by Phillip Williams
Three decades before this essay was written, Egyptian women rarely wore the veil. By 2006, the practice had become nearly universal — claimed as a mandatory mark of faith. Phillip Williams, writing from Canada about the Egypt of his heritage, saw this not as a religious revival but as a group-formation manoeuvre: existential fear mobilised into visible piety.
His argument cuts in two directions at once. The Islamic veil is not about faith in God — it is about the Muslim Brotherhood's political project, an attempt to quench existential fears through collective conformity. But the Coptic Church does the same thing: its "holy" food and oil, its priestly vestments, its ritual blessings and curses are equally a veil — a façade of holiness masking institutional control.
The remedy Williams proposes is paradoxical: give them the veil freely. Let them reach the point of "veil saturation" — until they figure out for themselves that the veil hinders faith rather than expressing it. The essay's governing text is Matthew 5:40: "If someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well."
Did Egyptian women have faith in God when they did not dress in veil? Does an individual Egyptian Christian have faith in God without the church rituals?
Three decades ago one could rarely see an Egyptian woman dressed in veil, but today the society has almost converted and claimed that the veil is a mandatory sign of faith in God — as if Egyptian women had not had faith in God for the past century when they went unveiled.
The veil is not really about faith. The veil is an episode by the Muslim Brotherhood to stir up many issues, among which are: reaction to the excesses of Western indulgence; reaction to conspiracies emanating from existential fears between Islamic and Christian collectives; and the mobilisation of group formations to triumph over rival groups.
Why not let those who wish to dress in veils do so? Let their existential fears be quenched. Give them even free veils if they wished so. Let them have plenty of veils in the hope that they might reach a point of "veil saturation" — and figure out that faith is not by the veil, but by the freedom in God's spirit.
Islam is like the scam of a fluid whose proponents would claim it a remedy for every illness, only to discover after a period of saturation that it was nothing more than sugar in water — that one could never have been fooled by the claims of its propagandists had there not been such an abundance of them claiming its potency. If people were not deprived of sugar in water they would never have been fooled. So the solution to the "faith by the veil" phenomenon is allowing more veils.
"But I tell you: Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well."
— Matthew 5:38–40
If someone wants a veil, give her two.
But "faith by the veil" is not only an Islamic but also an Egyptian problem. The veil in Coptic Christianity is a metaphor for the church's "holy" rituals — a façade, similar to the Islamic veil, for asserting the group's rules as a sacred requirement of faith.
Coptic priesthood, "holy food, drink, oil, water" and other "holy" objects are no less a veil on the Coptic faith than the burqa is for Islamic fraternities. The dress of the priesthood has been at the centre of the latest dispute within the Coptic Church, when a new church was formed by another person who claimed himself a bishop.
If someone wants a Coptic veil — food blessed by the church group, a priestly vestment, or some other ritual — give them two. Let them reach the point of "veil saturation" until they figure it out themselves.
"Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'"
— Luke 13:26–27
Let the groups have their rituals until the point of veil saturation — so that they may figure out that the "veil" does not help faith, but hinders it.
God Bless You,
Phillip
Colophon
Written by Phillip Williams and posted to the Usenet groups talk.religion.christian.coptic and soc.culture.egyptian, 26 November 2006. Part of a series of essays on the theological dimensions of contemporary Coptic and Egyptian religious life. Original Message-ID: <uTjah.379845$R63.156904@pd7urf1no>.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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