Why Women Should Not Wear The Veil Of Muslim Women

The issue of the veil has come to represent the essence of Islam, not only to the West, but also to Muslim Conservatives and Fundamentalists. To some in the West, the veil represents repression and constriction of women’s freedom and choice, limiting their capacity for self-determination. However, some Muslims would argue that women must veil because it is a first step towards restoring true Islam and a defiance against the West Interventionist policies (Lazreg, Why Women Should Not Wear the Veil, pg. 113). Additionally, the idea of freedom as the ultimate value, is a western standard and that for some, piety is more important.
Lila Abu-Lughod and Marnia Lazreg have contrasting views on the veiling of Muslim women and the affects it has on their lives. Lughod believes the veil is a form of “portable seclusion” that allows women to “move out of segregated living spaces” while adhering to the moral requirement of

To Lughod, this is liberating for women (Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Lughod, 36). Lughod also argues that the veil (i.e. Burqa, niqab etc.) is an appropriate form of dress for the societies in which these women live because it ‘protects’ women from unwanted sexual advances from nonrelative males. Lazreg, on the other hand, believes that women in the West, such as Lughod, romanticize the veil, and that the “glorification of the veil overlooks the experiences of women who have…been socialized into concealing their bodies, and made the veil part of their persona” (Lazreg, Why Women Should Not Wear the Veil, pg. 102). Lazreg is making the argument that Muslim women have been socialized into the politics of the veil and has allowed it to define their piety as