"Trying to Look Different: Hijab as the Self-Presentation of Social Distinctions.

"
- Norma Claire Moruzzi
Article Review

In this article, author Norma Claire Moruzzi attempts to persuade the reader that the

clothing of women, in particular, the hijab is a way to control the sexuality of a woman. This article

tries to convey that amidst the constraints of wearing a hijab, women still find a way to not conform

to the normality of wearing the hijab, by altering the ways they wear it. This gives them a way to

stand out and represent themselves in a way. I completely agree with this because I personally feel

that your clothing style says a lot about who you are. What the article attempts to convey from the

moment of introduction is that the hijab itself is a way of controlling a woman’s sexuality. I believe

that being fully covered up (or not being covered up at all) clearly has an impact on how people

will be perceived sexually in the public eye as well. I will be attempting to delineate the author’s

perspective of how the hijab has been represented in both a social and political manner. I will also

explain my concurrence with the author’s standpoints.

As a feminist, I can see that these women in Tehran who are mandated to follow a

“legislative” (Moruzzi, pg. 2) dress code in public are indirectly being asked to give up their

autonomy. How does one gain their autonomy back when it is slowly being taken away from

them? The women in Tehran, have “contentiously” (Moruzzi, pg.2) decided to wear their articles

of clothing in their own way. There are regulations about wearing the hijab in public, but not

necessarily how you wear it. These Tehrani women have seemingly found a loophole, and

therefore being able to represent themselves amidst the stipulations given. “Codes are meant to be

deciphered” (Moruzzi, pg. 2), and since there are no strong specifications about the kinds of

clothing you wear along with your hijab, it is left to the women’s interpretation as to how they see

fit. The author is hypothetically trying to argue this notion, and I completely agree with it. Since
there is no absolute specification about “how you should be wearing your hijab”, I personally do

not see a single problem with the women customizing the article of clothing by making it their

own. It reminds me of schools in America with uniforms. People still had to wear uniforms, but

there was no specification as to how you were supposed to wear them, so girls and boys started

customizing their uniforms whether it was by adding glitter, wearing jewelry, or wearing jackets

over it. This was a way of standing out and presenting a part of who you are amongst the

regulations given. This is why the terms “badhijab” (Moruzzi, pg. 2) and “chadori” (Moruzzi, pg.3)

had been introduced.

Badhijab women distinguished themselves through either the cutting of their dress or the

color of it and chadori women distinguished themselves by “modestly veiling” themselves

(Moruzzi, pg.3). One of the most interesting aspects of the article that I observed was the

“trendsetting” aspect of these various styles. This was especially prominent in the university areas

of Tehran. The Iranian university students seemed to look out for the “art students” (Moruzzi, pg.

4) to see how they distinguish themselves, and thus a trend starts. I have even seen it here on my

campus, where if one of the students decides to dye their hair pink, and over the course of the next

few weeks, I see more and more students with pink hair. That one student with pink hair over here

is a representation of the “art students” in Iran. What I also found interesting is that a lot of these

women are not fighting against the patriarchal system (though that is the inherent fight), as much

as they are their peers (Moruzzi, pg. 5). As I have always heard in movies and television,

sometimes women end up being the villain in other women’s lives. There are always those “other

women” who constantly give strange looks to those walking past the street thinking “these women

are making a spectacle of themselves” (Moruzzi, pg. 5). These are the same women that talk behind
each other’s backs and snicker at those who try to do something different. I noticed that wherever

you go in this world, you will always find a set of “mean girls” and it is no different in Tehran.

Furthermore, another interesting concept which is addressed by Moruzzi is the issue of

maintaining consistency between public and private dressing styles. There are definitely more rules

as to how one represents themselves in the public eye, but in privacy, there are less rules that are

less defined. In public a lot of the women who wear a chador, it is more to show their social

standing issue rather than as something which is a requirement of their religion (Moruzzi, pg. 6).

Even in privacy, I feel that there is a different legislation, called family. Your family decides what

you wear at home, and then government and society decides what you wear outside of your home.

Some of the girls who wear a chador outside, are not required to necessarily wear it in privacy.

But who decides that? They themselves do not decide this, it is the family that says if they are

allowed to “take it off” or not (Moruzzi, pg. 6). As the article progresses, it starts to take a more

political standpoint than a moral one. This is most prevalent when it comes to the notion of comfort

during the weather. Personally, I believe that both the author and I (though the author does not

explicitly state that) find it unfair that these women are not feeling comfortable or “too hot” during

the heat in the summer (Moruzzi, pg. 7). Improvisations of the hijab took a political turn when the

issue had been taken to the Iranian legislation. In 2006, the Iranian legislation was attempting to

repress this self-representation by implementing more of a national standard rather than “Western

standard” (Moruzzi, pg. 8) but the women always have away to retort. They even embraced the

national standard of clothing, but with their own tweaks. With these little things that the women

are doing to showcase their identity, I along with the author, can clearly see that they are making

a stand for themselves. Thus, they are slowly gaining their autonomy back by telling the legislation

“Hey, this is what we want”, and in 2007, they got it (Moruzzi, pg. 8).
 In conclusion, I believe that Moruzzi does a fantastic job in implicating the hijab as a self-

representation of a woman’s identity. I do believe she could have added more elements about how

the hijab can also be a misrepresentation of a woman’s sexuality and how although it is an article

of clothing it controls so many aspects about a woman’s sexuality in this patriarchal society.

However, I believe she has come up with very accurate examples and evidence to prove her point

about the social and political matters regarding the hijab. I think that her writing is both poignant

and innovating in determining inequality, sexuality, and social standards. It is a daring piece which

delves into some of the things that we are thinking, but are afraid to say. In a world where everyone

is the same, I believe that Moruzzi has tried to be different.

References

Moruzzi, Norma Claire. "Trying to Look Different: Hijab as the Self-Presentation of Social
Distinctions." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 28.2 (2008): 225-
234.