Feminism and the Islam. A Reflexive Decolonial Perspective on the Controversial use of the Veil by Muslim Women

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the use of the veil by Muslim women from a perspective that opens possibilities to know their reflections, feelings and experiences. These women are, as well as every social actor, reflexive evaluators of their contexts, resources and possibilities of decisions. They do not act or reflect as a homogenous totality. This paper argues that the most accurate approach in order to understand the use of the veil in all its complexity is the decolonial feminist perspective with contributions of the reflexive sociology. This approach acknowledges the importance of the context of study, the role of the researcher, and the social power that these women perform trough their reflexive ability, which materializes into action (to use the veil or not). This conclusion emerges from an analysis on reflexive social sciences and its consequences, a revision of the approaches aiming to understand the use of the Islamic veil –i.e. the culturalist, the identity-historical and different versions of feminism–, and the analysis on the western and decolonial feminist perspectives.