被るか、被らないかの問題

フランスでは政教分離から公立校ではムスリムのヘッドスカーフ着用を禁止されているようですがその問題を扱ったドキュメンタリーです。この監督はサウジアラビア女性であるのが面白いところです。主人公も宗教的に保守的な家庭に育ったわけではなく、アイデンティティーの模索からスカーフ着用するようになっていったようです。

Faiza Ambah interview: Mariam director on the politics of feminism and the hijab
'I don’t believe in it, I don’t wear it – but if you think God wants you to wear it, then it’s your right as a woman'
Emma Jones
Sunday 27 December 2015
A spiritual statement, an ugly symbol of restriction, a fashion accessory, or a principle of a woman’s right to choose? The debate over what the hijab means to Muslim women is now raging at the heart of the Arab world, where two female-directed movies showing at the Dubai International Film Festival examine why this deceptively simple piece of cloth has come to define Muslim womanhood.
Faiza Ambah, a Saudi Arabian journalist and film-maker, does not wear the hijab – and even in cosmopolitan Dubai, it’s noticeable. Her long, thick, curly brown hair frames her face as she says, between sips of tea, “I don’t believe in it, I don’t wear it, I don’t believe Islam tells us to wear it. But if you think God wants you to wear it, or if it just makes you feel better, then it’s your right as a woman to do that.”

着用することを義務付けるサウジアラビアという国にも着用しないことを義務付けるフランスという国にも批判の目を向けています。

"I am against soul-draining compromises" - an interview with Faiza Ambah
17 September 2015

In the same way that Mariam is forced to take off the veil, other girls are forced to wear the veil. In both cases, one question arises: the submission of women. Was it the starting point for your film?
Absolutely. Very much so. I came to France in 2011, the year the ban on niqab (cloth that covers the face) went into effect. I had just arrived from Saudi Arabia, where the law requires women to wear the hijab and where many women in the more conservative cities feel pressured to wear the niqab.
I personally don’t believe in wearing the hijab, I don’t believe Islam demands it of women, and I don’t wear the hijab except for when I have to, like when I’m in Saudi Arabia.
But I felt a kinship with these veiled women in France, who, like me, were not allowed to dress the way they like. Who were threatened with fines and arrest for dressing in a way they believed made them closer to their God. The same way, not wearing the hijab makes me feel closer to my God.

ヘッドスカーフ着用はムスリムの義務ではない、ともっと激しく主張しているOpEdがワシントンポストにありました。イスラム女性＝ヘッドスカーフという公式が自動的に成り立つわけではないようです。そもそも被るスカーフも地域によって違いもありますよね。

As Muslim women, we actually ask you not to wear the hijab in the name of interfaith solidarity
Saved to Reading List
By Asra Q. Nomani and Hala Arafa December 21, 2015

For us, as mainstream Muslim women, born in Egypt and India, the spectacle at the mosque was a painful reminder of the well-financed effort by conservative Muslims to dominate modern Muslim societies. This modern-day movement spreads an ideology of political Islam, called “Islamism,” enlisting well-intentioned interfaith do-gooders and the media into promoting the idea that “hijab” is a virtual “sixth pillar” of Islam, after the traditional “five pillars” of the shahada (or proclamation of faith), prayer, fasting, charity and pilgrimage.
We reject this interpretation that the “hijab” is merely a symbol of modesty and dignity adopted by faithful female followers of Islam.
This modern-day movement, codified by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Taliban Afghanistan and the Islamic State, has erroneously made the Arabic word hijab synonymous with “headscarf.” This conflation of hijab with the secular word headscarf is misleading. “Hijab” literally means “curtain” in Arabic. It also means “hiding,” ”obstructing” and “isolating” someone or something. It is never used in the Koran to mean headscarf.
In colloquial Arabic, the word for “headscarf” is tarha. In classical Arabic, “head” is al-ra’as and cover is gheta’a. No matter what formula you use, “hijab” never means headscarf. The media must stop spreading this misleading interpretation.

以前はカトリック教会もミサの最中にはベールを被るようにという決まりだったようですね。

Today, in the 21st century, most mosques around the world, including in the United States, deny us, as Muslim women, our Islamic right to pray without a headscarf, discriminating against us by refusing us entry if we don’t cover our hair. Like the Catholic Church after the Vatican II reforms of 1965 removed a requirement that women enter churches with heads covers, mosques should become headscarf-optional, if they truly want to make their places of worship　“women-friendly.”

今でもミサではベール着用をすすめている教会もあるようです。ヒラリー大統領候補の時代を生きている我々はピンと来ませんが、ウーマンリブ以前の世界は今とは違った世界だったようです。