This is it. The Charnwood Cove 1 stove as installed in our sitting room.

A stove of plain design that goes well with the room (which needs redecorating).

Despite the wet weather, the whole thing was done only a day late. However, Morley Stoves (who, by the way) are very helpful and efficient by and large) failed to install an airbrick and now realize that the hearth has to be extended so that it protrudes 300mm in front of the stove to comply with Building Regulations.

So those are Monday’s jobs for Morleys!

At the moment, I’m awaiting the delivery of 90cu.ft. of seasoned hardwood logs, weighing around 1.5 tons.

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I found this paper by Sahar Amer at the University of North Carolina very helpful in clarifying my understanding of the veil in Islam.

What is the veil? What is this hijab that is so often invoked in the French press as symbol of, and threat to, the civic ideal of laicite? If in the Western, but also oftentimes in the Islamic mind, the hijab has come to stand for Islam, what does Islam say about the veil, and where does it prescribe that it must be worn by all Muslim women? The following is precisely an attempt at uncovering the meaning of the veil in Islam.

Before embarking into an overview of the teachings of Islam on the “proper” dress code for Muslim women, it is crucial to distinguish from the outset between what Islam, or the sacred texts of Islam, preach and the practices of Islam which, more often than not, are culture and country specific. Therefore, when one remembers that Muslims are found on all continents (except in Antartica), one may safely say that in each case, Islam is practiced slightly differently. Most importantly for our purposes is that in each of these countries, the notion of the veil is understood differently. This situation results in great variations in the ways women wear the hijab. This may be seen by going to the following web site. Each of the women seen in these pictures earnestly claims (or is forced ) to wear the prescribed “true Islamic veil.” And yet each of these veils looks different, in colours, in fabrics (from sheer to black and everything in between) and in the extent to which it covers the hair, the face, or the rest of the body. Evidently, the cultural practices of Islam, evident in the ways the veil is understood to mean and therefore to be worn, differ widely. These cultural practices all claim to put into practice the teachings of Isladelineated in the following sacred texts: the Quran, the Sunnah and the Shari’a.

OK, so this gives the lie to those who would insist that there is only one way to practise Islam.

Amer thoroughly reviews the Qur’anic texts and well-attested hadith or traditions and then concludes:

In fact, nowhere in the Quran, except in Sura 33: 53, is the word hijab used to speak about a particular dress code for Muslim women. And nowhere, including in Sura 33:53 is hijab used to describe, let alone to prescribe, the necessity for Muslim women to wear a headscarf or any of the other pieces of clothing often seen covering women in Islamic countries today. Even after reading these passages dealing with the female dress code, one continues to wonder what exactly the hijab is: is it supposed to be a simple scarf? A purdah? A chador? Or something else? Which parts of the body exactly is it supposed to cover: just the hair? The hair and neck? The arms? Hands? Feet? Face? Eyes? What colour is it supposed to be? More often than not, the Quranic ayat seem to offer a new use for an existing piece of clothing (it is a well kown fact that women in the Roman, and therefore pre-islamic, world, but also in the Jewish and Christian traditions wore veils).

If the word hijab is used indeed in one passage, namely Sura 33:52, it does not in any case refer to what is today commonly understood by the word, namely a headscarf of some sort to be worn by all Muslim women. For this prescription is addressed clearly and specifically to the wives of the Prophet, and not to all Muslim women. Moreover, when one considers the circumstances surrounding the specific revelation of this sura, one realizes that the meaning of the term hijab here seems to have been vastly misunderstood by succeeding generations. For sura 33:52 was revealed at the time of the Prophet’s marriage with a new bride and speaks of his desire to consummate his marriage, a desire which was frustrated because some guests were overstaying their visit. God has thus sent in this revelation in order to separate the guests through a veil from the private chambers of the Prophet and his bride. When one thus contextualizes the Quranic
revelations and their prescriptions, one sees that the hijab in this aya was meant to be a physical object aimed at securing the privacy of the Prophet and of his family and not, as is still often believed, a piece of clothing for women to wear. Evidently, the use of the word hijab here may not be interpreted as a prescription for any specific type of Islamic dress code for women.

Another example of a misinterpretation in the Quran as it relates to the headscarf is found in sura 33:59. Once again here the dress code that is advised (”to draw their wraps a little over them”) is not aimed at prescribing the wearing of a hijab for Muslim women; rather it is meant to distinguish between the clothing of free aristocratic women from that worn by the female slaves. The dress code here is a social marker, and has nothing to do with a gender dress code.

Finally, sura 24:30-31 is particularly valuable to this discussion of the dress code for the Muslim faithfuls because before even addressing the particular dress code for women, the Quran speaks first of the Islamic dress code for men. And it does so in the same words as it does for women. This sura is interesting because throughout the Islamic world and in the West, one never hears anything said about the way men must dress or conduct themselves in public. The focus has always been and continues to be on women.

I make no apology for quoting at length from this paper, since it does so much to clear away the fog of war that has been stirred up by Jack Straw’s recent comments and the reactions thereto.

These examples demonstrate that the exclusive focus placed on the hijab (veil) as it relates to women and the implications the veil has for the female body clearly constitute another form of veiling, this time of the prescriptions that the Quran specifically addresses to men. By focusing on women, Muslim men have allowed themselves to be removed from any type of responsible behavior, and have ended up maintaining an inequality of the sexes, despite of Islamic prescriptions on the subject of equality, because the latter is viewed as a threat to their power and political monopoly.

In conclusion, it seems that the hijab is a construction created shortly after the Prophet’s time and maintained till today by patriarchal society in order to keep women in a subordinate position. Because of the vagueness of its prescriptions on the dress code for women, the Quran has been manipulated at various historical times, including in our own times, in order to uphold various political agendas.

I am clear from my reading of this paper that the veil cannot be used to make “a feminist statement againist the objectification of women’s bodies by the panopticon of the (male) gaze”, as Umm Yasmin claims in her comment on an earlier post of mine on this subject. (By the way, what kind of nonsense is this language of “objectification” and “the panopticon of the (male) gaze”? It looks to me (a mere weak male) like ill-digested twaddle.) The veil, says Amer, is an imposition of male power on women.

One dimension of the struggle for women’s emancipation in the 19th and 20th century was the demand for freedom from the restrictive clothing that “respectability” (i.e. men) forced women wo wear. Now it seems that some Muslim women want to turn the clock back, paradoxically in the name of feminism. Saira Khan’s her article in The Times, refreshingly reminded us tht women and girls cannot be free to participate fully in the life of society if they are hampered by the veil.

Now, even London Mayor Ken Livingstone says he would be happier if Muslim women did not veil themselves:

London Mayor Ken Livingstone has said he would like Muslims to give up the veil.

But he suggested change was not something that could be imposed from outside the Muslim community.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Getting Muslim women to give up the veil - which I suspect is something most people would like to see in the long term, including myself - is not going to be done by old white male politicians telling them to do it.

“It will be change from within. That is why it’s important we should engage with the progressive elements and leaders in the Muslim community.”

Two closing thoughts for the moment. A note to the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Baha’i book of laws says this:

Many rules about dress had their origins in the laws and traditional practices of the world?s religions. For example, the Shi’ih clergy adopted for themselves a distinctive headdress and robes and, at one time, forbade the people to adopt European attire. Muslim practice, in its desire to emulate the custom of the Prophet, also introduced a number of restrictions with regard to the trim of the moustache and the length of the beard.

Bah??u?ll?h removed such limitations on one?s apparel and beard. He leaves such matters to the “discretion” of the individual, and at the same time calls upon the believers not to transgress the bounds of propriety and to exercise moderation in all that pertains to dress.

And Baha’u'llah very clearly gives men as much responsibility for chastity as He does women:

Say: He is not to be numbered with the people of Bah? who followeth his mundane desires, or fixeth his heart on things of the earth. He is My true follower who, if he come to a valley of pure gold, will pass straight through it aloof as a cloud, and will neither turn back, nor pause. Such a man is, assuredly, of Me. From his garment the Concourse on high can inhale the fragrance of sanctity?. And if he met the fairest and most comely of women, he would not feel his heart seduced by the least shadow of desire for her beauty. Such an one, indeed, is the creation of spotless chastity. Thus instructeth you the Pen of the Ancient of Days, as bidden by your Lord, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful.

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