On The Hijab Controversy

By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam 17 February 2022 Hijab Is Not Just Religious Clothing for a Muslim Female but Also a Standard of Female Modesty Main Points: 1. Hijab is observed not by only Muslim women but also by Christian nuns, several Hindu women etc. 2. The veil was also worn by the upper-class women in Europe. 3. In the not-too-distant past, the lower-class women were not allowed to cover up their breasts and were fined or severely punished if they tried to do so. ----- Representative Photo: from the files ------ Hijab is not just religious clothing for a Muslim female but also a standard of female modesty which is observed not by only Muslim women but also by Christian nuns, several Hindu women etc. In the past, the veil was also worn by the upper-class women in Europe. While public decency and order may require what may necessarily be covered, it is obscene to require what must be exposed by the female if her sense of modesty requires it to be covered up. In the not-too-distant past, the lower-class women were not allowed to cover up their breasts and were fined or severely punished if they tried to do so. There are women who resent the fact that the men can expose their upper bodies while they are forced to cover up their breasts in public places. Going by today's standards of acceptable behaviour, it would be outrageous to demand that the women also not cover their breasts in swimming pools etc. although many women may favour such a rule. This is because there are still many who don't. There may come a time when the women who have inhibitions about exposing their breasts are few when such a rule may also be imposed. In principle, no rule or law should be held valid that requires a woman to expose any part of her body that her sense of modesty requires covering up. It is not for others to decide what she should expose while rules of public order and decency may dictate what a person should necessarily cover up. When the Quran says “let there be no compulsion in religion” (Verse 2:256), it can be argued that nothing in Islam is essential as there is no compulsion in anything! However, what this means is that no one shall compel another in matters of religion or everyone is free to follow their religion according to their understanding of it. Nothing can be forced by anyone on another. The test of essentiality is therefore flawed. Every person has the right to follow religion according to their understanding of it as long as doing so does not harm others. Representative Photo ------ The arguments being reported are disappointing such as the logical fallacy of false equivalence when comparing wearing of hijab with carrying of arms! Arif Mohammed Khan’s argument that only what has come to be known as the five pillars of Islam are essential to Islam displays his ignorance of Islam. The five pillars come from theology and not from the Quran. The Quran is a complete code of moral living covering every facet of life and all the codes are essential for the Muttaqi or the conscientious Muslim for achieving success in this life and the Hereafter. The Hijab (not the Burqa), as practiced by Muslim women all over the world through the ages, conforms to the explicit code for female modesty in verse 24:31, as commonly understood. It matters little that those with their own agendas may like to interpret the verse differently. They are free to follow their own understanding in their own life. I heard a seventy-year-old gentleman argue in a TV debate that in his time, the Muslim female students did not wear hijab in his class. He didn’t say which college he attended. That was a time when female participation in college education was very low and that of Muslim women even lower. Moreover, Muslim women preferred going to only girl/women school/colleges and rarely to a co-ed school/college. It is understandable that those who didn’t mind going to a co-ed college or preferred doing so didn’t practice purdah in the past. In the past decade, the participation of Muslim women in higher education has doubled and this wouldn’t have been possible if they hadn’t shed the inhibition of attending co-ed schools/colleges. It is the freedom to wear a hijab that has drawn many of these girls out of their homes, and if this is disallowed, it would be a retrogressive step and force many of them back into their homes. This will do more harm than good to the cause of progress and modernity. Let the women freely choose to wear what they are comfortable with. Representative Photo: From the Files ------ While some women may be forced to wear hijab because of prevailing patriarchal attitudes, this is not true in every case. Many women have chosen to wear hijab because it gives them the freedom to move about freely without which they would be inhibited and stay indoors. In my own family, my mother-in-law never wore a hijab and my wife didn’t until she was 25. I was taken by surprise when she suddenly started wearing Burqa. This was after our children started going to school and she had to step out of the house very often. I persuaded her to give up the Burqa as that made me uncomfortable but then she adopted the hijab and has stuck with it. I know of many women who didn’t wear hijab until they took up a job or when their going out often became necessary. The Hijab gives such women freedom and is liberating. I dare say, that if the hijab had not become as closely identified as religious clothing of Muslim women, many non-Muslim women may also have adopted it and found it equally liberating. In my opinion, the courts should have ordered restoration of the status quo ante rather than forbidding hijab until further orders which amount to keeping the hijab wearing girls out of the schools/colleges. This is unfortunate as many girls have had to miss writing their exams. I hope good sense prevails and we stop dictating to the women what they should expose. ----- A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years studying Quran in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/religious-clothing-hijab-controversy-female-modesty/d/126391 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism