Women dissect headscarves in religion

Shira Heller said she doesn’t have bad hair days.

Heller, who teaches area Judaism classes at Hillel House, never has to experience what millions of women go through every day because of the headscarf she wears for religious reasons. Heller was one of the three women from multiple religious groups who spoke to about 20 attendees at a Hillel House discussion and photography exhibition Thursday night in an attempt to break former misconceptions about why women wear head coverings.

‘I do like that there’s a piece of my beauty that is reserved only for my husband and my family,’ Heller said. ‘They see me one way, and the public can’t look at me in the same way.’

Heller, Rabbi Avi Heller’s wife, said Orthodox Jewish women traditionally wear a headscarf after they are married. Similarly, the Quran states that women have to cover their faces, though it does so ambiguously.

The speakers said they found that most women who cover their hair choose to do so out of a sacred and individual conviction rather than a male-driven demand.

Michele Silver, who practices Orthodox Judaism, said she found that the women she had spoken to primarily held devout beliefs, and the act of wearing a covering demonstrated a very sacred practice.

‘The women felt very religious and spiritual,’ Silver, who used to wear a head covering during her marriage, said. ‘It’s a difficult thing to cover your hair, but by and large, I felt that it was not something most women found sexist. The sexist view is more a perception of the outside world looking in.’

Goodwin Associates Inc. teacher Bridgette Gubernatis said it was a Western misinterpretation that women covered their hair because the husbands forced them.

‘Western women’s beauty is very public and it’s owned by society, and how you look counts,’ Gubernatis, who was a practicing Muslim for six years, said. ‘However, it’s a different definition of freedom and obligation. Women who wear head coverings do not want to be looked upon as sex objects.’

Although Heller spoke mostly positively of her head covering she has encountered several challenges and uncomfortable situations because of the headscarf. In fact, in job interviews she said she wears a wig because she doesn’t want the interview to ‘become about her hat or head covering.’

‘There’s always fear of some kind of stereotype or prejudice coming into play,’ Heller said. ‘After 9/11, anytime I flew, I was pulled aside and searched, and the guards asked me to remove my hair covering so they could check underneath, so that was a little uncomfortable.’

For the most part, however, Heller said she thinks people really accept her for who she is.

‘I’ve been lucky that I always lived in really big, metropolitan areas, so there’s a very wide range of how people look,’ she said. ‘Whether I’m wearing a hat or a scarf, I mean, who cares?’

Judith Cooper, a retired art teacher and BU alumna said it was interesting to understand that it is a different perspective when someone chooses to wear a head covering.

‘I think it has to do with owning one’s spirituality as opposed to acting out of the religious dogma,’ Cooper said. ‘The fact that women choose to wear a head covering from the intention that’s a part of spirituality is a beautiful thing.’