Religious Practices in Egypt

Circulation 8,000 October 2000 4 0 p a g e s N e w s l e t t e r 6 postal address t e l e p h o n e e - m a i l P.O. Box 11 0 8 9 +31-(0)71-527 79 05 i s i m @ r u l l e t . l e i d e n u n i v . n l 2301 EB Leiden t e l e f a x w w w The Netherlands +31-(0)71-527 79 06 h t t p : / / i s i m . l e i d e n u n i v . n l 7 1 3 2 5 3 3 Hakan Yavuz Shahram Khosravi Lisa Wedeen Pedro Brieger Beinb Modern in the Nurcu Way www.iranian.com: An Online Diaspora Ambiguities after Asad Muslims in A r g e n t i n a Copious studies on Islamic resurgence throughout the Muslim world deal with new veiling, a socio-religious practice which has been explained as a form of both resistance and submission to patriarchy, an as- sertion of cultural authenticity, a reaction against D o w n v e i l i n g : Western imperialism and local secular regimes, a genuine desire by women to live more piously, and a practice born out of economic necessity. While there is a degree of plausibility in each of these theories, especially when taken in tandem, another Shifting Socio- dimension should be added to the debate on new veiling, and that is a subtle and seemingly growing tendency among many urban Egyptian women to- wards what can be called 'downveiling'. Religious Practices Middle East LINDA HERRERA in Egypt Downveiling refers to the shift by Muslim even necessarily the most commonplace rity forces were dispatched to schools first to downveil. Backed by the law, the women to less concealing and conservative arenas Ð of downveiling, they provide a throughout the country; guards stood out- overwhelming majority of girls immediately forms of Islamic dress Ð or to changing em- compelling social context in which to trace side school gates to inspect students' attire substituted their uniform k h i m a r for a sim- bodied religious practices Ð and is indicative this practice which is increasingly observ- and to prohibit anyone in defiance of the ple headscarf and, in an act of defiance A class of of the complexity and dynamism with able throughout urban Egyptian society. regulation from entering their school. Many against school policy, decided among first graders which socio-religious change occurs in con- school communities reacted to the state's themselves to replace the regulation grey at a private temporary societies. It points to a transfor- Schools as contested cultural actions with outrage and some unveiled smock uniform, which they described as Islamic school. mation in Egypt's Islamist trend. s p a c e s students even took on the veil in protest. 'ugly' and 'old-fashioned', for a more 'nor- The past two decades have witnessed the However, over the longer term, the new reg- mal' and attractive uniform of a tailored increased Islamization of public spaces and ulation served as a catalyst for many who long grey skirt and white blouse. Thereafter, social institutions, one manifestation of had been wanting to downveil, as will be il- members of the school staff also began which has been the Islamization of the na- lustrated in the case of a private Islamic downveiling. Two senior administrators Ð tion's schools. Numerous government and school in Cairo. school disciplinarians and tacit role models private schools have institutionalized Islam- Ð gradually substituted their dark ankle- ic practices, such as enforcing an Islamic The state as a catalyst for length skirts for shin-length cotton skirts, uniform (zayy Islammy). Schools often re- shifting socio-religious and, in gradations, replaced their thick quire female students, staff and sometimes practices nylon k h i m a rs that extended down to their even students' mothers to don a head cover. Since its establishment in 1981, the thighs, with shoulder-length scarves. They Veiling has multiple gradations and ranges school uniform for girls from first grade at a had both begun sporting the k h i m a r j u s t from a h i j a b, a scarf that covers the hair and 'private Islamic school' in Cairo, a fee-pay- prior to being employed at the school in the is pinned under the chin, to a k h i m a r, a sub- ing general school that incorporates Islamic early 1980s, in part to show their commit- stantially longer nylon scarf that drapes rituals and symbols into its daily life, con- ment to working in an Islamic environment, over the torso and arms, to a n i q a b, a face sisted of a long blue-grey smock, pants and but also because they could not justify veil with ankle-length dress. a mini-k h i m a r. The school's founder and di- wearing a lesser degree of clothing than the The Ministry of Education (MOE), in its at- rector, Sheikh Mohammed, selected this children under their authority. When the tempt to curb the Islamization of schools uniform so that the female child would get primary school children ceased wearing the and as part of a larger state strategy to con- used to comporting herself according to k h i m a r and the preparatory girls down- trol and monitor the Islamization of public the teachings of her religion because, as he veiled at their own initiative, the need to spaces, politicized the issue of Islamic uni- proclaims 'in Islam there is no grey, every- dress religiously on par with the students forms. In 1994, the MOE enacted a minister- thing is black or white. The h i j a b is a re- no longer existed. A number of their col- ial order prohibiting girls from wearing the quirement, not a choice.' leagues, over time, also modified their dress h i j a b to school at the primary stage (grades In 1994, the sheikh initially resisted imple- to less concealing and more functional 1-5), requiring that students at the prepara- menting the new uniform regulation, con- forms of Islamic dress. tory level (grades 6-8) provide written per- vinced that he, not the government, was re- The general tendency among the staff to- mission by their guardian if they wear the ligiously in the right. However, when faced wards downveiling has had the effect of h i j a b (thereby giving the parents rather with the possibility of the MOE taking over hindering others from upveiling or adapt- than the school authority over the girl's reli- his school's administration, he eventually ing 'higher', more concealing and virtuous gious attire), and forbidding teachers and eliminated the headscarf for girls at the pri- forms of Islamic dress. One senior teacher in The same class in A fourteen-year resident of Cairo, I first students from wearing the n i q a b on the mary level. Nevertheless, with the parents' her mid-40s has been expressing a desire to the third grade became aware of downveiling in the mid- grounds that it presents a security risk by cooperation, the veil remained mandatory upveil from her current k h i m a r to the n i q a b, following the 1990s when a number of acquaintances concealing the wearer's identity and pre- for girls at the preparatory stage. Despite a a form of dress which she believes to be a h i j a b ban by the from diverse social and professional back- vents teachers from effectively teaching pervasive sense among staff, parents and religious obligation. However, with her Ministry of grounds began shifting to lesser degrees of since it covers the face. students, that the government was unjustly peers substituting their k h i m a r s for simpler E d u c a t i o n . veiling, and even sometimes 'unveiled' or The new uniform regulation was strongly interfering in the school's internal policy and shorter headscarves, she is not encour- eliminated their head covers altogether. My contested in the press and courts, but was and in their private lives, an unexpected aged to upveil and is not only putting it off, understanding of this practice was anecdo- ultimately ruled constitutional in a case that shift occurred among a number of them: but is even practising her own downveiling. tal until I began conducting research in reached the Supreme Constitutional Court, they began modifying their own style of She recently began wearing loose-fitting schools on the Islamization of education. and was therefore enforceable. To ensure its dress by downveiling. pants instead of a skirt under her k h i m a r, While schools are by no means the only Ð or compliance, MOE inspectors and state secu- The older students (ages 11-14) were the Continued on page 32 2 ISIM I S I M NEWSLETTER 6 / 0 0 The question of whether political Islam should be interpreted as a One of the main effects of the emergence of political Islam is that, truly successful movement in the Muslim world has been matter of in effect, religion was reinstated as a key instrument of political debate for nearly a decade (See 'Vingt Ans Après…' conference in action. As an instrument, it also now serves groups which are not Paris p.

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