The Veil and Urban Space in Istanbul: Women's dress, mobility and Islamic knowledge

Qatari Women Navigating Gendered Space

“…Likewise, the prohibition against attracting the male gaze regulates female body language and behavior in a mixed gender environment. Perhaps no other concept has been more hotly contested in the literature on Muslim women than the veil (Mernissi 1992;Secor 2010;Ahmed 2012). Nowadays, especially in the diaspora, the practice of wearing a hijab can be interpreted as signaling a variety of attitudes; it can function as a sign of religiosity, respect for tradition, political beliefs or a combination of any them (Secor 2010).…”

“…Perhaps no other concept has been more hotly contested in the literature on Muslim women than the veil (Mernissi 1992;Secor 2010;Ahmed 2012). Nowadays, especially in the diaspora, the practice of wearing a hijab can be interpreted as signaling a variety of attitudes; it can function as a sign of religiosity, respect for tradition, political beliefs or a combination of any them (Secor 2010). Originally, however, the practice of veiling used to denote the status of Muslim females and shelter them when they ventured outside their domestic sphere.…”

Speaking of Women? Exploring Violence against Women through Political Discourses: A Case Study of Headscarf Debates in Turkey

“…From this perspective, veiling in general, and the practice of wearing a headscarf specifically need to be considered in their efficacy in either "provoking" or "deterring" sexual assault or attacks. As Secor's (2002) research on migrant and working-class women in Istanbul also demonstrates, women use the headscarf to avoid harassment on the streets and to protect their honour in public.…”

Mattering Moralities: Learning Corporeal Modesty through Muslim Diasporic Clothing Practices

“…Manifesting as an interpretation of a religious text, like any parallel practice, veiling is not related to only one dimension of social life: veiling or not-veiling can be a stylistic, pragmatic, or unreflective choice, based as much in a social, political, or economic environment as it might reflect spiritual beliefs, or sacralization (El Guindi 1999) or politicization (Badr 2004) of a woman's body. As Secor (2002) argues, veiling acts as part of a symbolic order that configures spatialities in complex ways, both as fashion-conscious stylistic expression and as a corporeal form for negotiating external political realities. Furthermore, wearing a veil cannot be simply equated to creating a 'modest' body to the extent that being 'modest' by covering one's head can be done in a showy and immodest way (Secor 2002, p. 10;White 1999).…”

“…The interviewer question in line 1 that begins this section of talk, was following other questions about objects and clothing they like to buy in Morocco, including the elaborate dresses (takshetas) that many women have tailor-made in Morocco. Questions of 'coveredness' in Islamic codes of dress, particularly as they apply to women (like Anissa and Shirin, as Muslims), are often framed through the political statements that they enable or disable, or through discourses on public versus private spaces (Secor 2002). They become readable as a set of (masculine) gazes, composed by and enforcing rules of moral order defining a feminine 'private', to which women resist and innovate to assert subjective expression.…”