AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

168 UMME BUSRA FATEHA SULTANA
“Western Other” by the “Eastern Self” which is coined as ‘reverse Orientalism’
by Abu-Lughod (1991: 470). She explains the present day anti-
West struggles as an attempt to reverse the power relationship and a retort
against Western devaluation of Eastern knowledge. As she exemplifies,
the new Islamist appeal to a greater faith in God, compared to the
immorality and corruption of the West is based on essentialist terms of
Orientalist constructions, yet has been applied in a reverse way (ibid.).
What is also viewed by Scott (2007: 19) as a ‘clash of civilization’, clash
between “Islam” and the “West”, as she links it with the dangers of dichotomization:
creating reverse categories “civilized” versus “backward”
or “morally upright” versus “ideologically compromised”, in fact we refuse
to accept and respect differences and diversities and turn each other
into enemy. Consequently, it secures “us” in a rigid and dangerously defensive
posture in relation to “them”.
Although such identical explanations of ‘reverse Orientalism’ and
‘clash of civilizations’ were explored as a case of “Middle East” versus
“West”; they are similarly applicable to Bangladesh in understanding the
extremist positions of feminists versus Islamic fundamentalists regarding
the veil. Whereas feminists are prejudiced by the Orientalist discourse of
the veil, the Islamists use such essentialist construction in a reverse way,
and accordingly turn veil into the ultimate symbol of women’s religiosity,
piety and modesty. From such a rigid position they do not consider the
specific context and particularities of the veil debate, rather judge it as a
Western attack against the Muslim world viewed by Scott (2007) as a
clash between Islam and the West. Hence, in a reverse Orientalistic way,
all public visibility of women and all progressive activities of women are
deemed to be the simulation of “Western modernity”, labeled as anti Islamic,
and the threat in support of compulsory adoption of veil or the
pro-choice of veiling in these groups works as a defensive mechanism
for their ‘reverse Orientalism’ project.
CONCLUSION
In this essay I attempt to unpack the politics of veil in Bangladesh. I encapsulate
the antagonistic positions of feminists and fundamentalist
Islamists concerning burqa and bring theoretical insights to delve the
politics of both groups behind their pro and anti choice of burqa. From
various theoretical perspectives I reveal that the feminists who have a
very negative attitude towards veiled women are largely remade by the