1 annotation. Final version

 

Going deeper with the Muslim Egyptian women understanding. Some key definitions to better understand the topic.

First at all and because is a core concept in my research, I must give a clear definition about what veil is. Hijab is the general name for the traditional scarf  between Muslim women. Hijab comes from the Arab word Habana, which means "hide from the sight", but the literal meaning is "curtain". But for common usage, Hijan refers to the veil used to cover the hair.

        The veil has been worn since many centuries before the Islam, but it was adopted by the followers of Mahoma (founder of Islam) as sign of wealth and status. Prophet Mahoma believed that wearing veil would be a protection against sexual temptations between women and men. Nowadays, even though is not a mandatory issue in Egypt, wearing veil is seeing as an honor measure, dignity nationalism and devotion to Islam. However, there are many kinds of dressing for Muslim women, as we can see from Picture 1. In this research, I will mostly refer to hijab as it is the most spread dressing custom in Egypt

Picture 1 (Libertad femenina, 2011)

        In Serai (2012) a western woman is giving explanations about why she decided to convert to Islam, and also some perceptions about the dressing. Her reasons are quite the same as the Muslim women in the Picture 2 showing “HIJAB IS MY CHOICE, NOT COMPULSION”. Rejection of western values is an important reason for her and for most of women in Egypt in relation to the use of veil.

 

Picture 2 (Khan, Z. 2011)

        In the article Egyptian women were doing better under Mubarak from The Guardian, the writer Nabila Ramdani (2012) reflects the western point of view about Muslim women. In this occasion, she refers to Egyptian women, as disappointed by Revolution because their demands have not yet been satisfied. She quoted some Egyptian women complaining about their situations, and gave some statistics about female participation in politics, for example. But, this is not the conception they have about themselves; compared to western statistics, the political participation in Egypt may appear insignificant, but if we compare to another Muslim countries, Egypt reaches one of the highest rates. This article supports the argument that every culture has different parameters, and cannot be judged and compared with careless thinking.

References

Caner, E. M. (2005). Voces detrás del Velo: el mundo del Islam y la mujer musulmana. Michigan: Portavoz.

Khan, Z. (2011, January 11) Wearing a headscarf can be a feminist choice. Retrieved from http://theislamawareness.blogspot.tw/2011/01/wearing-headscarf-can-be-feminist.html

Libertad Femenina (2011, February 3) Estilo Mujeres Musulmanas. Retrieved from http://feministtruths.blogspot.tw/

Ramadani, N. (2012, June 4) Egyptian women: They were doing better under Mubarak: The Guardian. Retrieved September 25 from www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/04/egyptian-women-better-under-mubarak  

Serai.Y. (2012) What is cultural identity ? Home How tos & Tips . Retrieved October 15 from http://www.ehow.com/info_7826546_culture-identity.html#ixzz29Zi16ufd