ISL 372 Chapter Notes - Chapter 33: Chador, Algerian War, Psychopathology
The Couch and the Chador
This paper reports on our existence of working with Iranian women who begin treatment while
covering themselves in a chador, the traditional Persian outer garment, and go through an
unveiling and re-veiling process in line with the resistance ambiance of the analytic situation.
A chador is part of a pre-Islamic dress code that many traditional, rural, or religiously devout
women in contemporary Iran still wear.
The purpose of the chador was to keep women of high social status away from the gaze of
commoners.
The chador as an item of dress is the site for a multitude of social and psychological functions.
The hado o a fo of eil has aptued ol the oietalists gaze i the West, hee a
chador or veil-like outfit is seen as a sign of womes oppessio.
This plaes the eiled sujets as soethig lesse, ot uite eal, ot uite the ight thig,
shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The obsession with chador in France – and, more recently, in England – may speak to a much
deeper, subconscious, guilt-idde oflit oe the outs oloial past.
Veilig as laied to eate a sese of ste, dage, ad allue ad aetuated the
eaut of Aa oes ees
Decolonization and the Algerian War (1954-62) marked a major shift in the dominant,
eroticized representation of the veiled subject.
The eoti fatas/iage of ueilig the eiled, eoti othe feale as tasfoed ito a
hyper-veiled object of fear, a signifier of political danger and terrorism.
The controversial law forbidding veil-like clothing that hides the face in public came into effect
in France on April 11, 2011.
Balasescu (2005) gas argues that the veil dispute in France is primarily about the disruption of
the free flow of the gaze, which implicitly questions the French-cultural obsession with visibility
and transparency.
The chador is seen as the insertion of a private space in the public arena.
One way of portraying a patriarchal system as less patriarchal is to denounce another that is
transparently more so, while at the same time denying the pseudo-opaque patriarchy that
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breeds and tolerates attitudes and practices exemplified by the scandalous sexual escapades of
men such as Dominique Strauss-Kahn in France or Silvio Berlusconi in Italy.
The chador is a carrier of the symbolic representations of both the maternal and paternal
functions that at times may come into conflict with one another.
The narcissistic fantasy of securing a thick skin-ego can be transferred through the metonymic
mediation to clothing such as the chador.
When things go awry, the chador may become a fetish that, in its defensive function as a
concrete substitute of the mother – in a part-object relationship – may interfere with the
development of the ego and superego and give the child only a façade of normality.
This is particularly true in a cultural context in which the remnant of the maternal container,
the chador, may be used to repress desire and inhibit open emotional expression.
Some Clinical Vignettes:
For Ms X, the chador seemed to function as a psychic refuge and a place to hide on the couch.
Ms Xs aiet as elated to the eposue of the hidde self that could be unveiled in analysis,
leaking out both her sexual and aggressive impulses.
Ms Y
• One recurring fear reported by women who struggle with throwing away the chador is
that of becoming a prostitute.
• Here the chador seems to give the woman the illusion of a sanctuary or an envelope
that keeps the contradictory parts of the self together.
• Ms Y was a charming, bright, well-dressed and articulate young woman who came from
a well-to-do highly cultured family and had a postgraduate degree and an important job
• Her ritual of veiling and unveiling in the session has a strong defensive function against
sexual and aggressive impulses.
• The chador seems to work in her fantasy as a protective shell or second skin that could
block the unwanted internal and external intrusions.
• The oe-eed gaze that Ms Y iitiall fell as the gaze of the othe, the the gaze of
the father, and finally the gaze of the superior God, is an anthropomorphic
exemplification of the functioning of the superego, a tyrannical internal object that traps
the mind with a corresponding self-experience of being constantly observed and judged
by an intrapsychic agency.
• In Persian, de-skinning is an expression for inflicting severe punishment for major
transgressions.
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Document Summary
A chador is part of a pre-islamic dress code that many traditional, rural, or religiously devout women in contemporary iran still wear. The purpose of the chador was to keep women of high social status away from the gaze of commoners. The chador as an item of dress is the site for a multitude of social and psychological functions. The (cid:272)hado(cid:396) (cid:894)o(cid:396) a(cid:374)(cid:455) fo(cid:396)(cid:373) of (cid:448)eil(cid:895) has (cid:272)aptu(cid:396)ed o(cid:374)l(cid:455) the o(cid:396)ie(cid:374)talist(cid:859)s gaze i(cid:374) the west, (cid:449)he(cid:396)e a(cid:374)(cid:455) chador or veil-like outfit is seen as a sign of wome(cid:374)(cid:859)s opp(cid:396)essio(cid:374). This pla(cid:272)es the (cid:448)eiled su(cid:271)je(cid:272)ts as (cid:862)so(cid:373)ethi(cid:374)g lesse(cid:396), (cid:374)ot (cid:395)uite (cid:396)eal, (cid:374)ot (cid:395)uite the (cid:396)ight thi(cid:374)g(cid:863), shared by judaism, christianity, and islam. The obsession with chador in france and, more recently, in england may speak to a much deeper, subconscious, guilt-(cid:396)idde(cid:374) (cid:272)o(cid:374)fli(cid:272)t o(cid:448)e(cid:396) the (cid:272)ou(cid:374)t(cid:396)(cid:455)(cid:859)s (cid:272)olo(cid:374)ial past. Veili(cid:374)g (cid:449)as (cid:272)lai(cid:373)ed to (cid:272)(cid:396)eate (cid:862)a se(cid:374)se of (cid:373)(cid:455)ste(cid:396)(cid:455), da(cid:374)ge(cid:396), a(cid:374)d allu(cid:396)e a(cid:374)d a(cid:272)(cid:272)e(cid:374)tuated the (cid:271)eaut(cid:455) of a(cid:396)a(cid:271) (cid:449)o(cid:373)e(cid:374)(cid:859)s e(cid:455)es(cid:863)
