The headscarf or the tudung is a veil used to cover a Muslim woman’s hair and is part of the dress code that many Muslim women deem appropriate.

But what is the tudung really about? We here at Youth.SG threw our heads towards renowned artist Victoria Cattoni for some insights.

Her upcoming photo-media installation What if I want to water ski? And other questions captures the observations of women from Singapore, Penang and Mareeba in North-eastern Australia who don the tudung for the first time.


The down-to-earth artist is grateful to the women who shared their personal encounters, and admits that the subject of her exhibition is potentially a controversial one. However, this being an artistic exercise in intercultural understanding, Victoria harbours no ulterior motive.

“I am trying to present a controversial subject in a non-controversial angle… It is easy to create a controversy about the tudung especially since this bit of cloth is connected to the religion but I don’t want to do that.”

Writer’s note: These are the artist’s personal opinions and are strictly not representative of any organisation or community.

Youth.SG: What is a tudung?
Victoria: Most people refer to it as the headscarf worn by Muslim women in Singapore and Malaysia.

How do local Singaporeans look at the tudung?
Part of the exhibition is about documenting how it is worn and every person looks at it differently. There are women who wear it and there are those who observe the women who are wearing it. However, there is less diversity here in the way of wearing the veil as compared to Malaysia and that’s probably because there is a bigger group of Muslims there.

Is the tudung an indicator of how religious someone is?
I don’t think you can draw a correlation… When people see someone wearing a tudung or a baju kurung, they will go “Ah! They’re more observant (about the dress code).”

In your interactions with the public, is the tudung viewed as backdated?
I haven’t come across that view. I don’t think the tudung is necessarily seen as old fashioned and in that it cannot be made modern. There are plenty of fashionable young women who are wearing tudung. In Indonesia they have done amazing things with the tudung or the jilbab as they call it there. They may wear it differently with different styles. It depends.


What is the significance of the tudung?
It is just a bit of cloth in the end, but since Islam is seen as more present in many countries where there is not a majority of Muslims as compared to the past ten years, in a way people may have more opinions about it now. A picture of a woman in hijab or tudung may not have engendered the same readings then. I guess that is because of the way Islam is depicted in the media, particularly some Western media who usually have a negative reference, especially since the certain events such as 9/11. Non-Muslims notice it more after that. People may make more automatic assumptions today.

Most Singaporean ladies I know usually don the tudung after having kids and after they have finished their Haj pilgrimage. Is that the same in the countries you have been to?
That’s a huge question to answer! Especially since I haven’t been to that many countries, haha! There are so many different influences in each country… A family I’ve met in Mareeba have four daughters. One of them decided she would start wearing it, (then) the mom wears it and they have an aunty who decided to wear it in her forties. Whereas the Australian woman I met in Cairns who is originally from Somalia said that women only wear the tudung after they’ve had menopause and they do the Haj after menopause. It depends on different factors, and perhaps if I”d spoken to another woman from Somalia it might have been different. Some women also wear or don’t wear it due to work requirements.

An educated friend of mine who applied for a teaching job was asked if she minded taking her headscarf off in the classroom. Because of that it took her quite some time to find a job. However, she was involved in this theatre group and the role she wanted to take on didn’t wear the head attire. Although she had no qualms about taking it off for the role — because when she is acting she considers herself as another persona and not herself — the director, who is a Muslim, had a problem with that. That is a classic case of a group of people (non-Muslims) who wants her to take it off and another group (Muslims) asking her to keep it on, both for their own reasons. You have this woman with her own ideas and both parties wanting to claim ownership of her body and how she should cover herself.

Wearing a tudung is seen by some as part of a celebrity fashion trend — take a look at Malaysian celebrities such as Ekin who has a tudung named after her and Siti Nurhaliza. What is your opinion on that?
Why not? It depends on why you wear it. I don’t have an opinion on this but on the other hand some women I have interviewed said if it were meant for modesty, there would be a conflict concerning modesty because it (the tudung) starts to draw attention to yourself. We are all constantly conflicted about such issues and most of us are constantly compromising in our daily lives.

In your exhibition, women try the tudung for the very first time. What did you observe from their reactions?
It can be quite an intense experience because of the way the tudung has become laden with so much meaning and associations. Some realise that they look older and realise that their hair is an important feature to them. Some talk about how (it is) hot and uncomfortable, and how it makes them feel restricted. A non-Muslim Singaporean said she felt rather strange and had this heavy feeling, because she feels that she is playing with a religious symbol. I had Muslim women present to talk to the non-Muslim women… one of the Muslim women who assisted me in the Penang workshop, said she didn’t know that there was so much misconception surrounding it. She thought everyone knew what it was for and why they wore it.

What is the most common misconception about the tudung that you have heard so far?
That Muslim women wear it because they have to. Sometimes I walk into a bookstore and I see so many books with a ‘veiled woman’ that represents stories about oppression and being forced to wear it. I don’t deny that this is reality in some cases but it does not apply to everyone wearing a tudung. Choice is a funny thing.  Another common one would be that if you wear the tudung, you are more observant of Islamic practices. What people wear is no indication of who they are all the time. These are cliché assumptions but it does not mean that they don’t infiltrate one’s thoughts. D

What if I want to water ski? And other questions takes place from Jun 10-24 at The Substation.

PHOTOS: ALVIN TEO

diyana[a]youth.sg

Diyana is a family person, laughing hyena, romance novel junkie, friends hugger, coffee snorter and green tea frap addict. She loves animals, especially cats.


THIS ARTICLE IS PART OF Jun 1-7 :: The Not For Sale Issue