Veiled Messages; Modern Culture Uncovers Mystery of Ancient custom.(NATION)(CULTURE, ET CETERA)

Byline: Sean Salai, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The veil has symbolized mystery and purity throughout history and across many cultures. Its roots are in the East, tied intimately to religion and ethnic customs, but it has moved gradually into Western pop culture.

Today, the veil "has become so ubiquitous that everyone seems to have formed an opinion about it," says University of Texas Middle Eastern studies professor Faegheh Shirazi. "The various connotations it has, the many emotions it arouses, testify to its continuing, perhaps even growing, significance in the modern world."

One example is the way the veil is portrayed in Western cinema, which Ms. Shirazi says has joined the East to "use the veil to tantalize and arouse the spectator."

In Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci's 1990 film "The Sheltering Sky," the heroine uses a veil to pass as a man in the Tuareg tribe of North …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Veiled Messages; Modern Culture Uncovers Mystery of Ancient custom.(NATION)(CULTURE, ET CETERA). Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Washington Times (Washington, DC). Publication date: August 2, 2002. Page number: A02. © 2009 The Washington Times LLC. COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group.

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