Yunus Jaffery.
Content
''The Culture of Nakedness and the Nakedness of Culture'' deals with the issues of
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
and the wearing of the
hijab
In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While ...
by
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
women according to Islamic teachings and traditions. According to
Babar Awan
Zaheer-ud-din Babar Awan ( ur, ظہیر الدین بابر اعوان; born 27 January 1958; SI), is a Pakistani politician, senior lawyer, author, analyst, columnist, and leftist writer who served as Adviser to Prime Minister for Parliamen ...
, this is a "controversial subject" and has various effects both within Islamic societies and the West.
It addresses the importance of
hijab
In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While ...
for Islamic societies and argues that a "society's culture determines its dress style".
''The Culture of Nakedness and the Nakedness of Culture'' discusses the effects of various factors on the form and size of clothing, without investigating those effects or discussing the quality and limits of clothing from a religious viewpoint. The relationship between Western clothing and culture,
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
and clothing, historical backgrounds on nudity, the relationship between the hijab and Islamic culture, and the
Westernization
Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, economi ...
of traditional Japanese clothing, are among the subjects discussed in the book.
Comparing "the dress philosophy in post-
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
Europe and non-Western societies", Haddad-Adel argues that "Western clothes are short and tight", while Eastern clothing is "long and loose", because these societies have "divergent notions of humankind".
Reception
The book's launch event was held by the National Language Authority of
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. According to Fateh Malik, Dean of Faculty, Islamic University of Pakistan, the book was much needed in Pakistan’s present socio-cultural environment.
The book is described by Zahra Pamela Karimi, a professor of art history at
UMass Dartmouth
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth or UMassD) is a public research university in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. It is the southernmost campus of the University of Massachusetts system. Formerly Southeastern Massachusetts Un ...
,
as one of the best examples articulating the anti "Western Pahlavi reforms and global influences" in Iran whose ideas were based on the "dichotomies of 'public' and 'private' and 'foreign' and 'local'".
Haddad-Adel supports "the concealment of women's bodies as a way to protect the larger society from the manipulation of capitalism and imperialism", according to Pamela Karimi. According to Karimi, he tried to "catch up with modernity and yet indigenize it through Islam".
See also
*
Kashf-e hijab
On 8 January 1936, Reza Shah of Iran (Persia) issued a decree known as ''Kashf-e hijab'' (also Romanized as "Kashf-e hijāb" and "Kashf-e hejāb", fa, کشف حجاب, lit=Unveiling) banning all Islamic veils (including hijab and chador), a ...
*
Western dress codes
Western dress codes are a set of dress codes detailing what clothes are worn for what occasion. Conversely, since most cultures have intuitively applied some level equivalent to the more formal Western dress code traditions, these dress codes a ...
*
Western culture
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Culture of Nakedness and the Nakedness of Culture
Hijab
Philosophy of culture
Iranian books
History of fashion
1980 non-fiction books