INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY—ISLAMIC WOMEN’S CONFERENCE ON VEILING

On International Women’s Day, March
8, the first-ever West Asian Women’s Conference called called "Beyond My Veil
and Yours," took place in New York City. The conference sought to change entrenched
stereotypes of Islamic women, and gave attendees a reality check about the real-life women
who live behind Islamic veils and beyond the wall of cultural ignorance. The event was
held at the Limelight, a throbbing nightclub five days of the week that doubles as a
reception hall and art gallery. A conference panel of Afghan-American women discussed the
effects that Western stereotypes of Islamic women have had on their lives and careers. The
two Uzbek women scheduled to speak – Mila Eshanova and Gulsara Mukumova — could
not attend because of visa problems and flight cancellations.

The conference made clear that veiling, a custom prevalent in many parts of the Islamic
world, is an extremely complex phenomenon. To many Westerners, it symbolizes oppression
because the faces of women are covered in public. But many West Asian women actually
consider the practice to be liberating because it frees them from external constraints,
such as being judged by their appearance rather than intellect. In the Western mind, the
women and the veil are one. The stereotype about veiling subsumes the woman underneath,
and few further attempts are made to develop meaningful cross-cultural dialog.

The conference organizers chose the term "West Asia" to be inclusive. Other
geographic designations, including the Far East, Near East, Central Asia, and the Middle
East, all omit part of the territory where veiling occurs. As sweeping as the territory
where women veil, the topics under discussion were very wide ranging. Panelists discussed
such topics as the symbolism of veiling, the Afghan immigrant experience, the treatment of
women under Taliban rule, and various forms of cultural expression. One panelist, Lida
Ahmady, spoke about the road that led her from prayers and gardening to Chinese medicine.

The conference aimed to create such a dialog by encouraging participants to lift their
own "stereotypical veils" and engage in frank talk about these issues. Shekaiba
Wakili, a schoolteacher on Long Island, spoke about patterns of the Afghan immigrant
experience that she wrote about in her work, "From Obedience to Liberty: The
Afghan-American Women’s Experience in America." A conference highlight included
Roya Ghiasy’s description of her artistic mural. On top of each fully veiled woman
sits an exotic bird in an open birdcage. Instead of flying away, the colorful, long-tailed
birds choose to roost where they are, an obvious parallel to the women underneath.

Beatrice Hogan, contributor, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Weekday
Magazine and the United Nations Chronicle.