Veiled Sentiments

Abu-Lughod presents her motivation to more closely examine how language of honor and modesty seeps into gendered discourses of Bedouin society. In general, she reminds her audience that “maleness is associated with autonomy and femaleness with dependency” in Awlad ‘Ali communities (118). Because hierarchical power is connected to morality, the Awlad ‘Ali implicitly assume “that men’s precedence is due to their moral superiority” (119).

Numerous cultural artifacts, like “sayings, institutions, rituals, and symbols” (119), reify the structural superiority of Bedouin men. According to Abu-Lughod, women’s perceived moral inferiority is the most common reason for their devaluation. Although women work to display ḥasham, their bodies (and femininity in general) are inextricably linked to “reproduction […] [and] its concomitants: menstruation and sexuality” (119).

Because of their association with negative reproductive processes, women must take “the path of modesty” to gain “respectability,” even if they may not ever achieve “moral virtue” (119). Chastity and sexual modesty are the ultimate manifestations of modesty, or ḥasham, that allow women to “show deference” to hierarchical values and “deny” connections to sexuality, which is “the greatest threat” to the Bedouin social system (119).