Islam, Women, and Body Images

Islam, Women, and Body Images
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Islam, Women, and Body Images
Introduction
While all mankind have identities and bodies to complement them, not every individual understands this body in a similar fashion. Culture and traditions have been demonstrated to have fundamental influence on body experiences and hence body images, and particular facets of culture including religion, are perceived to buffer against body displeasure and more grave disorders linked with it. Even though in the initial instance it appears a superficial construct, body image has influence on most, if not all, facets of personal experience, such as emotions, perceptions, behaviors, as well as relations. Individuals exposed to body dissatisfaction or body displeasure may exhibit decreased functioning in these arenas or even complete loss of control, as observed in eating disorders. For their most part, scholars agree to the fact that body image symbolizes much more than its major fundamental sense, an individual's experience and assessment of their physical outlook. The definition of body image is complex due to its comprehensive form. Woofenden (2012) asserts that a number of terms have been employed in describing various dimensions hence they are certainly used synonymously when in real sense they should not (Woofenden, 2012). This module, hence, seeks to purposely deliberate on Islam, and the role it plays in influencing body image amongst Muslim women.
Self-Perception in Muslim Women
Body image anxiety has been associated with low self esteem, depression, sexual frustration, eating disorders, exercise trends, and overall unhealthy behavior tendencies that can result into dysfunctional eating as well as other coping approaches. Negative body Image is in essence a determining factor of eating disorders, and the body displeasure is assumed to be the most instant or proximal precursor to the development of anorexia nervosa. Therefore, body image has become a fundamental area of investigation in the West, and more in the world as a whole since Western media and manipulation become more apparent. Even though investigations on non-Western body image could significantly profit from expansion, it commonly illustrates that people from non-Western traditions have healthier body image against those from the West (Woofenden, 2012). In a broad study of 800 Jordanian women of ages between 18-73 years, Madanat et al noted that as opposed to Western women who struggle to be leaner, Jordanian women basically yearn for a ‘normal' body size. While a large proportion (66.1%) preferred shedding weight, a larger proportion of these recruits lied within the overweight to obese classes. Moreover, 12.7% of the overweight to obese individuals essentially wanted to add weight (Madanat et al, 2011).
Islam is built on the acceptance of an individual's body and plays down on appearance, thereby giving preference to outward deeds. Nonetheless, it also proclaims that Allah authorizes Muslim adherents to take good care of the body he has bestowed on them. Research, in overall, outlines the effect of religion – in this sense Islam – on body image as positive. Religious individuals tend to critic themselves as well as others on the foundations of spiritual facets rather than physical attributes. Furthermore, they may experience less anxiety to conform to societal expectations of appearance and weight principles if they believe they are leading a satisfying life, which involves active participation in religious duties. Additionally, Islam holds the modesty of women in high esteem. Conventionally, Islam commands that apart from the face, only the hands should be publicly visible. Such modesty normally follows the adornment of significantly long, loose-fitting dressing (jilbaab) and veiling (hijab) or head covering to mask the hair and ears. Most investigations have it that most Muslim women believe in their faith and modesty boosts their body image (Woofenden, 2012). In an investigation by Odoms-Young (2008), most participants affirmed that by veiling, they were looked upon with much respect and in a less sexual approach. He concludes on woman as saying, “You guard yourself by cover” (Odoms-Young, 2008).
The general perception of Western culture is that modest, humble dress exhibited in Muslim women is merely an instrument of sexist oppression. Even though this may prove true for some, the majority trend appear to recognize the considerable security and anonymity such veiling bestows on them, and would further debate that the Western women fashion of dressing, as compared to the Eastern women, provocatively and persistently contrasting oneself to other individuals in public is significantly more oppressive as compared to veiling to manage who accesses ‘your beauty.' A woman who adorns a hijab can afford to be dynamic and occupied, educated and proficient. In simpler terms, a hijab is not ‘synonymous' to weakness and oppression (Woofenden, 2012; Swami et al, 2013).
Overall, opinion of Muslim women in popular culture and conventional media has been that of oppression by male figures, adhering to diffident and primitive practices including veiling, and with restricted freedom. The hijab or headscarf describes an Arabic word for ‘cover'; it insinuates the concealing of the female body with the exception of the face, hands and feet. Muslim women cloth in reserved fashion in accordance with the teachings of the Qur'an: the Islamic Holy book (Tiba, 2012) in which God guided women to adhere to an obligation to their faith in Islam. The modest dressing of hijab elicited confusion, ignorance and misinformation as regards the Muslim woman who adorns the hijab. Tiba quotes a woman in her study, who stated,
“To me, the hijab does not signify emotional or cultural ‘prison' as it is erroneously perceived. I dress in hijab due to my personal opinions as it portrays my obligation to Islamic ideals of respect and integrity” (Tiba, 2012).
Western mainstream assumes the hijab as submissive wear, however; the majority of Muslim women perceive of the hijab as secure clothing that permits women to ward off marginalization and the materialization of their bodies (Tiba, 2012).
Case studies
A study that employed 291 Jordanian and 189 American women was carried out by Woofenden (2012) to contrast university Muslim women from Jordan and other women from the United States in regard to level of religious conviction, modesty, and body image. It was theorized that greater religious devotion and modesty would be linked to and envisage enhanced body image, particularly for Muslim Jordanian women. Since Middle Eastern traditions are inclined to be more conventional and religiously disposed than Western cultures, it was expected that Jordanian women would exhibit greater religious conviction and modesty than Americans, resulting to more body image contentment for Jordanians (Woofenden, 2012).
As predicted, Muslim Jordanian women elicited considerably greater general body image in comparison to American women. It might be debated that an apparent justification tends to be their considerably lower body mass index (BMI). BMI was in essence negatively associated with factors of body image satisfaction for both cultures. More so, even following statistical transformation of BMI, the women's' mean body image counts remained considerably different. Woofenden attests that this difference in body image scores is due to Jordanian traditions and religious trends. Woofenden reiterates Dunkel et al (2001) sentiments that Muslim women may exhibit values, religious or otherwise, associated with their modesty that confers security against body image anxiety. As a consequence of traditionally supported increased religious devotion amongst Jordanians and the teachings of Islam, most Jordanian women are many times modest in their dressing as opposed to American women (Woofenden, 2012).
A fascinating discovery in this study was the manner in which modesty associated with body image for women of the varying traditions. Modesty did not connect with any body image aspect for Jordanians but was negatively associated with all aspects of body contentment for American women. This insinuates that the American women veiled due to dissatisfaction with their bodies and needed to conceal them, while the Muslim Jordanian women veiled for reasons other than body satisfaction. While Muslim women were largely more appearance inclined, they still elicited much satisfaction with their bodies as compared to Americans. This could suggest that since they are more occupied in appearance as they spen...