The issue of the Hiyab inside classrooms. A case of an intercultural conflict?

Abstract

Everything surrounding the hiyab -Islamic veil- in the western world is being analysed as an issue going beyond a simple item of clothing. It is always examined as a representation of some religious symbols, causing a considerable mistrust among the western culture. In fact, the presence of this veil on Muslim women has always been placed as the central theme in the contemporary feminist debate. The body of Muslim women -this means, whether it should be covered or not- seems to embody nowadays the fireplace between the representations of modernity and what others tend to call anti-modernity. Within this context, it would be appropriate to wonder how Muslim women who have immigrated to western countries -and located in this convergence point- are dealing with all this controversy around wearing the veil or hiyab.

As there is not to this day a serious and global research in the Islamic world that studies the precise reasons why women do wear the veil, this article, as the result of an investigation in process, pretends to give voice to these women. This research is focus on young university students. There are some reasons for that: Firstly, they exemplify the elite of their communities or immigrant colonies. They have reached to higher education studies overcoming a several academic failure among their compatriots, which can be also women. Secondly, they are required to have a reasonable academic and personal background which will lead them to a higher professional level. Thirdly, the vast majority of these young women who studies at Spanish Universities were born in Spain or has migrated with their parents when they were very young. Fourthly, they have been educated in a western educational system: secular, democratic, and critical in a free environment. And finally, after their studies they are supposed to obtain a higher professional level, surpassing the socioeconomic status of their parents and siblings.