Young, highly educated Muslim women who live in modern, urban environments may be choosing to wear the veil because it enables them to mix with non-Muslim friends, work outside the home and interact with strangers, according to the first empirical study into why wearing the veil increases alongside modernisation.
Attempts to force Muslim women to stop wearing the veil might, therefore, be counterproductive by depriving them of the choice and opportunity to integrate: if women cannot signal their piety through wearing a veil, they might choose or be forced to stay at home, concludes the study, published in the Oxford University Press’s European Social Review.
“For highly religious women, we found the modernising forces of education, occupation and higher income, urban living, and contacts with non-Muslims actually increase veiling,” said Ozan Aksoy, co-author of the report, Behind the Veil: The Strategic Use of Religious Garb. [The Guardian] Read more
