ABSTRACT
Introduction: hejab as discourse The Muslim woman's veil has functioned as a significant theme for Western researchers and travellers for decades (Marbro 1991; Ahmad 1992: 166) and much has been written about the veil as a cultural idiom of Islam and a symbol of the suppression of women. For early Western missionaries the custom of veiling among Muslims became a proof of the inferiority of Islam (Zwemer 1926). Religious modesty .and veiling was often understood as an inherent core of Muslim women's seclusion and oppression. Hejab does not only refer to the mode of the Islamic covering garment, but implies modest behaviour more generally, being important to an individual's identity as a Muslim woman. In the case of Iran, hejab is often interpreted by native Iranian feminists as an overt symbol of social backwardness, sexual and political oppression, and of male religious-political hegemony (Neshat 1983; Afshar 1982; Tabari 1982; Azari 1983). The abovementioned authors, in line with other Muslim writers (Memissi 1975), agree that Islam with the veil as a key metaphor is the main obstacle for the emancipation of woman. Furthermore, several feminist anthropologists miss completely the religious meaning of the veil and Muslim women's covering garments, as exemplified by Wikan's writings (1982).
