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Paper short abstract:

Through the application of 'orientalism' vs 'reverse orientalism' regarding veiling, I would contribute to the idea of 'reversing the gaze'; locating it to a postcolonial Bangladesh where 'modernity', 'feminism', and 'Islamic extremism' all three interplay in complicating the practice of veiling.

Paper long abstract:

The veil ─ identified by the West as a barrier to “modernity” and “freedom”, compartmentalizes it to represent the ‘oppressed’ and ‘submissive’ Muslim women. Such discourses did not remain static, rather upheld by the ‘secularists’, ‘modernists’, and some feminists and opposed by the ‘religious extremists’─ the simple piece of cloth has submerged into the greatest puzzle of all time. The question of the right to not veil is equally significant as the right to veil, especially in a neoliberal context, where women no longer can sit at home to practice purdah, but rather have to participate in waged work or compete in the market economy. ‘Veil’ as a concept does not only ‘cover’ one’s body part, it places a cover too, on the many gazes or looks with the judgments that make one bound to veil or stop veiling. Under mounting pressure, a personal choice becomes an obligation, and a woman has to traverse a tough journey for whatever choice they make. Using social and online evidence and a systematic review of existing literature to trace the multiple and also discerning practices of veiling, in this paper I attempt to showcase how in a postcolonial Bangladesh 'modernity' and/or ‘secularism’, 'feminism', and 'Islamic extremism' interplay in complicating the practice of veiling. I employ Said’s (1978) ‘Orientalism’, Abu-Lughod’s (1991) ‘reverse Orientalism’, and Scott’s (2007) ‘Clash of civilizations’, to understand the politics behind these rigid positions of different groups and attempt to create a decolonized account of the practices of veiling in Bangladesh