Tracing “the Anorexic” and “the Veiled Woman”: Towards a Relational Approach

The ‘new’ Muslim veiling phenomenon represents a co

ntemporary ‘equivalent’ to the

growing epidemic of anorexia in the industrialised

West, Mervat Nasser has argued

(1999). Like anorexia

1

, she contends, the new veiling

2

, represented by the growing

number of young Muslim women wearing Islamic dress

within universities, workplaces,

urban centres and political organisations around th

e world, responds to ‘conflicting

cultural messages and contradictory cultural expect

ations’ experienced by women

globally (407). Both embodied practices

3

function as forms of problem solving which, in

the absence of real power or control, help women co

pe with the competing demands of

ambitious professional goals and pressure to mainta

in a traditional female identity. And

both, she suggests, ultimately lead to the reproduc

tion of tradition and the reinforcement

of gender inequality.