The veil worn by devout Muslims helps Muslim women integrate more effectively into society, according to a study published by a team of sociologists at Oxford. The study drew its respondents from 27 countries around the world, including Belgium, Turkey, and several Islamic countries. The team interviewed women who were forced to wear the veil and women who wore it by choice.
In the study, the team states that “there is anecdotal evidence that since the late 20th century young, educated, and urban Muslim women veil more frequently and strictly.” This is surprising because dress traditionally becomes more relaxed over time, whether within religions or secular society.
The study found that, in Turkey, well-educated Muslim women are more likely than their less-educated counterparts to wear the veil. It also concluded that Muslim women in Belgium are more likely to wear the veil if they mix with non-believers on a regular basis. The authors of this study concluded that this phenomenon is occurring because Muslim women are signaling to those within the Muslim community that they are still observing their religion, even if they are practicing untraditional behaviors such as befriending non-believers.
The authors state that “… For highly religious women modernizing factors raise the risk and temptation in women’s environments that imperil their reputation for modesty: veiling would then be a strategic response, a form either of commitment to prevent the breach of religious norms or of signaling women’s piety to their communities.”
In other words, wearing the veil is a strategy that Muslim women use to show the Muslim community that, despite becoming “modern” and integrated into society in some ways, they are not abandoning their faith. The Oxford sociologists said that it is a way for women to protect themselves from accusations of impiety: “It is the women who are engaging with the modern world who appear to rely on the veil to signal to others that they will not succumb to the temptations of modern urban life.”
Regardless of one’s positions about whether the veil should be worn in public, the sociologists’ conclusion that the veil helps women integrate into Western society mistakes correlation for causation, and perhaps even cause for effect. There is no evidence produced within the study that wearing the veil helps women become more integrated into society. In fact, it shows that women who are already integrating into society then make the choice to wear the veil. Young women often choose to wear the veil because they are becoming more educated and want to demonstrate their faith. The veil does not magically make it easier for Muslim women to assimilate.
In fact, the study seems to show that many Muslim women face pressure to avoid full societal integration, and that they respond to this pressure by wearing the veil. This show of devotion may be forced or voluntary. Some women who are very educated, yet still observant, may genuinely want to display their religious commitment to their families. Others may fear angering their communities if they don’t display their faith somehow.
Why exactly well-educated women choose to wear the veil is not the important point here; what is important is that these sociologists made a misplaced conclusion. By the logic of this study, a nerdy teenager could buy new clothes to impress the popular kids, which would make the teenager a nerdy kid in nicer jeans. Yet according to the logic they demonstrated in analyzing this study, this team of sociologists would conclude that kids who wear designer pants are more likely to be nerdy. The fact that this team’s argument is so fallacious is disturbing because every member of the team is extremely well-educated.
