Sit Down With UvA Students

Just wanted to make a brief update about a chat with UvA students today which was very eye opening. Two girls approached me who were interested in Irina and I's research about Muslim women's fashion. One girl was a Christian Georgian who happened to know a lot of Islamic culture and had friends who were Muslim. The other girl was Bolivian who had once lived and studied in Florida. They are now both pursuing masters study here in Amsterdam.

From both girls I learned that it has been mentioned in a publication that Muslim girls often wear the head scarf after they move into a Western nation like Holland because they feel it gives them feelings of protection as well as unique cultural identity. This will be a good question to ask future interviewees - when did you start wearing a hijab?

Also both girls adamantly stated that Dutch people are not as open or friendly as they seem to be (Bolivian girl said less so than Americans) and not to believe Holland as an "open country." Trying to approach them, they will always want to create some distance. Moroccans for example you will never find in a cafe where predominantly Dutch visit. They are confined to their neighborhoods and there is severe segregation between immigrants and the Dutch - especially outside of Amsterdam. You cannot take Amsterdam to be representative of all of Holland. This is really an interesting point.

The girls also affirmed the idea that if young women wear head scarves it appeases family and allows them more freedom as they are viewed as "good girls." Georgian girl said she knows for sure that the burqa is actually not banned in Netherlands currently, though just this morning news reported that idea to 'ban the Koran' was presented to the parliament, which she finds ridiculous.

Asking the Bolivian girl for her opinion after living in Netherlands for 1 year, she feels for younger generation who have been born or raised here there could be more of a desire to integrate (since there are Muslim girls who dress very trendy & use lots of makeup) while on the other hand women who might have immigrated later in their lives might be more prone to cover up as a means of protection and maintaining cultural identity. She also mentioned that for Islamic societies, the culture and religion are highly intertwined so trying to distinguish there wouldn't be really appropriate.