Veiling in Africa

Veiling is a subject-matter that has occupied writings about both Islam and Muslims from early anthropologies of the Muslim world to recent debates about the body and covering. However, the editor of this concise volume argues that studies on veiling have almost always concentrated on the Middle East and Europe. Little, if any, research has been conducted on the ‘long and complex history’ (p. 1) of veiling in sub-Saharan Africa. Expressions of veiling seem to privilege the Arab culture as the normative prototype, and yet the practices in Africa explored by the authors in this edited collection exhibit a very Islamic African-cultural practice of veiling. The chapters demonstrate the polyvalent readings and reasons behind the topic under discussion and indeed lead one to conclude that it is very much influenced by its local and political contexts too. However, despite articulating the range of veiling practices and motivations, it remains to be seen how this volume, like many before it, will challenge the deeply-rooted views that veiled women are perhaps subordinate, forced, and responding to male advocacy of this custom, rather than being articulate, socially active, and religiously devout women.