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what does the veil know
in the assyrian greco roman and byzantine empires as well as in pre islamic iran veiling and seclusion were marks of prestige and symbols of status . the veil was a sign of respectability but also of a lifestyle that did not require the performance of manual labor . its absence was a sign of poverty and prostitution but also of the performance of movement in the streets and on the fields . it is the practice of veiling that makes women s absence omnipresent and turns the veil into cause and symbol of political social and religious controversy . while the politics of the veil can be divided into two main reactions against or for the veil we must refrain from doing the same by instead exploring the differences within these reactions releasing the veil from any certain meaning be it religious sexual social or political . writing about the veil involves the necessity of encountering something radically strange . to be sure each language has its own system of thought which conditions the thinkable . we can not detach ourselves from the decisions our language has already made for us and which dictate us self evident assumptions and proscriptions . what we are dealing with here is a radical import of strangeness into our language .
paperback springer 2009 isbn13 9783211992890 isbn10 3211992898
abridged n isbn 13 9783211992890 number in series 1 number of pages 193 publisher springer wien new york release date 62135769600000 series title edition voldemeer