Hijabs, Gifts and the Creation and Operation of Social Relationships: The Case of Muslim Women in Contemporary Finland

There have been relatively few analyses of Muslim women’s veiling practices in the Finnish context. This paper examines some micro-dynamics of women’s veiling-related practices in the Greater Helsinki area. Gift theory and research, deriving from the original insights of Marcel Mauss, are used to understand the multiple layers of significance that are involved when veiling garments are passed on as gifts from one woman to another, or from a group of women to a recipient. While forms of politics are involved in such processes, the giving of veiling garments also works to create intimate forms of social bonding, encompassing familial, friendship and community elements. The “gifting” of hijabs can establish, maintain, reform or repair relationships between Muslim women, and between the latter and non-Muslim women. The paper considers gifting of garments between Muslims, from Muslims to Finnish (would-be) converts, and from non-Muslim Finns to Finnish converts. While veiling garments are widely understood to be in various ways problems, when such objects are gifted by women to each other, they may also be experienced and narrated as solutions to socially-shaped challenges, affording transitions towards more manageable social situations. The gifting of Islamic garments often figures as a means not only for donors to influence recipients, but also for both donors and recipients to finesse potentially troubling or awkward social scenarios. Cheaper, mass-produced garments seem to be particularly chosen and passed on by donors who seem to be aiming at influencing recipients’ conduct, in the direction of adopting stricter forms of dress and religious observance. Conversely, the choosing of more expensive, bespoke garments is more associated with maintaining or repairing relationships between donors and recipients.