What Is Meant
In this context, the pockets are the hidden sites of adornment in a woman’s body, foremost among them the chest, under the armpits, the vulva, and the buttocks. The term here is understood as identifying the parts of the body that are usually concealed by clothing.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Argument move: the pockets are defined here as the hidden sites of adornment in the body.
- Key terms: pockets, hidden adornment, chest, armpits, vulva.
- Degree of centrality: primary.
It offers a technical definition of the sites of the pockets in the context of clothing, linking them to the parts that are usually concealed, as a prelude to a different reading of the veil.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, Toward New Principles for Islamic Jurisprudence
- Women, Family, and Clothing
- The veil as a clothing concept that does not match common traditions
Basis
- Supporting text: «The pockets: the hidden sites of adornment in a woman’s body, foremost among them the chest, under the armpits, the vulva, and the buttocks».
Location of the Basis in the Book
- Book: Toward New Principles for Islamic Jurisprudence.
- Location: in the final section of the book, within the interpretation of the verse of the khimar and covering.
- Type of basis: close evidence.
- Marker that helps verification: on their pockets
- Reading note: this passage is suitable as evidence because it explains the pockets as sites of hidden adornment, which accords with the purport of the atom.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the formulation above is an analytic summary and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted word for word.
Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial Note
The atom opens the door to a particular interpretation of the term clothing.