Following the trail of Islamism and the Veil across time and borders

Speaker: Professor Leila Ahmed
Chair: Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed
This event was recorded on 26 May 2011 in Old Theatre, Old Building
Professor Ahmed asks why the wearing of veils or headscarves has become a growing phenomenon in America -- and across the world. Having almost vanished from many Muslim majority cities, why in the 1970s did veiling (or covering) suddenly begin to grow more common and rapidly spread first across Muslim majority societies and then later in the West? Following this trail Professor Ahmed explores the forces which brought about this "rebirth" of veiling, and how, why and by what means they succeeded in persuading women to take on the hijab. She also examines how this pro-veiling form of Islam continues to evolve now that it has taken root in the democratic societies of the West.
Leila Ahmed is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. She is the author of the recently published A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence from the Middle East to America, the follow up to her seminal work Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate.

[@fatemeh4235]

Such a pitty that it is almost incomprehensible due to poor sound quality

[@wordsoflight3074]

Islam is a religion not a political movement, there is no such thing as "Islamists", that word is a colonial invention. If you are a Muslim you believe in Islam and you practice it. So, please stop spreading bigotry and Islamophobia against Muslims that simply want to practice their Islam to please their Almighty God.

[@inhumanhyena]

Who said "Islam is a political movement"?There are many different types of Muslims who practice different interpretations of Islam. The term "Islamism" is just an academic terminology used to describe a political trend that developed within the wider ummah. It categorizes movements such as the "Muslim brotherhood". Islam the religion is not a political movement, while "Islamism" is. It does not just describe Islam. Two different terms for two different concepts.
Leila Ahmed (the speaker) is an Egyptian native, NOT a colonist. She's a Muslim and she's not an "Islamist". Also both of her parents are Muslims (Egyptian father, Turkish mother). I'm a Muslim and I'm not an "Islamist". A Muslim cannot be Islamophic. What "Islamists" practice isn't just Islam, but a specific interpretation arriving from a specific historical trajectory that occured within the Muslim world, which is extremely political and which *often excludes and targets many Muslims and Muslim communities (in the case of the Muslim Brotherhood) around the world - a tremendous bigotry. Unfortunately some of the worst bigots in the world identify as Muslims, *still it seems foolish to call them Islamophobic and makes nonsense of the term. Ahmed also discusses the social activism of Islamist *influenced American Muslims in the latter portion of the video and criticizes neo-colonial propagandistic portrayals of women in burqas and hijab as being oppressed.