The book Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo introduced me to a new world of perspectives. And as great as it is to be able to experience a fictional life through the eyes of people much different than me, I felt happier to read about perspectives which are similar to mine. Warris, Yazz’s muslim friend, immediately grabbed my attention because, like me, she is also muslim. In the passage, describing Warris, we learn that Warris wears the Hijab to “make a statement about her muslim identity.” Warris’s reason for wearing the hijab is vaguely brushed over, as we never really learn what that statement really is. Infact we learn more about what it isn’t; a proper religious thing.” Meaning that Warris disagrees with the notion that the hijab is religiously mandated. While some may believe the conversation about hijab and identity ends here, I would argue that the lines following these reveal much more about Warris’s relationship to her hijab and her identity. The narrator tells us that Warris is deeply insecure and is dependent on cosmetics to make up for her insecurities. She even refers to this step and putting her “face on,” which shows that she ties her real self to this artificial application of beauty products. When describing her make up processs, the narrator mentions that the features that she tries to improve are “already perfect,” highlighting the unnecessary nature of her routine. The speaker also says she uses “whole tubes of mascara to thicken already forested eyelashes” The exaggerated claim about “whole” tubes being used shows us that Waaris overdoes it with her makeup. The reason that these lines are tied to her hijab and identity is simple. Warris’s overdependence on cosmetics may be an attempt to compensate for the beauty she covers using her hijab. This is a pattern we see even in today’s world. Hijabis often feel that covering their hair takes away from their beauty, so they attempt to compensate by making sure their face is perfectly in line with conventional beauty standards. Warris may have missed the practical reason for wearing a hijab. The reason is that the hijab is a prevention of two matters of injustice. The first matter is that Women in patriarchal norms are unjustly judged by their looks instead of their character. The second is that women feel a sense of pressure to maintain their physical looks to unknowingly appease the male gaze. The striving for societal validation is very dangerous to young girls. This is a dilemma we see in Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, which states the lines: “We must not buy their fruits/Who knows upon /what soil they fed/Their hungry thirsty roots?”(43-45) Here, one sister warns the other after the goblins ask for a piece of hair as a price for the fruit. The fruit here may symbolize the sweet validation that comes with appeasing social beauty structures. We give a piece of ourselves away every time we apply foundation to our natural skin or mascara to our natural eyelashes. But like Warris, many young girls believe it is not acceptable to leave their room without having perfected their facial features first. The hijab is not just a piece of cloth; infact it is literally defined as “a barrier,” so the hijab works as a barrier that prevents women as well as men from being reduced to their physical features. Because Warris’s religion preaches that a human’s identity and worth are much more valuable than skin and lashes.
Passages Used:
Girl, Woman, Other By Bernardine Evaristo
“Waris replies that she wears a hijab to make a statement about her Muslim identity, and while there are those who make out it’s a proper religious thing, there’s nothing about women covering up in the Koran, you know? Waris doesn’t ever leave her room without applying a smooth paste of foundation on to her already perfect complexion whole tubes of mascara to thicken already forested eyelashes and her eyebrows are painted into a high arch that practically stretches Waris says she’s ugly without her ‘face on’, even though Yazz reassures her that Somali women are the most beautiful in the world, and that includes you too, Waris”
Goblin Market By Chirstina Rosetti
We must not buy their fruits:
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?”
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