The Veil Unveiled The Hijab in Modern Culture by Faegheh Shirazi (University Press of Florida: Cainsville, 2001. 222 pages.)

Abstract

Finally, the study ofhijab has come of age. After Shirazi's book, no one will
be able to argue that "the" hijab means any one thing divorced from its context.
In six chapters, Shirazi investigates the "semantic versatility of the
veil" in western popular culture, Saudi advertising, Iranian and Indian poetry
and films, and for Iranian, Iraqi, and UAE women soldiers. Not surprisingly,
the veil means different things in different contexts, and Shirazi's
book is a rich study of this diversity. She reinforces her arguments by the
wealth of photographs that depict veiled women in multiple contexts.
Just how different the veil's semantics can be is highlighted in chapter I:
"Veiled lmages in Advertising." ln this fascinating comparative study of the
veil's use in western and Saudi advertising, Shirazi shows that its meaning in
an ad depends on the target audience. So when advertisers target western
middle-class male consumers, the veil is presented as an exotic and sexualizing
piece of cloth. In a 1996 commercial for Chrysler's Jeep Cherokee shot
in Morocco, a veiled woman is seen smiling and admiring the Jeep-sending
the message that "if he buys the Jeep . . . He may even win the admiration of
the most inaccessible of women, the woman with the veil." Western exotica, ...