Sammy Secrist

The chapter Imagining Arab Womanhood examines contemporary images of Arab womanhood, particularly representations of veiled women, harem girls, and belly dancers, in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century in the context of “contemporary U.S. neoliberalism and imperalism” (139) where these images “continue to operate as the visual vocabulary through which collective anxieties about new forms of power and progress manifest” (139). Jarmakani maps these cultural mythologies into the principal American narratives regarding power and progress, understanding them to be shaped by the interests of the American contexts. She shows how the popular media has presented these women as either helpless, oppressed victims of Arab male dominance or sexualized, erotic belly dancers in harems. I found it interesting to see how the “mythologies easily shift and adapt to the narratives that appropriate them while consistently maintaining the conceit of truth and innocence” as can be seen in the gendered images of Arab women as “helpless victims” reinforcing the “dominant trope of saving Muslim women through U.S. Military action” (142). The U.S. sees the veil as and image of oppression of women, which translates into “the backwardness of an entire people” (143). The U.S. association of the veil with backward regimes and Islamic fundamentalism supports “narratives of power and progress through rhetorics of national security and globalization” (144), which reinforces the view of the U.S. as a “civilizing/liberating force” (144). In U.S. popular media, the association of oppression with Arab and Muslim women’s bodies is powerful and holds meaning for a mainstream audience because of the way in which they can be “used to articulate U.S. based concerns about the changing nature of time and space in a postindustrial capitalist society” (159). In the post World War II context, representations of harem girls and veiled women construct an image of an “irrationally violent Muslim male” enemy and “operate within the masculinist logic of national security rhetoric” (174). In addition, the popularity of belly dancing as a form of entertainment and exercise demonstrates the “marketability of such images within the contemporary U.S. context” (175) and supports the notion of the United States constructing itself as a “benevolent supremacy”. I also found it interesting how Jarmakani notes that these contemporary representations of Arab women have been reduced to a few basic features or props so that the figures of the veiled woman, harem girl, and belly dancer are immediately recognizable by trace elements such as the veil, bangles, or an image of a woman holding her arms in a certain position (as is seen on the Camel “carnivale” ad).

The Other Side of the Veil investigates the controversy of Muslim girls wearing veils to school in France by exploring the views of Muslim immigrant women regarding their place in society. The study sheds light on the “headscarf affair”, reactions to French public culture, and the different constructions of Muslim identity in France. In this study, it was interesting to see that age and education were the best predictors of responses rather than legal status, length of time in France, or whether or not they are practicing Muslims. Young and well-educated women are more likely to view the veil as a “matter of personal right to religious freedom” (586) and view the headscarf affair as “tinged with racism”. They use a French frame of reference to support their argument. Poorly educated women, on the other hand, use a Maghrebin frame of reference, whether they are for or against veils in schools. They use their knowledge of what it means to be Muslim as a basis for their arguments. Their lack of education causes them to be less affected by French culture and less likely to understand French arguments about the headscarf. The third group mentioned in the article cannot be classified by age or education and their opinions “support those of the majority of French people and stand in opposition to those who desire tolerance and the legitimization of expressions of culture and religion in the public space of the French schools” (587). However, all the women interviewed seemed to have adapted to the life and culture in France, despite their differing ideas surrounding the veil topic, due to the “insistence that Islam is a matter of the heart and that it is best to be a good Muslim at home in private”.