Introduction

Fighting ‘the Invisible Enemy’ with Face Masks

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Ghana is a multi-religious country, with its citizens belonging to Christianity, Islam, and African indigenous religions. Religion plays an important role in Ghana’s political, economic, social, and medical landscape. Abamfo Atiemo (2013, 96) shows how, in times of difficulty, Ghanaians “resort to religious functionaries with reputation for spiritual power such as prophets, Malams, priests or diviners, outside their normal religious traditions.” Similarly, in his discussion about the Akan¹⁴ worldview of disease and health, Kofi Appiah-Kubi (1981) shows that religion plays an important role in the quest for holistic health. He writes that the kind of healing religion offers restores an “equilibrium in the otherwise strained relationship between man, his fellow men, environment, ecology and God” (Appiah-Kubi 1981, 81). This stance persists across Ghanaian society. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghanaians of different religious orientations intensified their prayers, fasted, and offered sacrifices in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus and restore their lives to normality¹⁵. Biblical expressions such as ‘The Battle is the Lord’s’ and ‘This too shall pass’ were used by president Nana Akufo-Addo to provide some hope and encouragement to Ghanaians during these difficult times.

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The face mask has been identified by health officials as one of the best forms of protection, since it allows individuals to conduct their daily activities while keeping relatively safe.¹⁶ To curtail the disease, the government of Ghana saw the need to resource local manufacturers to produce face masks from African print fabric.¹⁷ In addition, individuals were advised to maintain a distance of 1.5 to 2 meters to ensure maximum protection, though this recommendation proved to be impossible to observe in most situations. Subsequently, the government introduced a Legislative Instrument (LI) to punish with fines and imprisonment persons who did not follow the mask-wearing directive.¹⁸ This law remained on paper as most individuals continued to go about their daily activities without wearing a face mask. Likewise, in the months prior to the country’s national elections in December 2020, politicians of all parties campaigned with complete disregard for the mask-wearing protocol.

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When Ghana experienced the second wave with its daily infection rate not exceeding 100 cases as of May 2021¹⁹, health officials warned of a possible third wave if preventive measures including face masks were not taken seriously. Consequently, there was a joint effort by the government and health officials to educate Ghanaians about the importance of wearing face masks. As an alternative to fining and imprisoning people who disregarded the mask-wearing directive, some Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies initiated various forms of minor punishment. In Madina, for instance, the City Council ordered people who disregarded the mask-wearing protocol to drain gutters and sweep the streets. After providing this general background, I will now turn to the different veiling practices in Ghana with a special focus on hijab and niqab in Madina Zongo.

Veiling Practices of Muslim Women in Ghana

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Veiling is a term loaded with ambiguity. While most Muslim societies associate veiling with concealing the body, face, and head of a woman from the gaze of unrelated men in public spaces, among the Tuareg men, veiling (especially the face veil) conveys social values including modesty and respectability. Furthermore, some non-Tuareg men in the Sahara may occasionally veil their faces to protect them from desert wind and sand (Rasmussen 2013). In Kano, northern Nigeria, veiling among men is also a status marker used by emirs as a symbol of royalty and authority. Even though women from different religious and social backgrounds practice diverse forms of veiling, the Muslim veiling practices of donning the hijab and niqab have gained currency in public discourses in Ghana and across the world (Bolaji 2018; Burchardt 2020, 132–54; Moors 2009). The religious and political discourses around these veiling practices have social, gender, and historical dimensions. For example, in Afghanistan, the niqab signifies women’s modesty or respectability (Abu-Lughod 2013, 35). However, in discussing the trends and causes for changing veiling habits of Muslim women in Zanzibar over the last century, Laura Fair (2013, 13) states that “wearing the veil is intended to elicit not piety, rather esteem and admiration.” Also, Leila Ahmed (2011) frames the Muslim veil within the context of gender equality and minority rights, adding that the meaning making of veiling largely depends on its geographical context.

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Like elsewhere in the world, in Ghana, veiling reveals ideas about identity, character, and status. Prior to the introduction of Islam in Ghana, women of different religious and ethnic backgrounds practiced a cultural veiling form known as duku, a head tie (Sackey 2013), which is still part of the female dress style in Ghana. Duku was a head cover style associated with African women’s beauty practices. Among African Americans, enslaved black women used duku to protect themselves from being exposed to the sun as they worked on plantations. The connotation of duku depends on who uses it as well as how and where it is used. Elderly women in Ghana use it as a symbol of maturity. Also, newly married Muslim women in the Zongo use a special type of duku called wodasubo as an indication of their new status. During funerals, a widow covers her head with a black duku to show her grief. However, the practice of wearing a duku as a demonstration of cultural and religious orientation has transformed in the twenty-first century, as young women mostly use duku for sartorial purposes.

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Global religious entanglements have contributed to the transfer of new veiling practices such as the mayaafi²⁰, hijab, arewa²¹, gele²² as well as the niqab* from Muslim countries to most Zongo communities in Ghana. According to Yunus Dumbe (2009), these entanglements—including educational and economic exchanges as well as the pilgrimage to Mecca—exposed Ghanaian Muslims to the Qadiriyyah,²³ Tijaniyyah,²⁴ Sunni, and Shia doctrines during the pre- and post-Independence era.²⁵ The Tijaniyyah doctrine occupies a dominant position in Ghana, to the extent that national chief imams in the country are always from the Tijaniyyah orientation (Dumbe 2009; Weiss 2008).

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The office of the National Chief Imam has been instrumental in addressing issues of discrimination against female Muslims who wear the hijab in public spaces. During a national campaign to allow female Muslims to don the hijab in Ghana’s public spaces, the spokesperson of the Chief Imam, Sheikh Armeyaw Shuaib, was emphatic about the security implications of sidelining and discriminating Muslims who constitute a religious minority in the country, adding that this could be a breeding ground for terrorist activities.²⁶

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Most Muslim women who received secular education in Ghana did not use the hijab until the early twenty-first century (Sackey 2013). It was associated with illiteracy, poverty, and female oppression. The situation started to change with the emergence of Muslim women associations in the 1990s, including the Federation of Muslim Women Association in Ghana (FOMWAG) (Sulemanu 2006) and the Islamic Charity Centre for Women Orientation (ICCWO) (Khamis 2009). These groups, through the organisation of public fora and Qur’anic study groups, educated people about the fundamental beliefs and practices of Islam. This subsequently led to the adoption of different veiling styles, depending on the social background of the Zongo women. For instance, the mayaafi style of veiling became associated with female Muslims who never had a secular education.²⁷ The secularly educated Muslim women in the Zongos tried to distinguish their veiling style by using a mayaafi smaller than its regular size of two-and-a-half yards. In such situations, they used the mayaafi to cover their shoulders but not their head. Pilgrimage to Mecca, the media (BBC and Al-Jazeerah), and trading activities of Muslim women in West Africa and the Arab world have also recently influenced the changing veiling styles of both secularly educated and non-secularly educated Muslim women in the Zongo²⁸.

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The hijab has been a matter of contestation among Muslims and non-Muslims in most public institutions in Ghana over the last two decades. It has raised issues concerning the implementation of secularism in Ghana, religious diversity, and minority rights in shared public spaces. The discourse on the hijab interrogates the conceptual framework of secularism in Ghana, where the constitution grants religious practitioners the freedom to choose and manifest their religion but leaves this constitutional right unregulated in practice (Bolaji 2018). For instance, the debate about rights of female Muslims to don the hijab in secondary schools owned by Christian missionaries and in formal working environments such as hospitals, where dress codes are integral parts of these institutions’ professional culture, continues to stain the relationship between Christians and Muslims in the country.

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Unlike the hijab, the niqab is not a popular veiling practice in Ghana, as is the case in some Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Morocco, and Sudan. Muslim women who don the niqab in the Zongo are in a minority. This practice is subject to debate among Muslim scholars. The debate concerns issues around the awra²⁹ of female Muslims and questions whether the face is a constitutive part of it. In this regard, Al Qaradawi³⁰ (2006) and Khan (2016) have argued that the Qur’an recommends women to dress modestly and cover their heads but not their faces. Their position is based on the Qur’an, Chapter 24, Verse 31, which states “And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their chastity and not to reveal their adornment except what normally appears. Let them draw their veils over their chest, and not reveal their adornment except what normally appears…” Furthermore, they refer to one hadith of the Prophet Muhammed which stipulates that when a woman reaches the age of puberty, she should cover her whole body except for her hands and face. Based on this, Al Qaradawi and Khan argue that the niqab is not obligatory for female Muslims. In my interviews with male and female religious leaders—Malam Sultan and Malama³¹ Sarata—in Madina Zongo they emphasized that the niqab is not a requirement for Muslim women’s dress as is the case with the hijab.³² Malama Sarata equates the use of niqab with a non-obligatory prayer. According to her, using it attracts a reward from God but if a woman does not practice it, she would not be punished.

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In Madina Zongo, Muslim women who wear the niqab cite social and religious reasons for its adoption prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. One informant, Hajia Rashida,³³ recounts her pilgrimage to Mecca. During this pilgrimage, she observed that Arab women who adorn themselves with expensive jewelry and designer clothes covered themselves with hijab and niqab. As she puts it:

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When I went to the bathroom to perform ablution, I saw an Arab woman in Baby Phat³⁴ jeans and top, which she wore under her abaya³⁵. Her gold bangles were a beautiful sight, including her gold earrings and necklace, but all these were covered with abaya and a niqab. I said to myself: if an Arab woman who lives close to the ka’ba³⁶ is this modest why shouldn’t I emulate her?

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After her pilgrimage, she returned to Ghana with several niqabs for her personal use. Another informant, Hajara, who belongs to a tabligh jamaat³⁷ movement, explains that Qur’an 24:31 is the inspiration behind her adoption of the niqab. According to her, the verse not only implies covering the head and the body, but also the face. Most of the interviewees who wore the niqab before the pandemic also refer to this garment as a devotional material which ensures a closer relationship with God. They explain that they feel rewarded by God for using face veils. At the same time, the niqab screens them from the gazes of unrelated men. One typical characteristic of the Zongo community is the phenomenon of ‘bases’ (Muhammed 2015), where Muslim men gather to socialise after work. Usually, a woman can expect unnecessary gazes and calls from these young men anytime she walks by, but niqab wearers reported that they could pass without any form of harassment. According to them, the niqab offers them daraja—respect from the opposite sex. The niqab wearers have also attributed their lighter faces, a beauty ideal in the Zongo, to the face veil, mentioning that it screens them from the scorching sun.

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Notwithstanding the social, sartorial, and religious significance of donning veils in the Zongo, my informants also pointed to the challenges they face in shared spaces such as markets, hospitals, and public transportation. They explained that their family members, who are also Muslims, have attempted to discourage them from wearing the niqab because the social setting in Madina Zongo does not support it. This is attributed to the fact that women from Saudi Arabia, whom the Zongo Muslim women claim to emulate, are not actively engaged in public life. By contrast, a majority of women in the Zongo are involved in various types of economic, social, political, and religious activities in the public space. One of my informants, Sumaya, stated that she had to put a stop to her use of the niqab due to her profession as a fashion designer, which requires a constant face-to-face interaction with clients. Realizing that the niqab is likely to deter clients from choosing her services in a competitive fashion industry in the Zongo, she decided to uncover her face.

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However, the attitude of people in Madina Zongo towards the hijab and niqab took a different turn with the surge of COVID-19. Wearers could now be identified as responsible citizens who tried to protect themselves and prevent the spread of the virus. Female Muslims in the Zongo who were non-veil wearers began to use it, while some Christians also adopted it because of the ‘comfort’ it provides. In the following sections, I will discuss this phenomenon in more detail.

Cross-Religious Appropriation of hijab and niqab as a Face Mask in Madina Zongo

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Religious boundaries in Madina Zongo are often porous, as members of different religions imitate and appropriate each other’s practices at different levels. In the Zongo, everyday practices of religious groups are embedded within negotiations of ideas and practices of the ‘other’ to the extent that religious identities are blurred and religious dichotomies partly dissolved. So far scholars have paid little attention to such negotiations. Against this lacuna, Marloes Janson (2021) argues that it is important to realise that religious traditions, such as Christianity and Islam, are not as mutually exclusive as many scholars still seem to assume (see also Soares 2010; Larkin and Meyer 2006; Janson and Meyer 2016). Rather, religious practitioners mix each other’s practices in their everyday lives, a process labelled by her as ‘religious shopping’. With this article, I respond to her call to pay more attention to the dynamics of copying and mixing. These dynamics, which also include the mutual adoption of dress styles, are at the heart of the complexities of religious entanglements in a religiously pluralistic setting such as Madina.

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Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the hijab and niqab have become a strategic medium which highlights the dynamics of religious co-existence among Muslims and between Muslims and Christians in Madina Zongo. In this section, I discuss the appropriation of these veils by Muslim and Christian women in Madina Zongo as ‘shopping’ for protection against the disease. Within this discussion, I focus on the cross-religious appropriation and reinterpretation of the veils from devotional materials to protective ones and explain the implications of this shift for the Zongo scape.

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My fieldwork in Madina Zongo shows that some individuals transformed their handkerchiefs and hijabs into a sort of face mask. Typically, a handkerchief is folded into a V-shape and tied behind the head. Some Muslim women also wrapped their hijab in such a way that it not only covered their heads and necks, but also their faces. Also, some tailors in the Zongo designed what they called the corona hijab, which not only covers the head and parts of the body but also the mouth and the nose. Alongside these inventions, the attitude towards the niqab in the Zongo also took a new turn. While some adopted it instead of a face mask, others supported its usage even though they did not have any personal experience with it. The niqab has thus been transformed from a devotional material used by a specific group of Muslim women to a protective material used by women of different religious orientations. As a result, it became impossible now to label women who used the niqab as conservative or radical Muslims. In other words, the niqab has become a part of Ghanaian culture regardless of religious or political affiliation.

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With the outbreak of the pandemic, dealers in Muslim dresses imported from Dubai, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt cashed in on selling niqabs. The price of niqabs skyrocketed in Madina Zongo. Hajia Rashida, a boutique owner, mentioned that more women than before have been coming to her shop to buy niqabs. Also, as noted in the beginning, two other informants—Shareefa and Malama Hamida—confirmed that they started making niqabs from gumama (second-hand clothes imported from the Arab world) for sale due to increased demand in Madina. However, Shareefa had to stop using the gumama materials for her niqabs because some customers were afraid that these second-hand materials could contain the virus. She therefore resorted to using brand new satin materials from the Madina market.

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Since most women in the Zongo are employed in the informal sector, where they earn very little, the niqab turned out to be a more affordable solution for them than disposable face masks. Some Muslim women who were previously not using the niqab explained that due to the outbreak of COVID-19 they now own more than one niqab, which they are able to wash after use. Similarly, during a focus group discussion in a mosque, one woman remarked that her Christian neighbours commend Muslims for using the niqab: “They said our dressing will prevent us from being infected with the disease since it looks just like face masks.” Another respondent from a focus group discussion with members of a tabligh jamat women’s group in Madina explained that the pandemic brings a great relief to the niqab users because “previously some people did not even like to sit by us in the trotro (public transport). At the Madina market a woman described me as a dangerous person just because of my niqab, saying that she does not sell her things to people like us. But thank God for corona, we all look the same now.”

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According to the Muslim women who used the niqab prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, they never attempted to use face masks during the pandemic. This is so because they saw the niqab as offering similar protection to a face mask without the downsides of the latter. These women explained that the design of the face veil does not subject it to a frequent touching with one’s hands like face masks and does not lead to pain on the ears. They also referred to videos circulating on social media about a man who had difficulty breathing in a face mask and eventually fainted. One informant said she challenged a nurse in one of the public hospitals in Accra who told her that the niqab cannot be substituted for a face mask: “I told the nurse that niqab is even better than a face mask and she allowed me in.” According to this informant, the niqab shields the nose and mouth just like the face mask, while making breathing easier than in a face mask.

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In a multi-religious and multi-ethnic community such as Madina Zongo, where Muslims and Christians live together and often share the same compound, markets, and houses, I noticed different forms of cross-religious imitation and appropriation among Christian and Muslim women. For instance, it is not unusual to see some Christian women donning the hijab and wearing dresses perceived as Muslims’ attires. According to these Christian women, being identified as Muslims gives them a sense of belonging to the Zongo community. It is, therefore, not surprising that in the wake of the Corona pandemic, some Christian women have chosen to wear the niqab even though they never used it before. Sister Doreen, a member of the Charismatic Evangelical Ministry in the North Legon (a neighborhood in Madina), who operates a mobile money shop and shares a house with Muslims in the Zongo, explained that she was attracted to the niqab as a result of COVID-19. According to her, she had difficulty breathing every time she wore a face mask and, therefore, found the niqab more convenient. She added: “I sometimes dress my three-year-old girl in the hijab. My Christian friends have asked if I wanted to be a Muslim, but I told them I just admire their dressing.” Sister Doreen also mentioned that when she decided to wear the niqab, her Christian friends asked her if she married a Muslim man. Other people asked her whether she has tuba, i.e., converted to the Islamic faith. In contrast, Muslims often expressed their approval when she used the niqab by saying that she looks more beautiful in it.

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Daavi³⁸, a member of the Global Evangelical Church in North Legon³⁹ who has lived in the Zongo for twenty-seven years, never attempted to use the hijab even though her daughters (six and fourteen years old) occasionally wear it because of their Muslim friends. She explained that, even though they look beautiful in it, their father disapproves of it. She added that the children still need a more profound understanding of the Christian faith; otherwise, they could abandon their faith and accept Islam if allowed to continue with their hijab practice. Daavi admitted that even though she does not use the hijab, her dress styles have also been influenced by Muslim women’s fashion in the Zongo; usually she would prefer ankle-length dresses over knee-length dresses, which most Christians in the Zongo wear. In her words, “anytime I travel to my hometown in the Volta region my sisters say that because I live in the Zongo I dress like a Zongo woman.” This implies that there is a kind of a mixing of dress styles among Muslim and Christian women in Madina who encounter each other on an everyday basis. Even though Daavi never used the niqab before the pandemic, she thought of it as the best alternative to a face mask. According to her,

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In a tropical climate of Ghana, wearing face masks is very uncomfortable. As a market woman who does not have the luxury of working in an air-conditioned office, I am exposed to the heat of the sun daily. Keeping the face mask on for a long time attracts a lot of heat around my mouth and nose area and prevents me from breathing in and out properly. This is why my face mask has most often been on my chin.

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For Daavi, the niqab is the best substitute for the face mask because it has an opening at the base which allows the circulation of air around the mouth and nose area. However, Daavi also emphasizes the limits of appropriating the niqab. She was quick to add that the idea of female Christians adopting the niqab should not be overly encouraged since it may lead to tensions between Muslims and Christians in the community. For example, the niqab is often used with a hijab, but in the case of sister Doreen she donned the niqab without a hijab. Daavi states, “I am afraid that if this practice becomes widespread, this may generate tensions between Muslims and Christians in the Zongo, since some Muslims may describe this appropriation as a misrepresentation of their religion.”

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Another respondent, Ewura Adwoa, a member of the Victory Bible Church, a branch of the Methodist Church in Madina, mentioned that she sometimes uses the hijab but never had a personal experience with the niqab. However, she sees the use of both religious apparels as orthodox Islamic practices, and as a Methodist she admires and approves religious orthodox practices. For her, the presence of hijab and niqab-wearing women in the Zongo evokes ideas about religious piety similar to the habits of Catholic nuns. After seeing pictures of fashionable niqab-like face masks on social media, she is of the view that if the niqab is designed with colorful African fabrics, most non-Muslim women would be glad to wear it.

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However, even the traditional black niqab has become attractive to some Christian women. As one fashion designer in Madina Zongo told me, two of her Christian customers requested a niqab when she sewed funeral clothes for them. She explained that the black color of the niqab fits the Ghanaian traditional mourning dress and that the niqab offers ‘convenience’ when compared to the face mask. These women ordered their niqab specifically for the funeral as they thought that it was important to take extra safety measures, even though the government had restricted the number of attendants to funeral grounds.

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As the above examples show, wearing the hijab or niqab is a practice that reflects and responds to changing religious and social circumstances. Formally a symbol of Islamic conservatism and radicalism, during the COVID-19 pandemic these veils have assumed new meanings in Madina Zongo. They are no longer restricted to conservative Muslim women, or Muslim women alone, but are also worn by Christian women.

Conclusion

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In this article, I have discussed the religious and social worlds of the hijab and niqab as well as their role in fighting the coronavirus pandemic in Madina Zongo. Inspired by Fair (2013), I highlighted the notion of veiling as an unstable religious material, the meaning of which continuously changes in different settings. The hijab and niqab in Madina have crossed a threshold from being seen as contentious pieces of garments to more acceptable ones, from devotional materials to sartorial ones, and from materials restricted to conservative Muslim women to protective pieces of clothing worn by women of different religious backgrounds, including Christians.

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In employing the hijab and niqab as a substitute for the face mask, the meaning of veiling is expanded. It is no longer simply a symbol of piety or Islamic fundamentalism but also a protective device, just like a face mask, that could be used by all women. This makes women wearing veils multi-interpretable, and less ‘suspicious’ as they would have been seen prior to the pandemic. This article reveals that in Madina Zongo, the additional value attributed to the hijab and niqab has directly or indirectly affected the relationship between and among women of diverse religious groups. The entanglement of these veils and face masks has produced intra- and interreligious encounters among Muslim and Christian women in the Zongo. Some Muslims appreciate the adoption of hijab or niqab by the ‘other’ as an approval of their religious practices and as an action that promotes healthy relationships in a pluralistic community. Others, however, interpret this encounter as having the propensity to strain relationships in the event of ‘inappropriate appropriation.’

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In the Zongo scape, beautifying the face is a very important practice of most women; the lips, cheeks, nose, and eyes are accentuated to fit into Zongo beauty standards especially during social gatherings such as weddings. In contrast, the niqab covers most parts of the face, leaving only the eyes visible. However, in addition to its original religious meaning, and on top of its protective features that became so essential during the pandemic, niqab can possibly become a part of Zongo’s dressing style that attracts women of different religious convictions. It is, therefore, important to study further whether this expanding meaning of the niqab will hold once the pandemic is over.