Cover Up!

Here we are, Regina and Ellie, two of your Catholic Feminists, Women’s Ordination champions, faithful WOC bloggers. What on earth – or heaven? – happened?

In order to enter a mosque in Jordan for a tour and talk on Islam (part of our Israel/Jordan trip experience), the men in our group had to remove their shoes. The women had to go downstairs to a dressing room; choose a black or bronze hooded robe, cover their hair with the hood or scarf, remove their shoes, and only then could they enter the mosque.

We talked later about how we had felt, not about the religion or the presentation or the mosque itself, all of which were quite beautiful in so many ways, but about the requirement and the experience of being covered up in order to enter a religious site.

“I felt erased. I felt stifled, claustrophobic,” were some of the remarks. “I lost my identity. It felt suffocating.” 

Our guide in the mosque explained that the large round enclosure in which we stood on a thick, lush carpet was actually the men’s worship area. The women had a separate room for worship which we did not see. He also said on the occasions when women and men were together in this main space, the women were in the back. Prior to that, on the way here and in this space, he had proudly boasted of Jordan’s progressive attitudes especially toward women who held high positions in government and business in the kingdom. I couldn’t resist raising my hand at that point and asking, “Why then, are they always separated or in the back during worship?” His answer: “For the sake of modesty – so when they bowed, men could not look up their dresses.”

Take a look at the picture of Regina and me, the length and extent of our coverings, and judge how much you buy that answer.

Once home, I did read more about why women wear (consent to wear, I hope) the hajib which in Arab can mean “barrier,” “partition,” “hide from view” or in Islam “modesty in behavior and dress.” A brochure published by The Institute of Islamic Information and Education (Series No. 21) entitled “The Question of Hijab: Suppression or Liberation further clarifies:

“Why do Muslim women have to cover their heads?” This question is one which is asked by Muslim and non-Muslim alike. For many women it is the truest test of being a Muslim. The answer to the question is very simple – Muslim women observe HIJAB (covering the head and the body) because Allah has told them to do so. “O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters and the believing women to draw their outer garments around them (when they go out or are among men). That is better in order that they may be known (to be Muslims) and not annoyed…” (Qur’an 33:59)

I found what the brochure called the “secondary reasons” more thought provoking. First, both women and men are required to be, above all, modest in dress: “Both will then be evaluated for intelligence and skills instead of looks and sexuality. An Iranian school girl is quoted as saying:

“We want to stop men from treating us like sex objects, as they have always done. We want them to ignore our appearance and to be attentive to our personalities and mind. We want them to take us seriously and treat us as equals…”

Another reason has to do with identity. While so many of us felt ours had been erased, the brochure points out: “A Muslim woman who covers her head is making a statement about her identity. Anyone who sees her will know that she is a Muslim and has a good moral character. Many Muslim women who cover are filled with dignity and self esteem; they are pleased to be identified as a Muslim woman. As a chaste, modest, pure woman, she does not want her sexuality to enter into interactions with men in the smallest degree. A woman who covers herself is concealing her sexuality but allowing her femininity to be brought out…

Additional requirements ensure modesty: “The clothing must be loose enough so as not to describe the shape of the woman’s body… The clothing must be thick enough so as not to show the color of the skin it covers or the shape of the body. Another requirement is an over-all dignified appearance. The clothing should not attract men’s attention to the woman. It should not be shiny and flashy so that everyone notices the dress and the woman.”

Ah, there it is. No one should notice the dress “and the woman.” Mission accomplished …in most, if not all, major institutionalized religions! I think we, at least in the Catholic Christian religion, can testify that liberating our dress has not made us any more or less heard. Perhaps it has, indeed though, made us less “modest” – in the sense of our willingness to keep speaking out, standing up, becoming noticed – and heard – and respected – in our quest for equal rights and rites.  

I cannot end, however, without noting that the dress and head coverings the women wear, the yarmulkes Jewish men wear, and so many other practices in other religions are actually done “to honor God.” How grace-filled that is. Humility, uncoupled from humiliation and elevation of one gender over others, is, I believe, a truly beautiful way to honor God – and each other.