Hijab Micropractices: The Strategic and Situational Use of Clothing by Qatari Women

Abstract

The hijab, the headscarf and cloak worn by some Muslim women, is often viewed through a lens of constraint, but in this article I emphasize its flexible use by women in Qatar, a wealthy, conservative Arabian Gulf nation. As part of a neoliberal agenda, the Qatari government frequently depicts female citizens using an "empowered woman" narrative that touts increased college enrollment, workforce participation, and sports involvement as evidence of a progressive gender milieu. Yet Qatar continues to be steeped in patriarchy and institutional gender discrimination. This domination finds its most visible expression in the scrutiny and regulation of women's clothing. In this article, I describe how Qatari women strategically modify, adjust, reimagine, and remove their hijabs to suit changing circumstances. These hijab micropracticeswomen's strategic and situational use of traditional Muslim clothing-are at times so infinitesimal they are easy to overlook. Yet they are significant because they enable Qatari women to exercise agency within the confines of clothing that is believed to signify Islamic patriarchy and female oppression. I argue that hijab micropractices are a means by which Qatari women resist these conditions, while maintaining a religious identity and commitment to family.

Organizational Resources and the Gender Gap in Congregational Lay Leadership

“…Religious congregations are no different from other organizations in that they, too, are deeply gendered (Cadge 2004;Harkness 2019;Stewart-Thomas 2010;Whitehead 2013). Both congregational structure and culture are important ways religion perpetuates inequality between men and women (Bartkowski and Shah 2014;Ecklund 2006).…”

Paradoxes of (un)veiling and the extended self: the experiences of Arab-Muslim women in Kuwait

“…Sarah's narrative resonates with Harkness (2019) who indicate that while research tends to dichotomize spaces as being either public or private, Muslim women tend to construct their own interpretations of what constitutes a public, semipublic, or private space. Sarah further reveals that the degree of publicity of a given space is also subjective.…”

Female Nationalist Activism in Japan: Truth-Telling Through Everyday Micro-Practices

“…Solomon and Steele (2016) have emphasized how micro-practices can challenge and negotiate structures of political power. As an example, consider Harkness’ (2019) study of the way Muslim women have used micro-practices around religious clothing (such as the hijab ) to resist and challenge Islamic patriarchal structures. Outlined through an analysis of Qatari women’s micro-practices around clothing, the author illustrates how the modification, adjustment, and removal of hijabs may indeed create space to exercise agency in novel ways.…”