Whilst at UCL I took a really interesting course, The Anthropology of Social Media: Digital Media and the Islamic World, taught by Dr. Shireen Walton. In this course, we discussed and explored how Anthropology, as a subject, is being affected by Social Media. Traditionally the Anthropologist would 'go out' or 'go native' in order to immerse themselves and gain an insight into the workings of a particular group, now, in the digital age of Social Media, people are liberally and literally spilling all online.
In the course, I case studied how the depiction of Islam functions in the new digital modes. You can find the essay I submitted for this course below... it is a little academic but I hope you enjoy it!
Introduction
Perhaps the most symbolic political and cultural signifier within debates and anthropological studies of Islam is the veil (the ‘hijab’ that typically consists of covering of the hair but not the face). Within this vein, Fariba Adelkhah (2010) has argued that the veil functions as a ‘meta-code’ in depictions and perspectives of Islam, which she reads as the symbol of the veil being constructed such that it serves as a pejorative metaphor for everything to do with Islam and Muslims (oppressive, misogynistic, irrational etc.). In this essay, I will expand upon Adelkhah’s assertion - which is derived from a treatment of Iranian society (a Muslim majority context) - by extending the meta-code concept in the context of non-Muslim majority countries also. My primary concern is with how the meta-code of the veil is challenged, constructed and affirmed through social media. In order to explore the question of “what has social media made of the ‘meta-code’ of the Islamic veil?”, I begin by first explicating the notion of the veil as a meta-code, how will I be using this concept in this essay and what is meant by social media. Following this I will draw upon case studies concerning the meta-code symbolism of the veil, looking at three examples; one from a Muslim majority country (Iran) and two from countries with Muslim minority communities (France and the United Kingdom). Finally, in light of these case studies, I will compare and contrast the relative effectiveness of social media in altering the meta-code. I conclude the essay by tentatively asserting that because of social media the veil is both nationally and internationally contestable, and, although social media has, and can, affect the motifs and diversity of discourses on the veil, the impact on the meta-code is likely to be limited.
Meta-Code and Social Media
The historical study of Islam, how it and the Muslim subject has been constructed, is itself a subject of debate and literature. As Edward Said famously argued in Orientalism (1978), European scholars, writers and discoverers have understood the West (the Occident) through an ‘othering’ of the Oriental. The West is supposedly rational, masculine, and dominant, which contrasts with the East that is depicted as irrational, mystical, feminine and dominated. In a similar vein Said extends his analysis to the media and popular depiction of Islam, and thereby also Muslims, in Covering Islam (1981). Here he describes how Islam is constructed by Western media and experts through ‘malleolus generalizations’ (xii) that present Islam as a threat and as synonymous with backwardness and violence. A good example of this is the popular American TV series Homeland (see figure 2.1). Laila Al-Arian (2012) has called it “TV’s most Islamophobic show.” Despite such backlash, the show’s newest campaign demonstrates no sign of progress in its representations of Muslims and, specifically, Muslim women.
Following criticisms by Said and through the development of anthropological research, Talal Asad (1986), in ‘The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam’, has argued that Islam and the study of Muslims should be undertaken by understanding Islam as a ‘tradition’ (20-2). Rather than reading Islam through a comparison with Christianity (7), as a form of tribalism (14), or through a Marxist framework (18-9), subjects of Islam should be conducted in terms of ‘discourses related to a past (when practice was instituted) […] and a future […] through a present (how it is related to other practices, institutions and social conditions)’ (20). Here, Asad is calling for the study of Islam to be done through a strong understanding that seeks the particularities and discovers the nuances of a subject situated within a historical tradition of practices and beliefs.
Despite such developments within the academic literature, how Islam is depicted is still highly contentious. According to Adelkhah an ‘automatic’ association of Islam is made with ‘terrorism’, ‘anti-secular sentiment’, ‘problems of immigration’, and ‘gender equality’ (207). Challenging this she states that ‘social practices can never be divided up so readily, along political or ideological lines’ (208). Accordingly, such an ideologically reductionist approach ‘holds processes, agents and contexts in contempt’ (208) (which I read in terms of Asad’s tradition approach). Importantly for this essay, she argues that ‘Islam, or more specifically the veil […] is today’s controversial subject par excellence’ (207). She states that insofar as ‘the veil […] seems to have crystallized better than anything else, the dualism or irreconcilability of power and society’, it is to be reexamined (212). She points out that discourses that present the practice of veiling as acts of oppression or freedom fail to describe the reality that there is an experience of a ‘continuum: veiled and unveiled women rub shoulders, they live under the same roofs and are friends irrespective of their vestimentary choices. One can easily cover or uncover herself without necessarily experiencing the apprehension of conversion or apostasy’ (215). Indeed, she affirms that ‘at present […] the practice of wearing the veil has merely given rise to polemics and cookie-cutter arguments rather than inspiring precise anthropological investigations’ (218). This contrasts with her work that points to the significant nuances of the practice of veiling. For examples, she points to how the veil is worn, how much hair is covered, the color and material of the veil etc. (217-8).
Adelkhah’s studies and discussions draw upon anthropological investigation of primarily Iranian societies. She puts forward her arguments by drawing upon the binary interpretations of the Iranian revolution and society. Within her analysis, she introduces the concept of the veil as a ‘meta-code’ (216), which encapsulates the way in which the veil functions as a potent symbol that in itself signifies a host of attributes. For example, to some, the veil may signify modesty, purity, piety, and cleanliness, for others the veil may signify oppression, backwardness, and misogyny. For example, Abu-Lughod (2002) describes how the veil is portrayed in a manner that invites Western intervention to save Muslim women.
In this essay, I will employ the notion of ‘meta-code’ in societies other than Iran. I will also modify the concept: By meta-code, what I mean is the dominant depiction, lacking nuance, of the veil in a society that is predominantly negative in the Orientalist sense. More specifically, I will take the veil as a meta-code that is nonetheless still fluid, contested, fought-over, and challengeable.
The focus of this essay will be in what manners social media may have influenced the meta-code of the symbol of the veil. Before turning to case studies in the follow section, it is first necessary to define what is meant by social media in this essay. As pointed out by Miller et al (2016), in ‘How the World Changed Social Media’, defining social media is not as simple as noting what the platforms (such as Facebook, MySpace, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat etc.) are and do. According to the authors what is more important is the content and how people relate (2). Moreover, social media encapsulates everything audiovisual, including images, videos, music, texts (blog posts and comments) etc. For example Miller et al includes Whatsapp, which describes itself as a ‘reliable messaging’ service, because people are able to form groups and digitally socialize in this way. A very important aspect of social media is the scaleability factor, where large groups of people, through the internet, can connect and communicate (2-6). This is crucial because it means that social media makes it potentially the case that a user can reach all parts of society (digitally connected). Finally, because of the interactive element of social media, traditional distinctions of public, private and national spheres are being eroded.
Having provided the conceptual framework, I will now explore how social media is affecting the meta-code of the veil through three national case studies.
3. Three Case Studies: Iran, France and United Kingdom
In this section I will case study how the meta-code of the veil is contested through social media in three countries. One Muslim majority country - Iran - and two non-Muslim majority countries (France and UK). I have chosen these three countries because they represent a diversity of state attitudes towards the veil (I will detail how this is so below). This will thereby allow me to compare and contrast the ability of social media to alter the meta-code of the veil in a particular context.
3.1 Iran
Since the Islamic Revolution of Iran (1979) women are by law required to adhere to a public dress code that includes the veil. This stringently imposed law is enforced by a strong security apparatus and via the projecting of the appropriately ‘modest’ images of women by state controlled media outlets (see Adelkhah (2000)). With the advent of social media the state has lost its monopoly on the control of how Iranian women are depicted. Although there is internet censorship, people are able to navigate past these through proxy servers and VPNs. Additionally there are large diasporic communities who can access social media and produce content freely.
One example of a social media form that is popular in Iran is the Blogspheres. As Akhavan (2013) has shown, the Iranian state’s two-fold strategy, of repressing the free functioning of the internet and of utilizing the medium to produce and disseminate ‘favorable political speech and cultural products’ (5), is extended to the Blogsphere (35-58). In Walton’s (2015) research, she specifically surveys the methodological issues of anthropology of social media using Iranian photoblogs. Drawing upon the example of ‘lifegoesonintehran.com’ from Walton’s paper, we can observe how a female photoblogger disrupts the negative meta-code connotation that veiled women lack agency and are unaware of contemporary culture. The blogger describes herself as a former Los Angeles resident who moved to Iran, and uploads a monthly picture taken using her camera phone. Noticeably, the blogger doesn’t give us her name, nor do we see her face, we can only guess that this may be a result of some type of self-censorship given the context. She strikes a defiant tone in her mission statement which reads: “To show that regardless of what any president would have you imagine, despite what any media outlet would have you believe, life goes on in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran.”
In figure 3.1.1 we see what appears as the photoblogger standing in front of collection of CDs in a hipster music store (as her caption states). The observer of this photo can infer that the blogger is situating herself within a world of reference that is a contemporary subculture. This image challenges the negative meta-code narrative, because she is veiled, aware and a consumer of international music. Crucially, her veil, despite being in the middle of the picture, is not the subject or focal point, which is actually the music store. In a more explicit manner, figure 3.1.2. shows three veiled women in Iran confidently posing, holding a pepsi can, a beat box, and next to a bicycle (all objects of global culture). Contrastingly, figure 3.1.3 affirms the meta-code narrative. That in order for a woman to be free, she must be emancipated from the veil.
Figure 3.1.1
Blog name: Life Goes on in Tehran. This picture was taken in July 2010. Caption: A Hipster Music Store
Figure 3.1.2.
New Age photographic self-representation:resisting and reframing the image
Figure 3.1.3.
Facebook page: My Stealthy Freedom
These three images show how the meta-code can be subtly undermined (figure 3.1.1), explicitly challenged (figure 3.1.2), and explicitly affirmed (figure 3.1.3)
3.2 France
In France there has been a long tradition of aggressive secularism (known as Laïcité) where religion is explicitly excluded from the public sphere. Given France’s large Muslim minority, Islam, and in particular the veil, has been the focal point of many social conflicts. Indeed, the French state has banned the headscarf in schools (March 15, 2004), which confirms the meta-code of the veil being something backward and in need of women being freed from (Scott 2010). One example of social media being used to challenge the meta-code of the veil is the response to the ‘Burkini’ incident (summer 2016), when a Muslim woman was forced off a beach by a group of armed police because she wearing what is considered modest swimwear. (See, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/burkini-swimwear-ban-france-nice-armed-police-hijab-muslim-a7206776.html [accessed 22/03/2017])
The police action resulted in very strong reactions on social media (figure 3.2.1) where people challenged and undermined the hypocrisy of the law using images of scuba-wear, images of police half a century ago measuring women’s swimwear (to ensure that women were covered enough), and a caricature of some religious figure forcing women to cover. These images showed how the law is inconsistent, itself a misogynistic act, because men are imposing their will upon a woman, and evocative of the policing of women's bodies by the state which the secular France is claiming to oppose. Through this use of social media - images with short captions and appropriate juxtapositioning - developed sympathy towards veiled women, who were depicted not as oppressed by the veil (the woman was simply unimposingly enjoying her time on a beach), but rather as a victim of aggressive state dictatorship. The meta-code, in this way, was successfully challenged.
3.4 UK
In contrast to France, traditionally the British have practiced passive secularism, where the state simply ensures equality under the law and does as much as it can to tolerate religious differences. Despite this, according to Tarlo (2014) - who conducts ethnographic research in the UK context, on the veil, identity and fashion in London - ‘popular media representations of Muslim women swathed in black often give the impression that Islamic dress is about somber uniformity and conformity to type’ (1-2). Indeed in her own words, her research ‘invites reflection about the huge diversity of visibly Muslim dress practices’ (3). In a particularly relevant chapter, titled ‘Hijab Online’ (161–88), Tarlo surveys a shop that sells veils online, discussing how this came about and how factors such as negotiating the beautifying of the clothes without compromising the modesty of the models are conducted. An interesting example from social media, that is being effectively utilized, is the ‘Hijabi Fashionista’ phenomenon on Instagram and YouTube (figure 3.4.1).
The veiled fashionistas’ in London and all the hijab YouTube Vloggers defy the negative narrative of the meta-code being ugly, or oppressive, or uncreative. In fact, it shows how one can be veiled, but still modest in colorful clothing. Vitally, the women are generating and posting these images themselves, which challenges the meta-code that the veil is forced upon them. Moreover, such as the impact of these social media veiled fashionistas on the meta-code, that for the first time ‘London Modest Fashion’ was integrated into the famous London Fashion Week (figure 3.4.2). This shows how the meta-code can be significantly altered by social media.
Conclusion
Social media has democratized news, it is no longer exclusively in the hands of large corporations and governments. Journalists no longer have a monopoly on the depiction of events. We now have what is referenced to as ‘citizen journalism’, which is based upon public citizens actively collecting, reproducing, reporting and sharing information (Cram 2016). Within this trend, social media users are now playing an active role in the formation of perceptions. The case studies that I have chosen above, are predominantly examples of where the negative meta-code can be challenged in such ways (figure 4.1).
Figure 4.1
Recent global Nike advertisement Campaign, and 'This Girl Can' Campaign
In the examples given from the UK and France, it was shown that social media can concretely effect the meta-code, at least on a micro-scale. In particular, from the ‘Burkini’ case study, it was shown how the meta-code in the national (French) context, can be compromised by the internationalism of social media users. This is particularly interesting in the Iranian case studies, because although the audience are people in Iran it is also the case that the wider global community is engaged. This shows how the meta-code is not only nationally but also internationally contested. There are of course powerful ways in which the negative meta-code of the veil has been affirmed. For example, social media has been effectively utilized by far-right racist groups to mobilize, and spread degrading and derogatory images of Muslims (including images of the veil) (figure 4.2).
![Figure 4.2A drawing by the right winged cartoonist Ben Garrisonhttp://grrrgraphics.com/index.html [accessed 22/03/2017]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b1d11cc2971146aa33d7ca3/1529483431326-YXPAIC37ZFN9YTSH9RZA/image-asset.png)
Figure 4.2
A drawing by the right winged cartoonist Ben Garrisonhttp://grrrgraphics.com/index.html [accessed 22/03/2017]
Despite developments in social media, which has increased the diversity of voices, as Miller et al argues, it is not possible to study or isolate particular social media/platforms in isolation (‘polymedia approach’) (4). With respect to the meta-code of the veil, what needs to be considered are factors such as cinema, mainstream media, the music industry etc… as such, although social media can provide a challenge by allowing diverse voices to emerge, and showing what Adelkhah states as ‘beneath the normative meta-discourse, there is a world of social distinction and personal style, as well as games of seduction and fashion’ (217), there is no strong evidence that it alone can fundamentally dissolve the meta-code. Unfortunately, recent events, such as the the ruling by the ECHR that legalizes the banning of the veil at work places, suggests the meta-code is uncompromised at a macro-scale. Indeed, it is debatable whether or not social media simply functions as an echo chamber for people to reaffirm their already held beliefs about things. Nonetheless, what is for certain is that the diversity of voices has at the very least compromised the meta-code of the veil.