My main topic is about wearing the veil among young women in Ain Shams University and the American University in Cairo. Veiled women wear different styles of veiling such as modern, extreme and moderate style. As a result, the students I interviewed are chosen according to their veil style. I even interviewed students who are not veiled to know their point of view of the veil itself. I interviewed two students from Ain Shams University and two students from the AUC.
The two students that I chose to interview from Ain Shams University are called F Al M and H A M who are seniors’ students in AlAlsun College for language. I hide interviewees’ names for privacy reasons. F is veiled with moderate veil while H is unveiled. I had a visit to Ain Shams University and observed about the veil topic and then conducted interviews with students in an informal setting. We were sitting in the crowd in Ain Shams University and had an open discussion about the veil topic. The interviews were informal because the students are in the same age of mine so felt relaxed to chat with eachother. Also, one of the interviewees was a friend of my friend so the discussion was more open than the stranger.
The other interviewees were from the American University in Cairo. A T, Computer Science graduating senior, is unveiled while N M, Political science student, is a moderate veiled. I had informal interviews because they were my friends. Some have common opinions and of course each interviewee has unique opinions. The setting of the interview was in a comfortable position when I had a free discussion about the veil issue.
In the interviews, various issues were raised that are related to the veil concept. The issues are the duty of wearing the veil, the environment effects, boundaries veiled women face and reasons of high rate of veiled women nowadays. Interviewees have different points of view in some topics and sometimes agree on other issues.
There was an important question that I had to ask in the beginning of every interview; this question is why do u wear the veil for veiled women and in other words for unveiled women why do you think some women wear the veil. Almost all interviewees answered this question as it is a religious duty. Then the question that should be asked is if it is a religious duty why there are some women who are not veiled yet? I asked this question to unveiled students because I am curious about why those women do not wear veil? “I don’t wear the veil because I don’t feel I am ready for that now”, A T said. This means the decision of wearing veil is up to the girl or woman. Some parents force their daughters to wear the veil. Consequently, girls would hate wearing the veil and then do things that might be against the religion because they feel they are not free. There are many women who are not convinced that veil is a duty and that every woman should wear. Some argue that it was mentioned in the Holly Quran to wear the veil. Others argue that what is mentioned in the Quran is understood by people wrongly nowadays. Many people are arguing that women are free to take the decision of whether wear the veil or not.
The other essential point that was raised in the interviews is the environment effects that can influence women about the veil. “I wore it in Ramadan in high school and then could not take it off again because all my friends are veiled”, N M said. Nada explained that she decided to wear the veil not because she is totally convinced of the idea but because her peers in school convinced her to keep wearing it. This young lady did not want to look different from other students in her school so decided to be like the others. This shows that the environment has a big effect on the person’s decisions. Also, F Al explained how she decided to be veiled because her school was Islamic system and all students and teachers are veiled. As a result, she somehow was convinced to wear the veil so she can live in this environment. Although she has the will to wear the veil because of religious reasons, her school environment was more determined that lead her to be veiled. Also, the family environment was very important because all F’s female members are veiled so this is another contributory fact that lead F to take the decision of wearing the veil. On the other hand, H A who is unveiled thinks that society probably can enforce women to wear veil. Society as H A believes respects veiled women more than the unveiled ones. Thus, wearing the veil nowadays has become more social and cultural concept than religious. Women do not understand the real veil concept or the purpose of wearing the veil so they wear it just to satisfy the society, H added. Also, young women wear the veil because some young men respect the veiled women. As a result, they would have chances of being engaged more than the unveiled women. This is another proof that wearing the veil has become more for social reasons than religious.
The very important point that many mentioned is the boundaries that some veiled women are facing these days. I asked the interviewees if they think that veiled women are facing some difficulties in their lives; the answer was yes and difficulties are just in applying for some kind of jobs. Some companies do not hire veiled women for example in Tourism and Mass Media fields. “My sister had to take the veil off because whenever she applied for a job and there is a picture of her in the CV, the company would refuse her without even reading the CV”, A T said. This shows how some veiled women face major difficulties in their careers. A explained that when her sister took her veil off, she gained the job she wanted immediately without any problems. This can also explain how the image of the veil is interrupted in a wrong way. H A also shared the same concerns about these difficulties that veiled women suffer from. She thinks that the main reason for delaying her decision of wearing the veil is the boundaries that she might face in applying for the job she dreams of after graduation. The society is policing boundaries against veiled women and even unveiled ones. On the other hand, F Al disagrees with A and H that she does not think veiled women face difficulties. This might be because she might not apply for such jobs that refuse to hire veiled women or she did not face any difficulty before. In fact, veiled women are facing difficulties in winning specific jobs even if they have the skills acquired.
I asked an important question which is why do you think there is a high rate of veiled women nowadays? The answers were various some think that it is because of the new religious people, such as Amr Khalid in Egypt, who attract the young people and raise the awareness of the veil as A T thinks. H A thinks that in the past there were no many veiled women because of the foreign colonization that everyone was affected by the Western culture. Women were wearing Western style and veil is contradicted with this Western style.
The strategy of conducting an interview is very vital way to get people’s opinion about a specific topic. Honestly, I thought in the beginning that conducting interviews would be very difficult task but eventually, it was very useful and easy. I thought in the beginning that women would consider the veil issue sensitive and would not talk with me frankly. However, women were so open to talk about this topic and talk about different topics related to the veil.
One of the difficulties I faced conducting interviews is the limit of time. I wish I could have more time to interview more women and even men to know their point of view of the veil. Also, I wished to interview some students who have special veil style to know why they chose this style and how it is different than the traditional one. Also, I hope later I can interview some of the girls who were veiled and then took the veil off to know the reasons and causes of such decisions. The other challenge was visiting Ain Shams University and how to get into the university for several times without being a student there. As a result, I had the chance to visit it once to conduct my interviews.
To conclude, many people are convinced that veil is a religious duty but some can not take the decision to wear it yet because of social and cultural reasons. Some wear it to satisfy the society and others wear it properly and really apply of the purpose of wearing the veil. I think wearing veil and not wearing it is a freedom of expression and should be respected in all cases.
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