THE CHAIN OF VEILS (ZANJEER-E-CHADORHA) By Manouchehr Saadat Noury

DEFINITION: 'Veil' usually refers to 'Chador' in Persian Culture, and to Hejab in Arabic Literature. A Chador worn by females is usually a black cloth which conceals the body but leaves the face free; it is one possible way in which a Muslim woman may follow the Hejab dress code. The Hejab is an Islamic covering that cloaks an individual from head to toe.

A TOOL TO INTERNALIZE AND TO SEGREGATE: Since the tornado of 1979 hit Iran and the veiling of women became mandatory, there has been always a massive social movement of resistance and defiance of women in the country. For most Iranian women, the veil is not just another type of dressing and outfits, but it is a very important social issue as related to the human rights. Opposing to use the veil is not only defending the right to freedom of dressing, but to challenge the notions which follow. In fact, veiling is a powerful tool to internalize or to acknowledge or to accept an idea or an attitude, et cetera so that it becomes a part of ones' character. Many scholars believe that veiling internalizes the Islamic notion in women that they belong to an inferior sex, and that they are considered as the sex objects. Regrettably, it tutors and edifies them to limit and to reduce their normal physical movements and their free behavior and performances. Veiling is also a tool to institutionalize women's segregation and separation and to implement a system known as sexual apartheid, a political system in which people of different sexes are separated.

CHADOR IN POETRY: In his poem entitled Silencers, the Canadian poet Colin Ward from Winnipeg sees the Chador as a tool which reduces the body to Anthracite (a very hard type of coal which burns slowly and produces a lot of heat with very little smoke and a small flame):

The brown skinned girl views dark July days through a chador,
her body reduced to Anthracite
eyes casing the marketplace, her spare words measured
in degrees Fahrenheit.

In Persian Poetry, many famous Iranian poets like Hafez-e-Shirazi, Hatef-e-Isfahani, Iraj Mirza, Aref-e-Ghazvini, Mohammad Taghi Bahar, Pour Davood, and Nader Pour composed poems in which they strongly disapproved and condemned the wearing of Chador by women during the course of history. In their courageous and very outspoken poems, the poets protested the wearing of Chador due to the facts that it limits the social activities and performances of the females. The critics also focus on the disadvantages of Chador because it conceals and hides the natural feminine beauty or the womanly exquisiteness granted by God.

Some of those poems have been collected and presented as the Chain of Veils. It should be noted that almost eight decades ago, both poets Aref-e-Ghazvini and Mohammad Taghi Bahar, in their poems, called upon the Iranian women to ignore the Mullahs, to become unveiled and let the chain of veils be torn and tattered. And if they would be unveiled, nothing would happen against any woman. But there would be the Mullahs and the Preachers who rather retreat and give the ground!

REFERENCES:
1- Kamguian, A. (2003): Online Article on "Against Hijab".
2- Kar, M. (2003): Online Article on "The invasion of the private sphere in Iran: individual, family, community and state".
3- Reese, L. (2001): Online Essays on "World Women History".
4- Saadat Noury, H. (1933): Flowers of Literature (Gollhaa-ye-Adab): An Anthology of the Poems Composed by 74 Iranian Poets, ed., (in Persian), Akhgar Press (Isfahan, Iran).

5-Saadat Noury, M (2006): Various Online Articles.

6- Ward, C. (2002): Online Poetry on "Silencers".