The niqab and burka as forms of empowerment

This week, Conservative leader Stephen Harper said that if re-elected his government would consider banning public servants from wearing the niqab. 

In the past, he has called veiling traditions of the burka and niqab as rooted in a culture that is "anti-women."

But Lena Saleh, a doctoral candidate in political science at Carleton University, says the garments can also be symbols of female empowerment. Based on her research on popular culture in the Arab world, Saleh says "Burka Avenger", a Pakistani children's cartoon in which the super-heroine wears a traditional burka, might offer Canadians a fresh perspective when it comes to understanding veiling.

(The full interview is available in the audio player above. The following portions have been edited for clarity and length.)

How does this cartoon portrayal of the burka differ from the perception of veilings, like the burka or the niqab, that Canadians have today?

I think most of what people in Canada, or even 'the West' broadly, understand about the burka is probably what they see in the media. And that typically shows these women whose faces are hidden and they're secluded away from the world and all you see is layers and layers of black cloth. And you're like, 'Oh my god, why are they hiding? And who is forcing them to do that?' But "Burka Avenger" presents this different perspective on that and it shows a woman who chooses to wear it, on her own accord, and she actually uses it for a good cause. So she hides her identity with it, just like the regular super heroes would wear masks or capes and whatnot. It's part of her costume.

Stephen Harper has described burkas and niqabs as fundamentally "anti-women". What do you find in the Burka Avenger show to contradict that idea?

There are a couple of things I find a bit unsettling when Harper described the burka as "anti-women". To say something like that you're sort of saying that women are passive victims of this; that they don't have the choice to wear it or not wear it, you assume they're being forced to wear it, somehow. But with the Burka Avenger, she chooses to wear it. Her caregiver in the show -- the male figure in her life -- doesn't ask her to wear it, there's no one telling her to wear it. And even then, it's not presented as something oppressive.

But is that a realistic perception of what veiling actually means to things like women's equality?

I think it can be. There's a host of reasons why Muslim women would choose to cover their hair or their faces and it's not always as simple as just saying their husband or their brothers or whoever forced them to wear it. I think what really makes Burka Avenger unique is that it presents us with a case where a woman is choosing to wear it and she's actually emphasizing her own agency. 

Click the blue button above to listen to the full interview.