Veiling and Visibility in the City: The Hijab and Public Space in Finland

Hijab - female ‘Islamic’ veiling - has been often violently debated in Europe for over two decades, resulting in many academic studies. However, the relations between social spaces and veiling practices remain largely unexplored. Based on ethnographic research in Finland, I analyse the hijab in Finnish social spaces. Drawing on Lefebvre’s theory of space, I claim that dress styles are profoundly connected to the spatial and material characteristics of cities, and therefore follow logics inherent to that space. In the dialectics of how dress and space 'fit' or do not fit, a dress style following a different spatial logic to the norm is in conflict with surrounding space and so will seem 'foreign' and 'unsuitable' to those following local dress and spatial codes. Such processes apply to Arabian full-body veils in the Finnish context. Finland's so-called ‘architecture of transparency’ demands certain kinds of visibility from the ‘users’ of public space. This constructs certain kinds of veiling as 'dishonest' and 'suspicious'. This type of architecture also creates many opportunities for surveillance, making face-veiling Muslim women problematically visible in the Finnish public sphere. Muslim women themselves are highly conscious of the high visibility of their attire, and seek to manage it by attempting either to reduce visibility completely or embracing it and self-consciously drawing attention to themselves. I explore the subtle ways in which space, dress and identity combine to create feelings of security and insecurity among Muslim women, drawing attention to their forms of 'dress agency' within often challenging socio-spatial conditions.