The Other Veil

I attended the DSLC speech by Doctor Fozia S. Qazi. Doctor Qazi started the presentation by showing us various cropped pictures of Muslim women. She showed us their faces with out showing us the entire picture and asked us to guess what these women were doing. The first picture really got my attention to the common stereotypes that are present today of muslim women who wear the veil . At first, she only showed us the section of the picture that exposed the faces of three veiled muslim women who looked like they were experiencing some sort of hardship or struggle. When a Saint Mary's student near me whispered a possible answer to the the question of what they thought these muslim women might be doing in this picture their response was that they were doing some sort of "brutal labor, or carrying a heavy object". When they showed us the entire un-cropped picture, the three muslim women were in fact playing soccer. This instance was a perfect example of how some people believe that muslim women who are veiled may be oppressed in one way or another, and this speech was a perfect opportunity for Doctor Qazi to break down stereotypical barriers such as these.

As well as breaking down some stereotypes, Doctor Qazi expressed her ideas regarding the reasoning behind wearing a veil. She said that many Americans assume that because many muslim women wear the veil, they must be oppressed, but in fact, it seemed to be the opposite. She brought up the point that each culture has its own ideas of what is morally right and wrong. She stated what women want in one culture, may be different than what women want in another culture. Therefore, the removal of the veil may look like freedom to us as American women, but to them it may seem drastically different. This point was also emphasized when Doctor Qazi stated " It is not seen as a liberated body if you are exposed" regarding the removal of the veil. I learned from Doctor Qazi that the veil expresses an amount of modesty and protection for the Muslim women, along with providing them with a "separation from something negative that can come in between them and their spiritual god."