Shap Journal 2001/2002

Living Community

Hijab in a Cold Climate

Clive Erricker

The continuity of a religious community
depends upon the nurture of its youth. When
the circumstances of the community are
contained within a larger social context that is
supportive of its aims, observances, beliefs and lifestyle
this nurture is achieved with relative ease as long as
outside influences can be monitored, controlled or even
censored. In this particular case I am taking an Islamic
community, the Khoja Shia Ithnasheeris (KSI), as an
example of what has to be addressed when that larger
supportive socio-cultural environment ceases to exist.

The question of how to preserve Shia Islam in a
predominantly secular western environment revolves
around the function of its Islamic institutions: the
imambara (place of congregation for the community)
and the medrassa (faith school). It also embraces
questions of marriage, higher education and adult
occupation. In this article I shall be focusing on the role
of the medrassa and parent-teenager relationships as
aspects of the nurture of the youth of the community
and then attempting to analyse the function of hijab in
this context. Significant in this analysis will be the way
in which hijab advertises to the non-Islamic community
(represented for the female Islamic youth by their peers
and friends in school) their identification with the values
of Islam, and the way they internalise those values
despite often being at odds with older adult members of
their community in terms of the way in which these
values are to be maintained. The principle area of tension
within the community that the youth contest is that of
authority versus autonomy. The area of tension for
female youth with their non-Islamic peers is social
behaviour. The two areas of tension collide over the
question of trust (in relation to parents' wishes) and
identity (in relation to the values of their peers). In effect
the female youth committed to the wearing of hijab find
themselves situated between two contrasting worlds.
Inhabiting both, to some degree, they seek to negotiate
their own identity and apply their values.

In the Medrassa

This study concentrates on one particular Jamaat
(local organisation) and its medrassa class for
teenage Shia youth. The class is mixed gender and the
students are between 13 and 17 years old. Attendance
varies between 10 and 12 students, approximately half
of whom are female. Two of the female students (T and
M) have Iranian parents. The other students have Khoja
parents with East African backgrounds (S, who is
female, and A and Y, who are male). The students have
a young male teacher, in his 30s. In the class identified
below he is teaching a lesson on negotiation which
turns to the question of negotiation with parents. The
text below does not represent the whole lesson but is
edited to present significant points covered in the
discussion. The teacher is trying to show that obedience
to parents does not rule out negotiation with parents,
rather it creates a need for negotiation once one becomes
a baligh (one who has reached puberty and become res-
ponsible), but it requires knowing the Islamic principles
for negotiating. He begins by giving a personal example.

Teacher: The Islamic position is to obey your parents,
but if my mother says 'You must spend more time with
your family and not go to so many meetings' I may say
‘If I agree to spend this time with my family can I go to
that meeting?’ We negotiate.

However, in the discussion that follows a number of
issues emerge. This is initiated by two young women
challenging the teacher's understanding of negotiation.

T and M (together): No, you compromise.

Teacher: No, it's negotiating...with parents and
negotiation the question is whether my perspective is
Islamic.

T: But shouldn't we have to make the decision
ourselves?

Teacher: It is a settlement using the principle of
consultation. The chapter on Shurah (consultation)
gives us a framework of consultation on the basis of
giving an understanding of what I want from this.

T: Are we allowed to adopt our own views?

Teacher: I am giving you the Islamic view. You cannot
negotiate on beliefs but you can negotiate on
perspectives...If we don't resolve a conflict it results in
mayhem in our personal, social and religious life.

T: ...with your parents, even if you are right and they
are wrong, you have to go and suck up to them.

A: You have to negotiate with yourself, with your
conscience.

T: Negotiation is reasoning.

A: My mum says...she trusts me but not the society. It
becomes her decision not mine as to where I go but
sometimes I go anyway.

The teacher writes on the flip chart: T need to:'

Y: Come back when you said you would.

T: Go where you said you would go, not somewhere else.

The teacher writes on the flip chart: 'Parents need to:'
A number of answers are given including:

'Listen with understanding, with reason.'

'Let me think for myself.'

'Trust.'

The teacher asks what situation they find themselves in
when negotiating with their parents, having emphasised
that negotiation is about trying to achieve a 'win-win'
situation.

T: win-win.

M: me too.

A: I lose, my parents win.

S: Very varied.

T: But if your parents don't do what they are meant to
do what do you do?

Teacher: Try.

T: That's hard.

Teacher: There are no solutions in this class. I can give
you a framework for Islam. It is then in your head.

In certain respects the discussion in this class resembles
one that might take place with any teenagers, not just
Islamic ones. Obeying parents can be frustrating. But
that is not surprising since all these young people are
first generation British-born Muslims and their
experiences in many ways reflect those of their non-
Muslim peers. This is understood by the teacher who is
seeking to develop their ownership of Islamic identity
within the context of a pervasively secular society. These
young Muslims have never lived in a Muslim society and
this creates the need for the community to nurture their
identity as Muslims whilst having to acknowledge that
this generation faces challenges that are quite different
to those that the older generations have experienced. In
the words of their teacher 'We have to prepare them for
the times they have to face, not for the times I face'. This
teacher is seeking to address this situation with his class
by encouraging his students to speak about their
experiences openly and in a challenging way in the
context of presenting the teachings of Shia Islam and
their application to the students' lives. One of the
distinctive features suggested by the exchanges that
occurred in this lesson is that what the teacher is asking
them to adopt, as a negotiating procedure with parents,
is not necessarily identifiable with the procedures the
parents adopt given the injunction of obedience.
Obedience, autonomy and trust, three qualities
highlighted in the discussion, do not fit together easily.
Negotiation is meant to be the glue that binds them but
the parents' other concerns, in seeking to protect their
youngsters or preserve a more 'traditional' under-
standing of obedience with which they are familiar, may
suggest that negotiation is a threatening rather than
cohering activity. It may be perceived as a challenge to
traditional obedience, an example of the secularising
influence their children are subjected to, rather than a
more subtle Islamic understanding of the responsibilities
of a baligh.

Outside the Medrassa

It might seem from our visit to the medrassa class that
these young Shias are in conflict with the principles of
their faith. The question from T, Are we allowed to adopt
our own views?' had a certain rhetorical ring to it. But
I think it would be mistaken to take this view. To support
this judgement here are views expressed by the same
youngsters taken from a group interview with the
medrassa class. I have focused here on discussion about
hijab and its influence on the behaviour of the females
in the group when with their non-Muslim peers. First,
wearing hijab does create a sense of difference which is
not always understood by non-Muslim fellow students.
Within friendships doing certain things together just
isn't possible.

T: they look at us and they see a different person. They
look at guys and they just see guys...Muslims in a pub,
you wouldn't know, but with us its obvious because we
wear hijab. We're Muslims and they can actually see it so
we get noticed....My friend says 'Tas oh come it will really
be fun. Wear a scarf, a really cool scarf.' And I am
thinking, OK, can you just imagine me in that place, with
these (other) people wearing hardly anything and me in
long skirt, long sleeves, scarf and everything. But my
friends are so lovely, they want me to enjoy it and every
time they go to the clubs they come back and talk about
how much fun they have. And they are like 'Oh I wish
you were there, wish you were there, you were there in
spirit'. They want me to enjoy it with them but I can't.
They try and get around that problem but they can't.

It is this possibility of temptation that many parents are
most concerned about. It relates to the statement above,
'My mum says...she trusts me but not the society'. That
such temptations increase in the teenage years was
acknowledged by S, who is 13 years old, when she said,
'In my case I'm still so young. It will get more serious
later.' For the parents the very friendships that are, in
many ways, supportive for their children may be seen to
constitute a seductive threat. This, in turn, results in
frustration for young female Shias and a perceived lack
of understanding and trust.

T: Your parents don't let you go out, like with your
schoolfriends because they are a bad example. They go
in pubs and stuff. But I am not going to do that but they
just don't understand.

M: What the parents need to do is trust us enough to go
with them but trust us not to do what we know is wrong
for us.

The difficulties that face young female Shias are
confirmed by them, which might be seen as requiring
parents to intervene in their lives more readily, but the
gap in experience between the generations appears to
contribute to the problem. Effective communication is
hampered by a desire to understand without the
perceived capacity to do so.

T: It's harder when you are young. In this country...

S: Definitely.

T: ..and it's even harder when your parents don't
understand because they weren't brought up here. And
they don't understand that times change and it's a
different country. But they think because they've seen it
they think...

M: They know.

T: Like my dad, he's converted. It's like he was brought
up in this country when my mum was brought up in
Iran. And my grandmother, she is traditional Iranian
and very, very judgemental when I am cheeky to her. It's
sort of different and I am cheeky to her in a different
way. She tries to understand and makes me talk to her
about stuff, and I do tell her about stuff and she seems
to understand, and it's OK, then she tries to know more
and more and I'm like 'you don't understand,' and she
says 'Yes, I do understand...' There are parents who
don't understand their kids and parents who really love
their kids and want to be involved but can't take it that
they don't know.
 
Beyond this confusion in communication across
generations there is the close understanding that exists
within the younger generation itself. This is born out in
the following statements.

S: If we were to lose our religion we would lose our
moral values, our community, we would lose everything
about us and have no identity, which I think, is very
important to the person. If we were to lose that we
would feel really lost and out of place, not knowing
where to go and what to do. We would lose our values,
community and respect, all the things a person should
have coming with religion and I think that is very, very
important.

T: For people being brought up to know it as their way
of life it truly is because that is how they have been
brought up. That's how they believe, that's what they
believe in. Anyone who has so much love for God it's
easy to pray five times a day because that's what I want
to do, it's easy to fast because that's what I want to do,
for the love of God.

M: ...it's that you've got to understand. If it doesn't make
sense to us then there is no point in doing it. If it didn't
make sense we wouldn't do it.

In relation to this issue of 'making sense' there is also
the question of respect from their peers, as T. illustrates
below.

T: In my school there are loads of Muslims, Regent's
Park, Southampton. In my form there are three
Muslims. There are eight forms in every year. There's
like five Shias in the whole school. And, like, in RE
classes we'll be discussing something and they'll say
'You wear hijab, how come she doesn't?' Some people
wear it just because of their parents, so they don't wear
it properly in school, and they'll say 'Well what is the
point of doing that?' they ask me.

T's observations on the distinction between wearing
hijab properly and wearing it for your parents raises a
further consideration relating to the connections
between obedience and negotiation. The latter reason
for wearing hijab, but improperly, might be compared to
wearing your school uniform but with the knot of your
tie hanging down from your neck, or wearing your
helmet on your bike but with the strap hanging. The
observances required are overtly but loosely complied
with indicating an obvious disregard for their purposes.

The result is to advertise a wish to belong to the
normative culture of the peer group rather than to that
(parental or adult) culture which requires your
compliance. The question 'What is the point of doing
that?' cannot be answered satisfactorily except to say
that attempting to comply with parental impositions
without conviction leaves female Muslim youth in a
liminal space as far as identity is concerned. The
discussion of this issue within the school also indicates
how significant hijab is as an outward and visible sign
of Muslim identity as perceived by non-Muslim peers.

For parents, wearing hijab can be primarily a means of
protecting their children. It is understandable that
parents wish to protect their children, especially their
girls, and hijab can be understood as one obvious means
of protection. As A (a boy) remarks, when discussing
why parents are stricter on girls, 'It's to do with that
whole hijab thing again'.   His view is that hijab
represents the idea that girls have to be protected in a
way that boys do not, 'with this parents thing, it is
different for boys and girls because with the girls the
parents watch out for them because, for obvious
reasons...'

The girls response to this view confirms it but also adds
another significant dimension. It does confer protection
but it does more than that.

S: People have heard this lots but I'll say it anyway. It's
like, if there is a jewel, a really precious jewel, you'd
want to keep it safe and hidden...they (girls) are precious
jewels... that's why we have hijab and that way you are
safer and you keep your self respect and stuff.

T: And we're respected. When I'm walking down the
street and there's some other girl a guy will turn round
and look at her and wolf whistle, but he'll have respect
for me.

The Symbolism of Hijab

Hijab acts as a symbol in two different ways. On the
one hand it is a symbol to guarantee protection. On
the other it is a witness to Shia identity, an expression of
a faith and the way of life that that faith represents, it
creates respect. The differing symbolic meanings of hijab
are representative of a tension concerning the
continuity of the Shia community and its values, as
embodied in young female Shias. Wearing hijab can be
understood primarily as either an act of obedience that
confers protection or as a self-affirmation of identity that
confers respect. Whilst hijab can confer both qualities at
the same time, if parents perceive their children to be
wearing it primarily as an act of obedience to them
rather than as a self-affirmation of identity by their
teenage children they will fail to trust their children as
baligh. In relation to the matter of negotiation, there is
no negotiation as to the wearing of hijab but there can
be negotiation over trusting the one who is wearing it to
'think for myself.

Exemplifying how this might be done, the young female
Shias refer to understanding that wearing hijab
'properly' involves the inner hijab as well as the outer

hijab. The former providing the conviction behind the
latter and the latter the visible expression of the former.
In this group T started wearing hijab at eight and a half
years old and M at 14 years old.

T explains that 'following the inner or spiritual hijab,
the hijab of the eyes, mouth, ears and feet, gets harder
as you get older...most difficult for me is of the mouth
because everyone likes a good gossip.'

S explains the hijab of the feet by saying, 'Not going
places you shouldn't, for example pubs.'

M explains the hijab of the eyes, 'Not looking at
something you shouldn't, like a good looking guy.'

Certainly it is the case that Shia youth in this situation
are already facing times that their parents did not face,
at least in this respect: that they are both baligh, from a
Muslim perspective, and teenagers, from the perspective
of western culture. Their identities are located in both
categories as they negotiate the experience of being
Shias in a secular society. Now that is a situation in
which the art of negotiation is at a premium. Can a
baligh cope with being a teenager? Can a teenager cope
with being a baligh? Or is the tension involved in this
negotiation too great? Is it necessary for parents to
protect a baligh by ensuring obedience without
negotiation or, conversely, will the teenager in school
pretend to be a baligh at home, by employing deception
to avoid negotiation?

This study exemplifies a situation that is also applicable
to other religious communities. We no longer live in a
world in which children and young people find
themselves discovering or constructing their identity in
specific and distinct cultural locations affording a
discrete enculturation. Rather, we find them negotiating
their identities between and across culturally plural
worlds aided by the support and subject to the
shortcomings of the adults in the communities within

which guidance is offered. Their inclination to question
that guidance can be understood positively as an aspect
of the negotiations they are required to undertake in
navigating such situations and establishing their own
agency, or negatively as an indication of a lack of respect
for the tradition of which they are the inheritors.
Between these positive and negative poles the
communities themselves must also navigate.

Questions for the Classroom

This research leaves some obvious questions which
require further research investigation, but they are
also questions that can provide for interesting discussion
in the secondary classroom.

•   The responses in the conversations show some
inconsistencies in relation to what individuals have said
and across individual responses. What are they? How
could they be resolved?

•   What is the relationship between 'precious' and
'protected'? How could these terms be connected in
different ways?

•   How can 'hijab' be related to the concept of 'jihad'?
How is this affected by 'hijab' being understood as
'protection' or 'witness'?

•  What would your advice to the community be as to
what they should and should not allow their young
female members to do?

•   Can you role-play a situation in which obedience
and negotiation can result in a win-win outcome based
on the discussions above?

Endnotes

Jaffer Alloo, Mohamed Noormohamad, Mahmood Datoo
(eds.) (1995) The Role of Imambams and Majalis in
Modern Times, London, Marble Press. (Available from the
Islamic Centre, PO Box 60, Stanmore, Middlesex HA7 4JB)

Clive Erricker (2001) 'The Diaspora of the Khoja Shi'a
Ithnasheeries' in C. Erricker and J. Erricker (eds.)
Contemporary Spiritualities: Religious and Social Contexts,
London, Continuum.

Clive Erricker (2001) 'The Spiritual Education of Khoja
Shi'a Ithnasheeri (KSI) Youth: The Challenges of
Diaspora' in J. Erricker, C. Ota and C. Erricker (eds.)
Spiritual Education: Cultural, Religious and Social
Differences, Brighton, Sussex Academic Press.