'It's a part of me, I feel naked without it': choice, agency and identity for Muslim women who wear the niqab. Issue 10 (8th August 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zempi, Irene
• Is Part Of: Ethnic and racial studies. Volume 39:Issue 10(2016)
• Page Start: 1738
• Page End: 1754
• Publication Date: 2016-08-08
• Subjects: Muslim women -- Islam -- niqab -- agency -- identity -- ummah; Race -- Periodicals; Race relations -- Periodicals; Ethnic groups -- Periodicals; 305.805
• DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2016.1159710
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0141-9870

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In the context of heightened suspicion and anti-Muslim stereotypes in a post-9/11 and 7/7 era, Muslim women who wear the niqab (face veil) are stigmatized, criminalized and marked as 'dangerous' to British/Western values. While the wearing of the niqab has elicited a good deal of media, political and public debates, little attention has been paid to the opinions of Muslim women who wear it. Drawing on individual and focus group interviews with Muslim women who wear the niqab in the UK, this article places at the centre of the debate the voices of those women who do wear it, and explores their reasons for adopting it. The findings show that the wearing of the niqab emerges as a personal choice, an expression of religious piety, public modesty and belonging to the 'ummah'. It is also perceived as a form of agency, and non-conformity to Western consumerist culture and lifestyle.