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The Political Psychology of the Veil pp 1–33Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Introduction: Bodies Without Shadows

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology ((PSPP))

Abstract

This chapter introduces the key concepts and methodology of the book. It identifies how images, socio-political discourses, historical and political events will be examined through psychoanalytic themes including fantasy and anxiety. It demonstrates this approach in an analysis of Aisha Mohammadzai’s mutilated face which appeared on the front page of Time Magazine in 2010. The chapter’s reading of this image reflects the book’s examination of the limits of a study that relies on empiricism alone, by identifying deeper investments in the images of Muslim women. It shows how the imagery of the veiled-veiling-unveiling-unveiled are powerful metaphorical expressions and coordinates of agency, autonomy and freedom in the post-9/11 and postcolonial world of national security, multiculturalism, human rights and women’s rights. The images’ hold on the historical imaginary is reproduced as part of a “we”, the west, by anti-immigration campaigns, activists, politicians, journalists and academics. In this vein, the veiled and unveiled continue to inform “The Muslim Question”. Its fantasy of unveiling is able to bridge these epistemic conditions making possible the occupation of imagined parameters of modernity/ tradition, truth/untruth and freedom/unfreedom.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Sahar Ghumkhor

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  1. Sahar Ghumkhor
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Correspondence to Sahar Ghumkhor .

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Ghumkhor, S. (2020). Introduction: Bodies Without Shadows. In: The Political Psychology of the Veil. Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32061-4_1

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