04 October 2016 St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of Italy Comments | Letters to the editor | Church | Life | Family | Headings | Dossier | World | Popotus Who we are | Subscriptions | Contacts Chronicle | Politics | Culture | Economy | Shows | Sport | Science & Technology | Video | Photo BOLOGNA | MILAN | ROME Avvenire Home Page > Culture > Women veiled outside Islam Culture The case Women veiled out of Islam Rossana Sisti 2 October 2016 Facebook twitter google + mail font print Grace Kelly: the foulard as a chic accessory When last year H&M, the Swedish low-cost clothing giant, showed the first ad featuring a model wearing a hijab in a campaign that invited people to freely reinvent lifestyle and way of dressing, one wondered if the intent of that spot was political, a sort of weakening of a symbol of religious identity, otherness and even clash, or not rather a choice purely commercial. A shrewd marketing operation on the promising Muslim market, through the display of the veil, elegantly worn as a chic and seductive accessory. It would not have been the first time for fashion, which has risen to a public issue, to emphasize the contradiction that a certain way of covering the head brings with it, the incoherence inherent in the veil that covers and hides but at the same time embellishes and attracts. It happened in medieval times, when we were the veiled women, the Westerners, the Europeans, especially Christians. And not just nuns. Veiled according to an ancient tradition and custom, as a sign of subordination, modesty, respect, honesty and modesty, obliged to do so, starting from the 13th century by meticulous regulations, yet capable through fashion to transform that highly symbolic object into singing to simplicity, in quite another way. A refined accessory, sometimes part of complicated, daring and precious architectures with which women have skillfully played; an important piece even in the humblest kits, arrived in the sixteenth century at the height of its importance in the production and commercial activity of many Italian and European cities, a must in fashion and art, as demonstrated by the articulated research of the historian Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli entitled A head covered. History of women and veils published by Il Mulino (216 pages, € 16.00). The research of Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli - professor of Medieval History, History of Cities and History of Costume and Fashion at the University of Bologna - meticulously reconstructs the path that closely involved Western women who had long been obliged to wear a covered head, with a eye projected to today, to the disappearance of the veil from current common horizons, as a sign of status even from the heads of brides and widows, and to its confinement in the territories considered outdated and disturbing of submissive Islamic femininity. A scarf certainly re-weighted with identity and religious meanings that have nothing to do with those inherent in the scarves that Audrey Hepburn or Jacqueline Kennedy wore up to fifty years ago. Luxury accessories, pure beauty and charm enhancers. «The Middle Ages - explains the historian - also thanks to fashion, has given modernity a rather lightened veil of meanings that contemporaneity has terribly complicated. By now the veil is no longer just a veil ». What women have put on their heads, impalpable veils but not only veils, from the times of Penelope to those of the Vestals and Roman marriages has always implied meanings of moderation, modesty and reserve even if it never intended to sacrifice beauty and feminine grace. If in the Middle Ages most women, except adulterers and prostitutes, went with their heads covered - on the street, in church but also at home - it was therefore a widespread custom, a secular fashion adopted automatically. But also reinterpreted in a thousand creative solutions. "The whimsical hairstyles and extravagant and elaborate headdresses that began to appear on women's heads from the 13th century eluded and at the same time respected the rule", continues Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli. "For many medieval thinkers the veil served to signal respect for a hierarchy that saw women as subjects of men and of God, but above all it signaled and to some extent contrasted the dangerousness of the female body, which therefore had to be covered, hidden, neutralized". The moralists lashed out at extravagant, luxurious and provocative hairstyles and attires, symbols of vanity and sin; the legislators proceeded to legislate, clarifying well what could be allowed and what could be forbidden. The long lists of prohibitions and the meticulous sanctions to be imposed on a variety of ornaments, crowns, precious nets, pearl-encrusted hairstyles, speak volumes about the ability of women to transgress, obviously those well-off, regardless of penalties and more likely interested in to show off by dressing up conspicuously, simultaneously representing, starting from the head, the status of the family. The testimonies offered by the iconography of the time are incomparable in telling the trends of taste and the imaginative, sometimes cumbersome solutions offered by certain headgear but also the innovation in the production of refined fabrics and artifacts that saw a surprising entrepreneurial involvement and workforce for women. Even the names of many craftsmen milliners, embroiderers of great skill and haberdashery working on international markets are known. "The fact is that those same women who were required to keep their heads covered made the production of veils to put on the head, and above all of arete and caps, a means of personal and group affirmation". Another of the many fashion ironies. © reserved reproduction FEATURED ARTICLES Earthquake Earthquake, the Pope prays in the rubble "Courage, look ahead" Constitutional reform Referendum, four reasons for the yes And the divisions that lead to no Workers Corruption, "more protection for those who report" ANALYSIS Concreteness to defuse gender Copenhagen Physics Nobel Prize to Thouless, Haldane and Kosterlitz Copyright 2016 © Avvenire | VAT number 00743840159 | Credits | Privacy | For advertising This site uses third-party cookies (including profiling) and technical cookies. By continuing to browse, you accept cookies. cookie policy accepts