as religious. What is more important for an understanding of the relationship between religion and veiling are the differences of how religiosity is handled by students. 3.5.1. Praying Attitudes As mentioned, 92% of the ‘Covered Girls’ affirm to pray daily (98% of the ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’) against 74% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’. Perhaps surprisingly, it appears that more female than ‘Male Students’ (78%) pray daily. The question “Do you pray daily?” has been 37 commented by 110 of the 467 ‘Covered Girls’ who answered this question (11 chose not to answer). 95 of those 110 comments from ‘Covered Girls’ emphasize their already affirmative answer by adding an often-enthusiastic statement about how important and/or pleasant praying actually is. There is not a single ‘fake comment’ in this section that would be limited to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or a comment that merely repeats what had been checked beforehand.16 This clearly distinguishes this comment section from all other comment sections. Only eight out of the 110 ‘Covered Girls’ who post comments state that they do pray but are sometimes late for prayer, forget it or need to be reminded. This creates a strong contrast with the ‘Male Students’’ attitudes towards prayer. While 20% fewer males than females pray, only half of their 48 comments merely emphasize the fact that they do really pray daily. Male students simply check the yes box and refrain from reinstating that they really mean ‘yes’, as do the girls. The other half states (often jokingly) that they often forget to pray, pray irregularly, need to be reminded… Such comments are absolutely absent in the ‘Covered Girls’’ section. The 323 ‘Uncovered Girls’ who chose to answer this question post here only 26 comments (against 110 by the 678 ‘Covered Girls’). Twelve of them briefly state that they do really pray five times a day; the rest writes that they do not pray regularly, forget it, or are late. The ‘Uncovered Girls’ do also omit the ardent religious lessons that many ‘Covered Girls’ like to append to their answers. 3.5.2. Knowledge of the Scriptures An important part of the survey concerns the question of whether students are able to establish links between veiling and concrete references from the Qur’an and/or hadiths. There is a general consensus among the veiled, unveiled, and male students that the hijab is obligatory in Islam and that clear indications about this can be found in the Qur’an and/or in the hadiths. 93% of the ‘Covered Girls’, 96% of the ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’, 80% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’, and 83% of the ‘Male Students’ are convinced of this. This is an average of 87% for all respondents. Several students write in their comments that there are “lots of quotations from the Qur’an and hadiths” proving that veiling is obligatory. Many refer to internet sites, paste links into the comments or say that we should simply google it. 41% of ‘Covered Girls’ and 16 See note 8 for the definition of “fake comments.” 38 ‘Male Students’, and 25% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ do also believe that the abaya is obligatory according to the scriptures. 73% of the ‘Covered Girls’, 96% of the ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’ and 72% of the ‘Male Students’ state that they are themselves able to indicate corresponding passages from the Qur’an or a hadith. Only 31% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ state this. Of the 673 ‘Covered Girls’ who answered this question, 183 add comments, 50 of which contain full length quotations from the Qur’an. Of the 344 ‘Male Students’ who answered this question, 81 add comments, 20 of which are quotations from the Qur’an. The ‘Uncovered Girls’’ approach is different. Of the 110 ‘Uncovered Girls’ who answered this question, 69 post comments. Only five quote a passage from the Qur’an. Instead, twelve ‘Uncovered Girls’ write critical evaluations of the hijab, attempt to link the question to themes like ‘tradition vs. religion’, to the metaphorical character of scriptures, to historical debates by specialists who could not solve the question, to the Qur’an and the difficulty to apply it in modern life, to the different meanings of modesty, to the male role in the act of veiling (if he would not look then we would not have to cover), etc. Such critical evaluations are practically absent in the comments posted by ‘Covered Girls’. Most of the remaining ‘Uncovered Girls’’ comments concentrate on the “one should not force women to wear the hijab” theme. 3.5.3. The Qur’anic Passages The most popular passage pasted by ‘Covered Girls’ and ‘Male Students’ into the comments box is the Surah Al-Noor 24: 31 (pasted fifty-six times). Ironically, at least in the three existing translations by Yusuf Ali, Mamarduke M. Pickthall and Saheeh International (translations that students used most of the time when quotations came in English) as well as in Arabic, this Surah shows that the woman’s head does not need to be covered: And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers… 17 17 The above text is Saheeh’s translation. Pickthall’s translation is similar: “And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers…” Also Yusuf Ali’s translation is similar: “And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; 39 Hair cannot be considered adornment and even if it is, it is said that that “which necessarily appears thereof” can be shown. Furthermore the head cover should be wrapped over the chest and not necessarily over the head. Five students paste another translation (most probably found on the internet) of the same Surah. It is taken from the translation by the contemporary Pakistani scholars M. Khan and M. Hilali, whose work is called The Noble Qur’an. This translation has been recognized as problematic by more liberally minded Muslim scholars because it is interspersed with commentaries from medieval religious scholars Tabari († 923), Qurtubi († 1273), and Ibn Kathir († 1373). The problem is not only the extremely conservative nature of the comments, but also the fact that the comments (most often provided in brackets) are not identified as comments but are presented as if they are part of the Qur’an. In Khan and Hilali’s translation the same passage from the Surah Al-Noor reads thus: And tell the believing women to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts) and not to show off their adornment except only that which is apparent (like both eyes for necessity to see the way, or outer palms of hands or one eye or dress like veil, gloves, headcover, apron), and to draw their veils all over Juyoobihinna (i.e. their bodies, faces, necks and bosoms) and not to reveal their adornment except to their husbands, or their fathers… (our italics). The passages in italics have been added by the translators (without identifying them as additions). The Noble Qur’an’s translation is sponsored by the government of Saudi Arabia and authorized by Saudi institutions. It is distributed for free in Islamic libraries all over the world. Khaleel Mohammed, professor of Islamic studies at San Diego University, writes that the “translation reads more like a supremacist Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian polemic than a rendition of the Islamic scripture” (Mohammed 2005). It clear that in the Surah Al-Noor, everything depends on the translation of the word juyub. It is impossible to enter here a discussion of this problem but it should be noted that three standard translations (Yusuf Ali, Pickthall and Saheeh) say that the head cover (khimar) that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers…” 40 should be drawn over the bosom or chest (juyub). Only Khan and Hilali suggest that juyub does also mean “faces,” and “necks.” They even link the word juyub, in an inconsequential fashion, to “gloves,” “a covering of one eye” and “apron.” It is impossible for laymen to make a scholarly point here, but obviously neither the ‘Male Students’ nor the ‘Covered Girls’ are aware of those interpretation problems since nobody points them out. On the internet, the Hilali-Khan translation appears on literally hundreds of popular English speaking Islamic websites like Islam Questions and Answers, missionislam.com, the “Hijab” facebook page, Inter-Islam.org or islamiccenter.com. Another popular reference are lines 33-59 from the Surah Al Ahzab, which students pasted 21 times and which reads in Yusuf Ali’s translation: O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And Allah is Oft- Forgiving, Most Merciful. Again, there is no indication of the covering of the head though The Noble Qur’an adds, again in brackets: “i.e. screen themselves completely except the eyes or one eye to see the way” after the word “persons.” Seven students indicate the Surah Al Nisa’a though without verse number. It is most likely that verse 34 is meant. The verse talks about wives’ “obedience” to husbands and The Noble Qur’an translation brings in the modesty theme.18 Still it is not clear how this could refer to the covering of the head. Three students quote also hadiths but they appear to be unrelated to the topic. Surprisingly, only one student presents the hadith 4092 from Abu Dawud’s collection of hadiths, though defenders of the obligatory character of the hijab quote this hadith relatively often. It is possible that students decided not to indicate it because they knew that Abu Dawud (a Persian collector of hadith who died in 889) had classified this hadith as weak (mursal) but there is no evidence of this. In the hadith, Aisha reports that Asma, daughter of Abu Bakr, 18 The issue of “obedience” is controversial and depends on the translation. 41 “entered upon the Apostle of Allah wearing thin clothes. The Apostle of Allah turned his attention from her. He said: ‘O Asma, when a woman reaches the age of menstruation, it does not suit her that she displays her parts of body except this and this, and he pointed to her face and hands’.” Abu Dawud classifies the hadith as weak because the narrator who transmitted it from Aisha is not known (cf. Syed 1998). It can therefore be concluded that nowhere in the Qur’an is the veil prescribed to women. The passage from Surah Al-Noor 24:31 tries to focus on the need for modesty in general rather than on the need for veiling. 3.6. Social Interaction and Mutual Perceptions The results show that the social interaction between veiled and uncovered girls is intact and functional. Relationships are friendly and there is no discrimination. Only 17% of the ‘Covered Girls’ think that they have at least once been discriminated against in Kuwaiti society and this concerns mainly ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’ and ‘Niqab Wearing Girls’. As one Niqab Wearing Girl comments: “I wear hijab and niqab and although we’re an Islamic country I still get treated less well than others because I’m not ‘fashionable’ enough.” The survey contained four questions asking ‘Covered Girls’ and ‘Male Students’ about their opinion of ‘Uncovered Girls’. Significantly the ‘Covered Girls’ comments here have eloquent reminders that unveiled girls are not less ethical, not less Muslim, not less respectable. Over again, ‘Covered Girls’ insist that Kuwait is a free country and that nobody should be judged by the hijab because wearing it is a personal and free decision. There is not a single comment that refers negatively in any way to unveiled girls. A typical comment is: “The behavior also does not relate to the hijab, there are many girls who do not wear hijab [who] are more polite and respectful than girls who do wear it and vice versa. In the end we are all equal in our lovely country, men and women.” Accordingly, only 16% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ say that they have received “somehow negative” reactions from their environment for not veiling. One ‘Uncovered Girl’ writes: I’ve only had this problem with older men and women in the less developed areas of Kuwait. My most recent experience was when I went to donate blood at the blood bank. The gentleman there was rude and would not address me properly, then told my brother point blank that it would be better if I wore a hijab. 42 Another girl writes: “If anything I’ve been treated fairly if not better;” and another girls writes even: “I never felt treated negatively about not wearing a hijab. Rather I’ve been treated as a liberal who is encouraging feminism.” 58% of the ‘Covered Girls’ state that they have “advised other girls to wear the hijab,” but the advising session did not seem to have taken the form of pressure because only 14% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ indicate that they have been pressured in wearing the hijab. Above that, as shown above, almost all of them refer to parental pressure when being asked for details. “Advising” seems to be mainly a family matter. Some of the ‘Covered Girls’ do also point to the impossibility of persuading uncovered girls to veil: “Nowadays it is too difficult to advise any girl to wear it because they like to do what westerners do” and “unfortunately, not everyone respects the idea of hijab and the fact that it is a must.” 3.6.1. Culture and Religion The above facts permit an interesting observation. When it comes to questions about relations between covered and uncovered girls, it appears that the hijab is seen at least temporarily, as a cultural item and thus as an item that can be detached from the realm of religion. Girls without hijab can be good Muslims because wearing the hijab is merely a cultural choice. Given the efforts that ‘Covered Girls’ made in other places of the survey to link the hijab to religion, this attitude can appear as surprising. As a matter of fact, all through the survey, the hijab as a religious and not merely cultural item is praised literally hundreds of times. Many times, when certain ‘Covered Girls’ are criticized because their immoral behavior does not match their pious appearance, the reproach is phrased like “they wear the hijab merely for cultural and not for religious reasons.” Both veiled and unveiled girls tend to use this pattern. Here however, when it comes to judging uncovered girls in general, tolerance predominates; suddenly veiling is depicted as a cultural choice that can be handled flexibly as long as the person’s “religion is right.” Comments like “It’s not a matter of personal freedom, but in Islam we need it” are very rare in this section. The contradiction or paradox emanating from a certain double standard when it comes to the hijab as either a ‘religious must’ or a ‘cultural choice’ will interest us more in our concluding remarks. 43 3.6.2. Perception and Self-Perception On a first level, it can be concluded that there is truly a strong attitude of tolerance when it comes to veiling as a social (and not as a religious) phenomenon in Kuwait. The absence of extra-parental pressure as well as the liberal attitude of ‘Covered Girls’ towards ‘Uncovered Girls’ can yield the impression that Kuwait is a free country able to coordinate progress and tradition along reasonable lines. However, the harmonious picture of peaceful coexistence that the above figures and comments suggest needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The value of tolerance is put into a relative context by the comments of ‘Uncovered Girls’. While the ‘Covered Girls’’ evaluations of uncovered girls are, as will be shown below, almost angelic, the comments delivered by ‘Uncovered Girls’ about ‘Covered Girls’ are much more critical; sometimes they evolve even towards the sarcastic. In general, topics like “hijab and virtue,” “hijab and respect,” “hijab and fashion” are approached much more critically by the ‘Uncovered Girls.’ This is shown already by the number of comment entries. While the 678 ‘Covered Girls’ produce only 33 comments in response to the question “Do you see the combination of the hijab with fashion as a contradiction?” the 323 ‘Uncovered Girls’ produce here a total of 90 comments. ‘Covered Girls’, on the other hand, are more active when it comes to the production of religious quotations and demonstrations of faith. 3.6.3. Respect and Virtue Above we have pointed to the strong discrepancy between the ‘Covered Girls’’ selfperception and those statements that were made by others (‘Male Students’, ‘Uncovered Girls’) about them with regard to the question of whether religion or family pressure is the main reason for wearing the hijab. A similar discrepancy arises with regards to the question of whether the hijab gives women more respect. 87% (n = 589) of the ‘Covered Girls’ (and 96% of the ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’) answer here ‘yes’ but only 26% (n = 84) of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ are ready to confirm that the hijab does indeed earn them more respect. 52% (n=221) of the ‘Male Students’ find that the hijab provides more respect, which is much, but still much less respect than what the ‘Covered Girls’ themselves believe to obtain. “Yes, the hijab gives women more respect” n All Covered Girls 589 Percent 87 44 Abaya Wearing Girls Uncovered Girls Male Students 124 84 221 96 26 52 A similar gap exists with regard to the question whether ‘Covered Girls’ are “generally more virtuous.” As a matter of fact, only few people support this idea: 18% (n = 122) of the ‘Covered Girls’ group answer here ‘yes’ (and 25% of the abaya wearing group). One ‘Covered Girl’ establishes a quasi-empirical link between veiling and virtue: “Wearing it reminds me always that I have to pray. It also reminds me about the right way for ladies to act in public. Wearing it made me a better person.” However, only 5% (n = 16) of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ support the idea that “Covered Girls’ are more virtuous.” ‘Male Students’ support it most strongly (27%) and one male student adds the following comment: “Because girls with hijab are more likely to have been disciplined by their mothers and are less spoiled and obnoxious than those that are not wearing the hijab.” “Yes, veiled girls are more virtuous” n All Covered Girls Abaya Wearing Girls Uncovered Girls Male Students 122 32 16 114 Percent 18 25 5 27 It is true that the largest proportion of the ‘Covered Girls’’ comments to the question “Are veiled girls more virtuous?” offers some criticism of their own group. However, this criticism is rarely expressed in a straightforward manner. “Even a whore can gain respect,” written by a ‘Covered girl’, is an exception. It is important to note here a particular pattern. First, the nonvirtuous ones are, of course, always the others: “I don’t think (…) the hijab dictates her behavior or attitude. However, personally, I believe that my hijab makes me more virtuous,” is a typical comment. Next, when ‘Covered Girls’ are critical of their own group, they are so most of the time only after having distinguished beforehand between those who wear the hijab properly (that is, of their free will) from those who don’t (that is, those who have been forced). The strategy is interesting because it is linked to the above central question of “Why do you wear the hijab?” Those who wear the hijab without being virtuous are precisely those who do not want to wear it: “Not all of them [are virtuous], because some girls were forced to wear the veil, so their behavior is not always virtuous.” 45 In the comments of both female groups (covered and uncovered), only one single ‘Covered Girl’ explains that ‘Covered Girls’ are indeed more virtuous by writing: “Yes, this is Islam and what Sayeda Fatima did.” Apart from that, only two ‘Male Students’ point out that they believe in the hijab = virtue equation. Overall the ‘Male Students’’ comments are rather critical (“I feel they hide behind the hijab just like men hide behind their beards”) but are still less aggressive than those of ‘Uncovered Girls’. What do ‘Uncovered Girls’ say about hijab and respect? First of all, ‘Uncovered Girls’ apply a logic similar to that of ‘Covered Girls’ when distinguishing those who wear the hijab of their own will from those who wear it because they have been forced. The only difference is that for many of them all veiled girls are non-virtuous simply because all of them have been forced: “Hijab girls are less virtuous because a majority of girls are forced into wearing it, they are not truly committed.” For them, it is mainly the symbolic representation of the hijab as a public demonstration of purity and good behavior, which makes it attractive to wear. This brings us to a very important point. An animosity that seems to be incompatible with the above described image of the “religious country of tolerance” flares up here, in the comment section of “Do you believe that hijab wearing girls are more virtuous” more than anywhere else. Of the 87 ‘Uncovered Girls’ who comment on this question, 36 say ‘no’, 16 say ‘it depends’, 18 say that they are actually worse than the others, and 8 point out that veiled girls have merely been forced to wear it and are therefore in no way better. The comment rate is very strong: this is one out of two cases (the other one being that of the “Do you see the combination of the hijab with fashion as a contradiction?” question) where the ‘Uncovered Girls’’ number of comments considerably exceeds that of ‘Covered Girls’. The latter deliver here only 29 comments. The aggressive tone of many of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ in this section contrasts with the harmony-seeking tone used by the ‘Covered Girls’ when talking about their unveiled classmates. Here are some examples: Most girls who wear hijab behave worse [than those] who do not wear it. I see some girls taking off their hijab once they leave their houses. (…) once they travel they take it off. The most outrageous people I meet tend to be those wearing the hijab. There really is no difference between them [and the others], except that people who wear the niqab and abaya tend to be a bit bolder because their faces are hidden. 46 They are not as innocent as they seem. The ones who don’t wear the veil are the ones who behave properly. Most of those who wear it are disrespectful and don’t behave properly. No, I disagree, and I hate students who wear the veil. Most of them are witches hiding their true identity fooling the world with the hijab and using it as a mask. They’re the most fake people I know. Shockingly I’m more of a Muslim than they are, all they seem to do is talk behind people’s back. I know for a fact that wearing a hijab doesn’t mean you’re better than other girls. I have seen a lot of girls wearing hijab do deviant acts that are not acceptable. But society sees girls with hijab [as] better than other girls, which is just wrong There are a lot of girls who wear abaya, hijab, and niqab and do stuff that you can’t imagine behind their parents back and do you know why? Because they were forced to wear it and not allowed to do anything. [They are] being watched over all the time. (…) When you tell a little boy don’t go near the fire what will he do? Go to the fire. Most of the girls that I have seen who behave wrong or cause trouble are girls wearing hijab. 3.6.4. Different Perceptions of “Male Attention” A further gap exists with regard to how “male attention” is perceived by ‘Covered Girls’ and ‘Uncovered Girls’ respectively. Two target groups had been confronted with the option suggesting that female students could be bothered by the attention that male students will give them if they do not wear a hijab. It is possible to extract a “Women need to be protected from men” position from some of the answers, but this position is not very often expressed by any of the three groups. However, certain differences appear from one group to the other. As stated above, with regard to the central question “Why do you veil?” only between 1 and 10% express the conviction that the hijab is necessary because it protects women from men. The option is more present in the lower ranks than in the upper ranks. For ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’ the rate is higher (between 0.8 and 18% from rank 1 to 4). This is a relatively small 47 percentage though it still denotes a perception that considerably differs from the ‘Uncovered Girls’’ ideas of male-female interaction. The ‘Uncovered Girls’ do not seem to see males as a problem. As stated above, 73% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ indicate that they have “never” been exposed to unpleasant male attention and only 2% state that they are confronted with the male gaze quite often. It is actually the ‘Male Students’ who emphasize the “protect women from men” argument most strongly: 19% believe that “women without hijab are exposed to unpleasant male attention.” In absolute terms, 19% is not much but it is much greater than the 2% of ‘Uncovered Girls’. Nonetheless, few ‘Male Students’ believe that women wear the hijab because they seek to be protected from the male gaze. Male students rank this from first to fourth reason with 0.7%, 6.5%, 10.5% and 11.5%. Once again, this reveals a difference of perception: the reality is the same for all, but it is perceived differently by each of the three target groups. 22% of the ‘Covered Girls’ see their own group as “females in danger” because they attribute one of the four ranks to the “I want to avoid male attention” option. Males emphasize this idea even more: 29% check the “They want to avoid male attention” option in one of the ranks. ‘Uncovered Girls’, on the other hand, perceive their environment – and therefore also their own role within it – differently as has been shown above. 3.6.5. Combining the Hijab with Western Clothes and “Veiling Fashion” Displaying one’s beauty in public by wearing makeup and fashionable clothes is seen in many Muslim societies as a violation of social norms able to disrupt society. In Kuwait however, this interpretation of religion and what defines modesty is different. While for Messini (1994) respondents use hijab as a shelter protecting them from a society they felt mistreated them as sex objects and helped them to not be judged by their physical appearance, dress or jewelry, Kuwaiti respondents seem to have embraced the hijab to help them to stand out from others. This is an interesting contradiction. Wearing jeans, makeup, skirts and blouses is not regarded by our respondents as being in conflict with wearing the hijab. 48 On closer examination, it appears that “veiling fashion” as it is handled in Kuwait contains indeed a sharp internal contradiction. In many parts of the world, since the early 1990s, Islamic dress has been adapted to modern fashion as urban and middle class women began to cover themselves in a completely new style. In principle, young women combine veiling with the modern standards of beauty and are also ready to follow marketing methods intrinsic to international fashion, that is, respond to the dynamics of the fashion system and other imperatives of consumer culture. The new phenomenon has been observed in many places where this practice had previously been almost nonexistent such as Bangladesh (cf. Sandikci & Ger 2010: 11). Some people believe that this phenomenon leads to the “de-sanctification of the veil” and that the hijab will end up being “just a piece of fabric” (Wassef: 119). Given those international tendencies, it is natural that in a rich consumer-oriented country like Kuwait the “veiling fashion” tendency is very pronounced. On the other hand, given the strong religious attitudes that respondents express throughout this survey, one could expect that the combination of the veil with fashion will be viewed in this country with a critical eye. However, in general this is not the case and this fact needs to be analyzed. 81% of the ‘Covered Girls’ state that they do combine the hijab not just with “Western clothes” but with “fashionable clothes.” Even 58% of ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’ and 20% of ‘Niqab Wearing Girls’ state that they do combine the hijab with fashionable clothes (what they actually mean by “fashionable clothes” is accessories like shoes, purses and sunglasses). There was no misunderstanding possible here about what was meant by “fashion” because we also asked more explicit questions about the hijab and its link with fashion. Not all, but 81% of the girls who wear the hijab and Western clothes (and thus no abaya) say that they combine the hijab with “fashionable clothes,” which shows that “fashionable” was not simply equated with “western.” However, when asked whether they see this as a contradiction, 53% of those students answer ‘yes’. Some make the character of this contradiction very explicit: “Sometimes this clothing may break the wall of hijab and show women as a reachable person to men, and this is the complete opposite of what hijab is supposed to be.” That said, the respondent still wears it. 49 The ‘Uncovered Girls’ opinions are not different: one half of them see this as a contradiction. Surprisingly, ‘Male Students’ are here most tolerant: only 34% (n = 146) of the ‘Male Students’ see this combination as a contradiction. Yes n No Percent n Percent Covered Girls Do you combine the hijab with fashionable clothes? 509 75 169 25 Do you see a contradiction in this 346 51 332 49 165 51 158 49 146 34 280 66 Uncovered Girls Do you see it as a problem that girls are combining the hijab with fashionable clothes? Males students Do you see it as a problem that girls are combining the hijab with fashionable clothes? Though as many ‘Covered Girls’ as ‘Uncovered Girls’ perceive in the “veiling fashion” phenomenon an internal contradiction (because, normally, the hijab, as a symbol of modesty, should not be combined with clothes able to attract men), the criticism expressed in the comments by ‘Uncovered Girls’ is much more radical than that of ‘Covered Girls’. 24 of their 90 comments represent direct attacks of ‘Covered Girls’ who wear fashionable clothes: If she wants to put make up she should cover her face. Either you wear it right or you don’t. It’s not considered hijab as long as men look at you in a perverted way!!!!! Hijab is something supposed to be respectable. I request them to take it off and be normal rather than wearing it and giving a bad impression of our religion. One student even wanted to draw the limit by saying that “in the university most of [the ‘Covered Girls’] wear tight clothes that reveal everything and most of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ wear loose clothes.” The only other group that attacks fashionable ‘Covered Girls’ as harshly 50 are ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’, who post four of the only five comments in the whole ‘Covered Girls’ category that are vehemently critical of veiling fashion. In our survey we did not only want to know what students thought of “veiling fashion” in general, but also how the hijab as a religious item fits into the dynamics of veiling fashion. In other words, we wanted to know whether the hijab itself (once it has been inserted into the “fashion game”) has become a “mere” fashion item or if it has preserved (some of) its religious character. To the question “Can the hijab be seen as a fashion item?” only 41% (n = 334) of the ‘Covered Girls’ answer ‘yes’.19 In general, 86% (n = 701) of the ‘Covered Girls’ agree that fashion trends for the hijab do exist but only 36% (n = 293) state that those trends are important for them. Half of them like to drape their hijab in personalized ways. Male students are slightly more critical of the idea that the hijab is a fashion item (only 37% confirm it) but ‘Uncovered Girls’ turn out to be the most conservative respondents: only 27% (n = 113) accept the hijab=fashion concept. The score is so low partly because the latter simply do not find it fashionable. But the main reason is that they refuse the idea that a religious item such as the hijab can be incorporated into fashion. This means that though the majority of the veiled students do combine hijab and fashion, they clearly distinguish between hijab and fashion. This is one of the main findings of the present study. Generally in Kuwait, “veiling fashion” does not mean that the hijab is fashion but rather that the hijab as a non-fashion item can be combined with fashion. The difference is subtle but important. One half of the ‘Covered Girls’ even refuse to personalize the hijab. In the comments many insist that “hijab is hijab” and that its classical way of draping cannot be modified in any way because it is religious and not fashion. In the end, this means that fancy western clothes are allowed but that the hijab must remain static. Below we will try to elaborate more on the question of whether fancy clothes are allowed just because the hijab remains static. However, before doing this, the above phenomenon must be analyzed once again in the context of the culture-religion relationship. As a matter of fact, the The “hijab as a fashion item” phenomenon refers most of the time to hijabs with innovative patterns that are marketed like “normal” clothes. It can also refer to hijabs sold by famous brand names or to cotton hijabs. There are extreme cases of hijabs with Cadillac symbols. Most recently, “hijab as a fashion item” also came to refer to the turban fashion that many conservative people refuse to recognize as a proper Islamic hijab. The “puffy hijab” created by stuffing items underneath the hijab in order to yield the impression of having a huge amount of hair can also be considered a “hijab as a fashion item.” 19 51 distinction between fashion and religion goes hand in hand with the distinction between culture and religion, a distinction that is pointed out over again especially by veiled students. While many students are even ready to see the abaya and the niqab as mere culture (because it is not required by religion), in their eyes the hijab has to remain religion. As mentioned, very often students who wear the hijab simply for “cultural reasons” are judged negatively. Sometimes this argument is even used for the dismissal of Bedouin women who are said to veil only “out of tradition” and not for religious reasons: “Here in Kuwait we have in Bedouin people who often wear it for tradition not for religion.” We will come back to the evaluation of dress codes in terms of culture and religion in Chapter 4. So far, the important point that can be extracted from the above fashion related questions is that most veiled students (51%) recognize that, in religious terms, hijab and fashion are incompatible but that they combine them nevertheless. However, paradoxically and contrary to what could be expected, they “solve” this contradiction not by attempting to fuse those concepts through a transformation of the hijab into a cultural item by saying that the hijab is merely cultural (a part of fashion) and therefore less religious. Such a transformation would actually be the easiest solution because, as a merely cultural item, the hijab would definitely be compatible with fashion. Nor do they solve the contradiction by saying that the hijab has been forced upon them and that they are trying to soften its effects by combining the hijab with modern influences (thus making it less religious). Instead they chose the opposite approach: they make the hijab as religious as possible in order to separate it conceptually from the cultural phenomenon called fashion. For them, paradoxically, the hijab does not become less religious when it is combined with fashionable clothes but, on the contrary, it remains statically religious. Why are ‘Covered Girls’ doing this? The answer is clear: by wearing the religious hijab they hope to obtain a moral justification of their (non-religious) engagement in fashion. In other words, they emphasize their religious motivations in order to compensate the guilt they seem to feel for wearing non-religious clothes able to attract men. It is not far-fetched to conclude here that guilt is present within the entire pattern. When 81% of the girls who wear the hijab and Western clothes say that they combine the hijab with “fashionable clothes” but at the same time 53% affirm that this represents a contradiction, one can safely conclude that those students feel guilt for wearing fashionable clothes. The solution of this moral dilemma looks 52 as follows: as long as you are wearing a strongly religious item as the hijab you simply cannot be bad, even when you are wearing clothes that attract the male gaze. The guilt and shame paradigm, which is decisive for the topic discussed in this section, will be further analyzed in Chapter 4 and will be important for the final conclusions to be drawn from this research. 3.6.6. Does the Hijab Enhance the Woman’s Beauty? The relationship between hijab and beauty follows a pattern similar to that suggested by responses to questions on (1) virtue, (2) respect, (3) fashion, as well as (4) reasons for veiling. As can be expected, there is a contrast between veiled and unveiled girls’ perceptions. The contrast is not as strong as with regard to the above four questions but still there is a gap. 69% of the ‘Covered Girls’ (and 73% of ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’) believe that the hijab enhances the women’s beauty, but only 46% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ and 57% of the ‘Male Students’ are ready to confirm this. “Yes, the hijab enhances a woman’s beauty” All Covered Girls Abaya Wearing Girls Uncovered Girls Male Students n 468 95 149 242 Percent 69 73 46 57 In all students’ comments appended to the “…enhances beauty” question, the formula “sometimes” or “it depends” appears relatively often. 16 ‘Covered Girls’ and 29 ‘Uncovered Girls’ use those words; on the other hand, only five ‘Male Students’ add “sometimes” as a comment. “Sometimes” might thus have been a viable option for many students had it been proposed by the survey. On the other hand, such an option would have blurred the message we were seeking to obtain; the sharp distinction between ‘yes’ and ‘no’ makes contrasting attitudes much clearer. Even so, there is an interesting observation to be made: 7% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ who answered “yes it does enhance the woman’s beauty” amend their answer by adding a comment saying “sometimes.” Only 0.01% of the ‘Covered Girls’ do this. The conclusion is that the latter’s positive answers are more assertive. In general, the “hijab and beauty” theme is submitted to the same contradictory constellation as the “hijab and fashion” theme. Strictly speaking, the purpose of the hijab is not to enhance 53 women’s beauty and, theoretically, its application in terms of female beauty should be recognized as inconsistent by people with such strong religious convictions. The fact that between 46 and 73% of the female students believe that the hijab does enhance the woman’s beauty shows that here an internal contradiction has been overlooked by those respondents. Before continuing, some general observations about the concept of beauty are necessary. It cannot be denied that beauty is a cultural and relative concept. In the first place, beauty has nothing to do with religion. The spectrum of descriptions provided by ‘Male Students’ shows that we are here rather confronted with a mixture of aesthetic sensibility (taste) determined by culture. One male student writes that it “makes them look like angels” and another one writes that it “makes them look sexier.” Still another one finds that it gives “men the feeling of mystery” and still another one explains that usually their “make-up ruins the beauty more than the hijab.” One male student states that “They look weird without hijab” and another one finds that with hijab they “look more cute.” A student explained to the first author that he cannot relate to unveiled girls because he is not used to their sight: all women in his environment are veiled and he simply feels more comfortable with veiled girls. Girls might have similarly culturally biased views when stating that “Frankly, it beautifies women too much.” Sometimes the beauty question seems to have been decided beforehand without attempting to support it with a suitable logic, as becomes manifest in a female student’s comment: “Hijab is usually worn to hide beauty and attractive parts of the face, the neck, the arms. But it does make a girl more beautiful.” Apart from the difference of appreciation of “hijab beauty” (some like it, some don’t), the comments in this section are relatively homogenous for all groups. About 12% point to the intrinsic contradictoriness of “hijab-beauty.” Another conviction that many ‘Covered Girls’ highlight is that the hijab “lets the face glow” because the rest of the woman is hidden: it “brightens her lovely face.” However, around 10% of the comments in each group employ a problematical concept. According to them, the hijab does not enhance the woman’s physical but rather her “spiritual beauty” or the “beauty of the woman’s soul.” Here the cultural and aesthetic concept of beauty is introduced into the realm of religion. One student equates beauty with faith, which entirely skirts the intended sense of beauty as an aesthetic concept that our question attempted to 54 address. Between five and eight comments in each group point to “spiritual beauty” (‘Male Students’ find this actually more important than other groups). Has the question been misunderstood by so many students intentionally or unintentionally? This is difficult to answer. In any case the spiritual beauty vs. physical beauty paradigm shows that many students are ready (perhaps too ready) to subsume a cultural concept such as beauty under a purely religious heading. Some problems follow from this. Any “beauty through hijab” scheme remains a highly idealized definition. One ‘Covered Girl’ describes the “spiritual beauty” or the beauty of a woman’s personality quite graphically: “It enhances her beauty in a way that allows her to see who is actually attracted to her for her personality rather than her tight pants or straight hair. If a woman is beautiful in hijab she will be gorgeous without it!” This means that the physical beauty needs to be hidden in order to bring the spiritual beauty out. Of course, this is a purely theoretical assumption. How well is this aim achieved in practice? This student’s response is determined by reflections on what the “ideal case” should look like. Most comments by those who favor the idea of “hijab-beauty,” point to idealized conceptions of how the hijab can be perceived in the best of all cases. A similarly idealized beauty is at the root of the following statement: “Wearing the hijab makes me feel untouchable, like a queen.” It is clear that such statements are not inspired by objective reflections on beauty. The problem is that no student from the “hijab = beauty” camp points to a potential conflict between the ideal scenario (written by religion) and actual reality (written by culture and the actual social situation in Kuwait). What is the reality? The reality is rather that of women who are most often average in terms of beauty, and who can either gain or lose points by wearing the hijab. The points they gain or lose do not so much depend on ideal but on pragmatic definitions of beauty: does their appearance benefit or suffer from wearing the veil? The question “Does the veil enhance a woman’s beauty” can only be properly answered as long as it is considered as an aesthetic problem in the first place; it should not be immediately considered within the context of religion. In this survey, about 10% of the students had difficulties to disconnect the idea of beauty from religious and spiritual (as opposed to purely aesthetic, cultural, and social) norms. Some students derive further conclusions from the preceding points. Students of all categories make the occurrence of beauty (including “spiritual beauty”) dependent upon the question whether she wears it on her own will or not. As has been pointed out above, this strategy serves the purpose of avoiding a conflict between religious requirements and the temptations 55 exercised by fashion. As a consequence, only two ‘Covered Girls’ mention a possible conflict between beauty and religion and are ready to spell out its dramatic consequence: “When we take off the hijab we look more beautiful, the hair plays a big role in girls, but what [can we] do, that is our religion [and it] says that we must wear hijab.” The other student writes: I believe that in the Middle East many girls wear hijab because of their family and society. I have met so many girls who claim that they are convinced about wearing the hijab but in fact they take it off in other countries when they travel. I think that because of the environment they live in and because what society and family has taught them they behave in that contradictory way. Those are the only students who point out this contradiction. This is surprising because the question is at hand: does too much beauty not contradict the very concept of modesty? Those students do not address the contradiction because for them the contradiction has been overcome. “Spiritual beauty” is one way out of the dilemma. The other way out is the solution that has been explained in the preceding section: making the hijab purely religious in order to obtain the moral right to pursue beauty in a cultural way though fashion. 3.6.7. Preliminary Conclusion: Unequal Perceptions and the Question of Tolerance This section has shown that the ways in which the different groups perceive each other are not homogenous. The contrast goes hand in hand with the gap that Chapter 3.6.2. (Perception and Self-Perception) attempted to reveal between the ‘Covered Girls’’ self-assessment and their assessment by others. 87% of ‘Covered Girls’ (and 96% of ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’) believe that the hijab gives them more respect though only 26% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ and 52% of the ‘Male Students’ were ready to confirm this. It also turned out that a gap exists with regard to the question whether the veil provides more virtue (18% of the ‘Covered Girls’ and 25% of the ‘Abaya Wearing Girls’ but only 5% of the ‘Uncovered Girls’ answered here ‘yes’). This pattern of conflicting views is confirmed by the different ways in which the “beauty” of the hijab can be perceived by different groups. The final question is: how far does “tolerance” go? On the one hand, it is true that the “no women should be forced to wear it” theme permeates the entire survey. On the other hand, this is not necessarily an expression of tolerance, but it might simply be an attempt to make clear that the “I want to wear it” option is the only religiously correct option and that 56 everybody should better conform to it. In this sense, religious subjects work towards the achievement of a “free society” in which women submit “freely” to the hijab. If this is true, the pronounced “tolerance” is not more than a red herring. 4. The Guilt/Shame Paradigm The problem of guilt has surfaced in this study when it was found that 81% of the girls who wear the hijab plus western clothes are interested in “fashionable clothes,” though at the same time 53% admit to see that this contradicts Islamic principles. It has also been shown that 69% of the students believe that the hijab enhances beauty though they obviously know perfectly well that it is not meant to enhance the woman’s beauty. Though there is no doubt that fashion generally enhances female and sexual beauty, many ‘Covered Girls’ (and also men) decide to declare this “beauty” (which they actually desire) “spiritual.” Our hypothesis has been that those students must feel guilty and in order to overcome this guilt, they define the hijab as a sanctified and purely religious item. The survey provided some evidence of this. By emphasizing their religious motivations for wearing the hijab, ‘Covered Girls’ hope to compensate the guilt they feel for wearing non-religious clothes able to attract men. More precisely, by conceptually separating the religious hijab from the cultural phenomenon called fashion they hope to obtain a moral justification of their engagement in fashion. The logic is one of guilt elimination: if fashion (beauty) plus hijab (spirituality) equates “spiritual beauty,” then any feeling of guilt is bound to disappear. One ‘Covered Girl’ compresses this logic, which is supposed to reconcile God and beauty, into a brief formula that she submitted as the final comment of the survey’s theme: “God is beautiful and loves beauty.” Furthermore, many students who combine the hijab with fashionable clothes tend to compensate their “fashion-guilt” through the production of an idealized image of themselves and of the society they are living in. Those images are dominated by religion: the hijab is declared to be purely religious and worn merely for religious reasons. Kuwaiti society is ideal because it rewards women for their religious decisions. By following their religion, women receive respect, liberty, beauty, and recognition as virtuous beings in return. In this ideal world, there is not only no conflict between culture (fashion) and religion, but also no conflict between the individual and society (as long as the individual is really religious). The 57 idealizations are supposed to heal the contradictions inherent in a life in which modern and traditional standards often contradict each other. The self-image of ‘Covered Girls’ is one of purity (the impure ones are always the others). They are pure because they have decided to veil on their own will and exclusively for motives of religious devotion. Once this religious devotion is strong enough, all contradictions between the individual and society are overcome. The problem is that any idealized images lead to a distorted perception of reality. First, it appears that ‘Covered Girls’ do not live up to their self-image. In reality, they are tempted by Western fashion and by a modern life-style that necessarily compromises religious standards. They are not the “angels” or “untouchable queens” (words taken from the comments) that they refer to in their self-descriptions. This is why the responses of other groups (‘Male Students’ and ‘Uncovered Girls’) contradict the ideal self-image of ‘Covered Girls’. Many veiled students do not dare to face this reality. The problem is that admitting this truth can lead to considerable feelings of shame and in more extreme cases, guilt.20 “Veiling fashion” is not only counter-religious because it potentially attracts men by emphasizing sexuality; it also denotes a dissatisfaction with the Islamic concept of veiling itself, which, in return, can mean that fashionable girls do not really want to veil; and “having been forced” is even more counter-religious than “veiling-fashion” itself. It is what needs to be avoided at any cost. As a consequence, an abaya wearing girl charges veiled girls who are wearing fashionable clothes with one of the worst moral mistakes that can be made in this context: those girls look as if they have been forced to wear the hijab: The whole point of wearing hijab is to look not too attractive for boys, so when girls wear hijab with tight clothes and full make up, what is the use of the hijab she is wearing? She is ruining Muslim girls’ reputation in my opinion. She looks like was forced to wear it! The guilt scheme used in this context implies that a feeling of guilt leads those female students to a search for justifications, which they find in the form of a purely religiously (and not culturally) defined hijab. 20 Shame can be defined as a matter between a person and her society while guilt is primarily a matter between a person and her conscience (see Patai: 113). 58 “Veiling fashion” adopts here a peculiar status because it is both the disease and the remedy. On the one hand, “veiling fashion” inspires a feeling of guilt that needs to be compensated through an increase of religious devotion. On the other hand, religious devotion is contained in “veiling fashion,” too. After all, those girls do not only wear fashionable clothes but also the hijab, which proves that they are religious and virtuous. Paradoxically, “veiling fashion,” which is the cause of guilt, is also the remedy able to relieve students from the guilt. All that needs to be done is to shift the emphasis from veiling fashion to veiling fashion. The twofold symbolical value of “veiling fashion” leads to a considerable amount of confusion. In extreme cases, it can lead to a sort of double consciousness that some critical comments from ‘Uncovered Girls’ (as well as from three male students) characterize as hypocrisy. The hypocrisy reproach becomes strongest when some students suggest that those women cover only because in reality they want to uncover. An ‘Uncovered Girl’ phrases the reproach like this: “Most of the girls who wear a hijab are worse than those who don’t wear it because they feel as though they’ve been deprived from what they want.” This means that, in the end, they displease men’s sexual instincts only because their desire to please them fills them with an unbearable amount of guilt. However, the guilt theme is rarely spelled out in such explicit terms in the comments of ‘Covered Girls’. The reason is either that those respondents believe that they have overcome guilt through religious devotion, of which the hijab is the proof; or that they simply do not want to be reminded of the guilt. Comments like the following ones are very rare: “Of course I would love to flaunt my hair and beauty if it wasn’t forbidden but the access to heaven overweighs that want of being beautiful in this life.” In this comment the student admits her desire to please men and sees the hijab as a device able to protect her from her own desire (though still not from men’s desire). This student is happy to wear the hijab because it protects her from her own desire. Another student sees the hijab rather as a device that prevents her from living out her desire: I still would like to remove my hijab, but I’m pretending otherwise in front of society and relatives. Mom, dad, my siblings, and close cousin know that I dislike my hijab, but that’s about it... So I guess all I can do is learn to like it, because I am for a fact stuck with it forever. I guess I can look at the bright side of this and say that men don’t flirt with me as I drive around in my car. Even though that’s supposed to be good news, I do not like it because I’m flirt deprived if that even makes sense. I want hot 59 guys to flirt with me, but I guess the hijab ruins that for me. So it has been since 2004 that I’ve been wearing the hijab, and many say I look pretty in it when I do not see that. I believe I look beautiful without it. Another student expresses a similar dilemma: If I had the choice of wearing it or not I would not because it’s not my personality and it takes away all the fun of fashion and I can’t wear what I like and I wouldn’t advise any girl to wear it, not because my beliefs are to be kept for my own and my religion says I must wear it, but wearing it was my biggest mistake and I will regret it as long as I live. Such comments, which describe the way in which the hijab controls femininity as a tragic event, are extremely rare. Still one can assume that many girls must have experienced the adoption of the hijab in just this way. An ‘Uncovered Girl’ reports that she refuses the hijab precisely in order to avoid this dilemma: “I just think it could hold me back from certain activities and places I would want to visit. Also, I am open to dating and wearing a hijab would probably decrease my chances of doing so. But I believe I will wear it when I am married.” Contradictions between desire and hijab are rarely admitted by ‘Covered Girls’. Most ‘Covered Girls’ interpret the pious message of the hijab as entirely overlapping with their personal will. No contradiction, no regrets. However, once the hijab is in place, the search for femininity can begin, and this time, without feeling any guilt. Though half of all female respondents admit seeing a contradiction between veiling and fashion and many respondents (in all groups) do actually comment on it, only five ‘Covered Girls’ dare to explicitly address the feeling of guilt (two of them by mentioning the word) in this context. One writes: “Despite the fact that I do wear Western clothes/makeup with the hijab, I know that it’s not appropriate for Muslims. However, I am simply prone to make my own decisions regarding my own clothes.” Another one admits: “Yes [I see the contradiction] because the point behind the hijab is to reduce male attention towards females. But I’m guilty of doing so.” Another ‘Covered Girl’ addresses the subject of guilt when writing: “It makes me feel much more comfortable knowing that I obeyed my Islamic values and I don’t feel guilty like I did before when I was not wearing the hijab.” The comment of the fourth and the fifth girls will be presented below in the context of a discussion of fitna. 60 Removing the Hijab Removing the hijab is extremely rare and we are only aware of three cases. With one case the first author is acquainted. Latifa comes from a very religious family but her keen interest in sport led her to see Islamic dress code with a slightly critical eye. Her religious convictions became also weaker and weaker during adolescence. When she took off her hijab at age twenty-three her family was shocked and her hijab-wearing classmates judged her very critically. Months afterwards she receives phone calls (anonymous or from distant friends and relatives) urging her to put the hijab back on. Many have insulted her. Latifa is convinced that the present situation is only a temporary phase and that people will soon get used to her new appearance (see more about this case in Botz-Bornstein 2014). From many reliable sources we heard that some of our female students who arrive on the campus in the morning (many of them brought by their drivers) wear abayas but take them off on arrival to store them in the locker. 4.1. Modesty and Fitna The guilt theme introduces itself into the present discussion by way of an idea that is very common in Islamic culture: the idea that women are responsible for controlling male sexuality. A veiled student writes that “women must have a good reputation. Without it she’ll be labeled as bad. When it comes to men they [also] might have a reputation but they wouldn’t care as much.” What this student explains is that women are seen to be guiltier than men by default. Indirectly the student addresses the phenomenon of fitna (‫ةفِتْن‬, temptation, disorder, revolt), which has a central conceptual importance in the Qur’an. In colloquial Arabic the meaning of fitna is slightly different. The Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage (Badawi & Haleem 2008) indicates that the root fa’-ta’-nun occurs in six different forms a total of sixty times in the Qur’an. The exact definition of fitna is extremely complex and cannot be undertaken here. The point that interests us here is that fitna is frequently put forward by conservative religious people as primordial in veiling discussions because it is linked to the idea that women are dangerous and that men need to be protected from women (cf. (Mernissi 1987: 41-45; Mernissi 1991: 19). Men are unable to control their sexual instincts by themselves, which is why women have to take care of this. 61 While the “protect women from men” theme has sparked some reactions within the survey, the fitna theme (understood in the sense of ‘protect men from women’) is addressed much less frequently. Fitna means that women are tempting, that they have a destructive power and it is their responsibility to hide this power. If they can’t, they are guilty. Only two students refer to the fitna theme and link it to the subject of guilt: “[before I wore the hijab] I did not know that when a woman walks through [a group of] guys who are not close to Allah [they] stare at her whole body. It made me feel that I am doing something very wrong. [When I was] nineteen years old I wore the hijab and the guys’ stares slowly disappeared.” Here the hijab has helped. The second comment that points to fitna comes from a student who would like to take her hijab off because she thinks that the guilt is attributed to her by mistake: Arab societies are very male centered, so God forbid, he cannot control himself and not stare. No, she has to cover up for him. Which makes zero sense. When I first wore it, I was 16 years old, and I was thinking religiously, I was just a teenager who wanted to fit in. Now that I’m a grown woman, I can see things differently and I wish I hadn’t made that decision. The above two comments show how much fitna is linked to an economy of guilt. For the above student who covers, fitna implies that women are always guilty, which is very much in keeping with the understanding put forward by conservative defenders of veiling. Following one of the patterns that the present study has attempted to define, it can be concluded that one way of getting rid of this guilt is to decide that those women who wear the hijab without being virtuous are precisely those who do not want to wear it. In other words, the guilty ones are always those who have been forced. It goes without saying that those who force them to wear it (identified in this survey most of the time as males) are not declared guilty. According to this scheme, guilt is always on the side of the females: all they have to do is accept the hijab voluntarily and the guilt problem will be solved. Logically, if only they would accept it voluntarily, nobody would need to force them; and then they would not be guilty. In praxis, this logic relieves ‘Covered Girls’ at least partially from the guilt. The problem is that it does not really solve the guilt issue because women will still be tempted by fashion. As a result, they need to veil “more voluntarily” and also become more religious. More precisely, the hijab has become more indispensable than ever when engaging in fashion. This explains the rise of “veiling fashion” in Kuwait. On the grounds of the above economy of guilt, hijab and fashion become intimately linked because, first, the hijab is needed as a moral alibi 62 liberating women from the “fashion guilt.” Second, as will be shown below, fashion might also be seen as necessary in order to make the hijab more religious. Before coming to this paradoxical point, the guilt-shame argument must be further strengthened by explaining some general thoughts on shame and guilt in Muslim culture. 4.2. Shame and Guilt in Islamic Culture Female shame as a motivator for normative action in Arab and Muslim societies is a classical sociological topic. The identification of femininity with shame (and masculinity with honor) in Arab culture revolves around the generic Arab term ‘ird, which is exclusively connected with “female chastity and continence” (cf. Abou-Zeid 1965: 65; Henderson Steward 1994: 129). What ‘Covered Girls’ put forward can be defined as a “modesty leading to respect” scheme, which is current in anthropological literature. A student has been quoted in the guilt/shame section explaining that women wear the hijab because they “must have a good reputation.” This corresponds precisely to the “modesty leading to respect” scheme. In the opinion of some researchers, this scheme, which is, in our opinion, the motivating force behind veiling in Kuwait, is always linked to shame and guilt. Other researchers prefer to distinguish veiling from shame and guilt. Fatma El Guindi believes that any detection of a shame model in Arab culture must be dismissed as ethnocentric. For her, the “modesty-shame-seclusion model” (her own term) makes more sense in Christian Mediterranean societies. Though the honor/shame paradigm “is the one most commonly imposed up Arab and Islamic cultural space to describe the division between the sexes (…) this paradigm is more appropriate to describe European Mediterranean and Balkan cultures” (El Guindi: 79). As a proof, El Guindi points to a whole range of anthropologist who have detected the honor/shame paradigm in European societies. El Guindi also believes that a simple honor-paradigm (without shame) would be most appropriate for “Hindu-based societies of south Asia” (ibid.). Its use in Islamic contexts, however, does rather obscure the nuanced differences typical for Arabo-Islamic culture. For those cultures El Guindi suggests a “sanctity-reserve-respect” paradigm, which can explain, in her opinion, the Arab-Muslim culture of veiling in a non-ethnocentric way. El Guindi shifts the central motivation of veiling away from shame/honor towards “respect.” This overlaps with how the ‘Covered Girls’ in our survey interpret veiling. However, it is not clear why a respect-centered appreciation of veiling excludes the shame motive. El Guindi only refers to a few etymological connections 63 but cannot explain why veiling in Islamic societies should be seen primarily as a matter of respect and not as being linked to shame. Our survey has shown that respect is indeed the quality that ‘Covered Girls’ desire most. However, it has also shown that, by and large, they do not obtain it. What they definitely do obtain is shame or guilt for not veiling, for not veiling properly (for example, by combining it with fashion) or for veiling without the right “voluntary” consciousness. It needs to be concluded that respect is part of the illusion that ‘Covered Girls’ create about veiling and about themselves and that shame and guilt are the reality. Our hypothesis has been that this mechanism gets accelerated through a spiral function: the more shame and guilt they feel, the more important becomes the creation of the illusion of respect, which can only be obtained by applying the hijab properly and for the right reasons, by insisting that the hijab is a purely religious and not cultural item, etc. Our study has also shown what happens to what can be called “etiquettes of female shame” when the environment becomes more modern. By “etiquettes of female shame” are meant virtues like bashfulness and passivity, which incite masculine pride and honor and which need to be adjusted in a society in which women are becoming increasingly independent and assertive (the words “shy,” “bashful” and “timid” appear many times in the ‘Male Students’’ comments and are highlighted as desirable virtues). “Veiling fashion” in Kuwait represents such an adjustment: while shame and guilt are still the dominant regulators of women’s morality, through “veiling fashion” they can be negotiated as long as they pay tribute to a symbol that needs to remain “religious” precisely for that purpose. This item is the hijab. El Guindi rejects “Western” virtues of timidity, modesty, and shame as irrelevant for Arab Muslim culture and suggests that respect and reserve should be seen as the only virtues important for veiling. Our survey has shown that “respect for women” is a contradictory item and that most probably in this culture (like in any culture), the “respect for women” and the “modesty/shame” theme are closely linked. French feminist Sarah Kofman has shown this in her book Respect for Women. Also in western societies respect for women is always a promise, an illusion, or a “veil” supposed to hide forced modesty. According to Kofman, respect always has a price, which is chastity, silence, and retreat (cf. Kofman: 19). The survey 64 confirms precisely this: women are always guilty, the more so since they flirt with fashion; as a consequence, they need to justify their purity by demonstrating religious devotion. In Kuwaiti culture this leads to the wearing of the hijab. Furthermore, the survey has shown that many respondents believe that this guilt can only be overcome by radically reducing all reasons leading to veiling to the “I want to obey my religion” option. It is not exaggerated to conclude that the religious exaltedness present in so many of the ‘Covered Girls’’ comments has a therapeutic function. Intrinsic contradictions of the veiling topic, on the other hand, even obvious ones, are not discussed by ‘Covered Girls’, most probably because it would increase the amount of guilt. Even the ‘Uncovered Girls’ are not excluded from this guilt pattern: 82% indicate that they are “open to wearing a hijab in the future,” which means that they do not dare to retreat to a well-defined anti-hijab position but prefer to “have their cake and eat it, too,” that is, to remain somewhere in-between veiling and not veiling. Men, on the other hand, seem to live in their own kind of illusion as many of them entertain the idea of the idealized, innocent, shy, religious hijab-wearing women. Characteristically, only 34% of them see “hijab fashion” as a contradiction, most probably because for them this subject is not linked to personal guilt since they are not wearing the hijab themselves. 5. Conclusion 5.1. The Paradox of Veiling Fashion The main purpose of this study has been to explain the meaning of “veiling fashion” in Kuwait. In principle and outside Kuwait, “veiling fashion” can be interpreted in two ways. First, as an attempt to turn away from the more militant Islamic dress current in the 1980s and to make a step towards a more moderate religious consciousness. Gökariksel and Secor, for example write that in Turkey, “veiling-fashion consumers continuously formulate what constitutes an acceptable ethical action for themselves—and it is often one that diverges from their perceived prescribed moral code of complete covering” (2010: 850). According to this logic, “veiling fashion” can be defined as an intermediary stage between “abaya with hijab” 65 and “no hijab.” The second possibility is to see “veiling fashion” as a regressive process leading “backward” from the unveiled state enforced by modernizing post World War II leaders of Islamic countries, to a more traditional Islamic dress code. Also in this case, “veiling fashion” appears as an intermediary state between “abaya with niqab” and “no hijab.” The present research has shown that in Kuwait none of those two logics applies but that a third interpretation is necessary. In Kuwait “veiling fashion” is not an intermediary state between “traditional veil” and “no veil” expressing itself in the form of a more moderate attitude towards religion and tradition. On the contrary, here “veiling fashion” combines a rather exalted form of religious devotion with a strong interest in modern fashion. The result is paradoxical and can almost be rendered through this exaggerated formula: the best way to be religious is to be fashionable. This needs to be explained. It has been shown that the hijab is needed as a moral alibi liberating women from the “fashion guilt.” However, there are also reasons to say that fashion is needed. Without fashion it could appear that the hijab is worn for merely “cultural” reasons and without the right religious conviction. If the hijab is worn by people who are “stuck” in tradition and simply not modern, it might be worn merely out of habit. As mentioned above, a student wrote: “Here in Kuwait we have in Bedouin people who often wear it for tradition not for religion;” and the woman who is wearing the hijab merely for cultural reasons does not deserve respect. This is why the fully covered “niqab girls” do generally not obtain more respect from ‘Covered Girls’; nor do “abaya wearing girls” obtain more respect from those who wear the hijab without abaya. It is not the amount of covering that counts but the symbolical value attributed to the hijab. And this value increases when it is worn for the right reasons. The point is that those reasons must always be religious and not cultural, which creates a paradox: who could be more religious than a woman who is culturally anchored in modernity (who is wearing fashionable clothes), but who wears the hijab nevertheless? According to this logic, it is not the hijab itself (which can, at least in theory, be cultural or religious) but the contrast between fashion and hijab that reinforces the symbolical value of the hijab as a religious item. A caricature will make this pattern clear. According to the above logic, a bikini wearing woman who wears a hijab must be very religious because: for what other reason could she wear the hijab? The fully covered Bedouin woman, on the other hand, is less religious because 66 she wears the hijab merely for “cultural reasons.” She does not know anything better, she does not wear it out of religious conviction but simply because she is following a cultural tradition. The hijab, whose spiritual significance is left untouched even within the most progressive fashion context and which most students want to see as an item entirely unpolluted by fashion, becomes even more religious when it appears as a religious statement within a modern context that is not determined by those religious traditions. Vice versa, the two things that should be avoided are to be non-religious and to be not fashionable. A comment by a ‘niqab wearing girl’ about how she is treated in a country in which 80% of the students of an international university like GUST pray five times a day, makes this clear: “Discriminated? 100% yes. I wear hijab and niqab and although we’re an Islamic country I still get treated less well than others because I’m not ‘fashionable’ enough.” Instead of presenting the coexistence of fashion and religion as a proof of Kuwait’s moderate religious consciousness seemingly so comfortably settled between religion and modernity, the present study has shown that both extremes can actually reinforce each other. The result of this paradoxical constellation is a further paradox: in spite of their apparent fusion of religion and fashion within veiling fashion, in reality, religion and fashion continue to be seen as opposites. A non-paradoxical approach would see “veiling fashion” situated somehow “in between” religious veiling and non-religious (cultural) fashion. This approach is spelled out by only one (uncovered) girl who does not even seem to mind the guilt linked to this approach when writing: “Yes [I see the contradiction], but I do it anyway because I am not extremely religious, and I am glad I am not.” This student explains what could appear as no more than logical: combining religion with non-religion will make you somehow less religious. For most students, however, “veiling fashion” implies that now the veil needs to worn in an even more religiously assertive manner. It remains to say that the combination of hijab and fashion creates an immense psychological tension whose compensation is entirely left to those young women. This tension became also palpable through the survey. They have to cope with the reconciliation of a traditional heritage and modern life, which is a difficult act in a culture where religious imperatives are often still seen as absolute. As one ‘Covered Girl’ writes: “For a country so in love with fashion and 67 consumerism, it’s very hard for girls wearing hijab to resist western clothes/fashion. But I still believe there are ways to wear hijab in a current but modest way.” At the same time it is surprising that the main device used for easing the tension is the strong affirmation of religious devotion. Critical evaluation and analyses of the situation have not been the rule. 5.2. Overall Evaluation of Responses It has been stated above that the students wanted to present us with a positive image of their culture. As a result they drew an image of Kuwait as a country in which everybody gets, or at least can get, exactly what she wants: liberty, beauty as well as religious peace of mind. The condition is, of course, that everybody complies with religion. The students would perhaps have impressed us more had they provided a more critical analysis of their situation. Feminist arguments were also quite absent. What we encountered instead was mainly the adherence to religious imperatives that were very often taken literally. Sometimes the sources had also been misinterpreted. The characteristic comment “Just please accept Islam and don’t make a big scene” denotes a categorical refusal of critical evaluations of one’s own culture. As the aim of critical thinking is always to shatter accepted truths, it appeared rather that many students did not want to think critically about their own situation because they were afraid that it would shatter their personal beliefs about virtue, respect, freedom, and beauty. The lack of critical thinking in Kuwait and other Gulf countries has been noted in at least one study (Al‐Fadhli and Khalfan 2009: 553). The latter authors’ study has been done with 77 students from Kuwait University and shows a score of 12.45 in critical thinking tests21 for Kuwaiti students against a score of 18.0 for American students. A further problem has been a misunderstanding that is common in Muslim societies. It is the idea that Westerners must be “against Islam” or hate Islam. This misunderstanding has created big obstacles for our survey. In reality, we had no intentions to take religion away from respondents but wanted them to engage in a more critical relationship with their tradition. Normally, nobody should deny that a critical spirit is necessary for all human beings living in modern societies. 21 The critical thinking skills were measured by California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), a standardized assessment tool. 68 The problem was likely that our request implied for respondents to take a “detached” view of religion. This detached view is a precondition of critical thinking. By “detached” we mean that religion should have been viewed more in terms of culture and not in terms of dogmatic truths; and this has been refused by many students. Most students were not ready to take a more detached view of their religion, but often presented us with ready-made religious statements. In the light of those findings, Mogahed’s statement that “the data [collected from Middle Eastern women] simply do not support the persistent popular perception in the West that Muslim women can’t wait to be liberated from their culture” sounds naïve and also unbearably vague. The problem with our respondents was rather that they had decided not only to stick to a purist “religion is religion” stance, but also to replace culture with religion. This is how they were often locking themselves into rather dogmatic visions that prevented them from evaluating themselves and their environment in a more neutral fashion. The research shows that the Kuwaiti veiling environment is different from that of other Middle Eastern and Western countries where the veil turns out to be no longer only an expression of religious belief but appears as an ambiguous signifier engaging in cultural play instead of criticizing culture and attempting to replace it with religion. Nilüfer Göle comes to this conclusion in her article on veiling in Turkey, which she decides to describe as a sort of “habitus” à la Bourdieu: “Rather than employing the concept of social classes, which emphasizes economic exploitation for some, it is more useful to refer to this stratification through the concept of habitus that encompasses lifestyles” (Göle: 480). Here the veil has been pushed through a movement leading from religion to culture or from religious veiling to “veil-culture.” This is not the case for the Kuwaiti students. In our research, we were more than ready to grant the students their own cultural context. 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Select four reasons and rank them from important to less important. • My family told me to do so • Islam tells us to wear the hijab and I simply want to obey my religion • Many of my friends wear it and I want to be part of the group • I seek to affirm my Muslim identity and show that I am different from non-Muslims • I want to make a statement against Western consumer culture • I am bothered by the attention that male students will give me if I do not wear a hijab • Simply because I find it nice and fashionable • Wearing a hijab gives you a better public reputation • Other reason ………….. 2. How important do you think is religion as a reason for wearing the hijab in Kuwait? • Very important • Important • Not very important • Not important at all 3. How would you describe your knowledge of Islam? • Good • Fair • Poor 4. Do you pray daily? Yes/No/Comments 5. Do you feel that wearing a hijab gives you more respect? Yes/No/Comments 6. Have you ever felt you have been discriminated against (treated to less advantage) in Kuwait because you are wearing hijab/niqab? Yes/No/Comments 7. Does your mother wear a hijab? Yes/No/Comments 8. Has she worn it since her early youth or did she start later? Always worn/Started …….. 9. Does your mother wear a niqab? Yes/No/Comments 10. Do you believe that for Muslims the hijab is obligatory according to the Qur’an or to a hadith? Yes/No/Comments 11. If you answered yes, are you able to say where scriptural references (Qur’an, hadith) to the hijab can be found? Y/N/C 74 12. Do you believe that for Muslims the abaya is obligatory according to the Qur’an or to a hadith? Yes/No/Comments 13. Do you combine the hijab with fashionable Western clothes? Yes/No/Comments 14. Do you see a contradiction in combining the hijab with fashionable Western clothes or makeup? Yes/No/Comments 15. Do you believe that students who wear the veil are generally more virtuous (behave better) than those who don’t? Yes/No/Comments 16. Have you advised other girls in your environment who are not wearing the hijab to wear it? Y/N/C 17. Are there “fashion trends” for the hijab? Y/N/C 16. Are those trends important for you? Y/N/C 19. Do you personalize your hijab by draping it in a certain way? Y/N/C 20. Would you agree that the hijab is a fashion item? Y/N/C 21. Would you agree that, in general, wearing the hijab enhances a woman’s beauty? Y/N/C 22. Do you believe that men and women are equal? Y/N/C Background check: 23. Does your father have a university education? Y/N 24. Does your mother have a university education? Y/N 25. Can you summarize your opinions about wearing the hijab (write as much as you want)? Thank you for your participation. 75 (B) Questionnaire or Female Students not Wearing the Hijab 1. Is there a particular reason why you do not wear a hijab? 2. Does your mother wear a hijab? Yes/No 3. Do you feel that not wearing a hijab exposes you to unpleasant attention from male students? • Never • Sometimes, but I can deal with it • Yes, quite often 4. Do you feel that wearing a hijab gives you more respect? Yes/No/Comments 5. What reactions from your hijab-wearing environment can you report about you not wearing the hijab? • Indifference • Somehow negative reactions • Quite positive reactions 6. Do you believe that for Muslims the hijab is obligatory according to the Qur’an or to a hadith? Yes/No/Comments 7. Do you believe that for Muslims the abaya is obligatory according to the Qur’an or to a hadith? Yes/No/Comments 8. If you answered yes, are you able to say where scriptural references (Qur’an, hadith) to the hijab can be found? Y/N/C 9. Do you see a contradiction in combining the hijab with fashionable Western clothes or makeup as some students do? Yes/No/Comments 10. What is, in your opinion, the main reason why students are wearing the hijab? Select three reasons and rank them from important to less important. • • • • • • • • Their family told them to do so They want to obey to their religion Many of their friends wear it and they want to be part of the group They seek to affirm my Muslim identity They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture Simply because they find it nice and fashionable They believe it gives them a better public reputation Other 11. Have you ever felt you have been discriminated against (treated to less advantage) in Kuwait because you are not wearing a hijab? Yes/No/Comments 12. How would you describe your knowledge of Islam? • Good • Fair • Poor 13. Do you pray daily? Yes/No/Comments 76 14. Do you believe that students who wear the veil are generally more virtuous (behave better) than those who don’t? Yes/No/Comments 15. Have you been pressured to wear the hijab and if yes by whom (school teacher, parent, friends, etc.). By whom? 16. Would you agree that the hijab is a fashion item? Y/N/C 17. Would you agree that, in general, wearing the hijab enhances a woman’s beauty? Y/N/C 18. Are you open to the possibility of wearing the hijab at a future date? Y/N/C 19. Do you believe that men and women are equal? Y/N/C Background check: 20. Does your father have a university education? Y/N 21. Does your mother have a university education? Y/N 22. Can you summarize your opinions about wearing the hijab? (write as much as you want) Thank you for your participation. 77 (C) Questionnaire for Male Students 1. Does your mother wear a hijab? Yes/No/Comments 2. Does your mother wear a niqab? Yes/No/Comments 3. If you have a sister, does she wear a hijab? Yes/No/Comments 4. Would you ask your future wife to wear a hijab? 5. What do you think is the most important reason why girls at your university are wearing the hijab? Select three reasons and rank them from important to less important. • • • • • • • • • Their family told them to do so They want to obey their religion Peer pressure. Their friends wear and they don’t want to stick out They seek to affirm their Muslim identity; show that they are different from non-Muslims They want to make a statement against Western consumer culture They do not appreciate the attention that male students give them if they do not wear a hijab Simply because they find it nice and fashionable Wearing a hijab gives them a better public reputation Other reason 6. Do you think that not wearing a hijab exposes women to unpleasant male attention? • No, in general not • Sometimes, but not often enough to make a big deal out of it • Yes, quite often 7. How important do you think is religion as a reason for wearing the hijab in Kuwait? • Very important • Important • Not very important • Not important at all 8. How would you describe your knowledge of Islam? • Good • Fair • Poor 9. Do you pray daily? Yes/No/Comments 10. Do you think girls who wear the hijab are likely to be discriminated against (treated to less advantage) in Kuwait? Yes/No/Comments 11. Do you think girls who do not wear the hijab are likely to be discriminated against (treated to less advantage) in Kuwait? Yes/No/Comments 12. Do you respect girls more if they wear a hijab? Yes/No/Comments 13. Do you believe that for Muslims the hijab is obligatory according to the Qur’an or to a hadith? Yes/No/Comments 78 14. If you answered yes, are you able to say where scriptural references (Qur’an, hadith) to the hijab can be found? Y/N/C 15. Do you believe that for Muslims the abaya is obligatory according to the Qur’an or to a hadith? Yes/No/Comments 16. Do you find it ok that some girls combine the hijab with fashionable Western clothes? Yes/No/Comments 17. Do you believe that girls who wear the veil are generally more virtuous (behave better) than those who don’t? Yes/No/Comments 18. Have you advised girls in your environment who are not wearing the hijab to wear it? Y/N/C 19. Would you agree that the hijab is a fashion item? Y/N/C 20. Would you agree that, in general, wearing the hijab enhances a woman’s beauty? Y/N/C 21. Do you believe that men and women are equal? Y/N/C Background check: 22. Does your father have a university education? Y/N 23. Does your mother have a university education? Y/N 24. Can you summarize your opinions about wearing the hijab (write as much as you want)? Thank you for your participation. 79