Hijab: Suppression or Liberation?

Question

Why do Muslim women have to cover their heads?" This question is one which is asked by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. For many women it is the truest test of being a Muslim.
The answer to the question is very simple - Muslim women observe hijab (covering the head and the body) because Allah has told them to do so.

Allah (SWT) said, "O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) all over their bodies. That is better in order that they may be known (as free respectable women) and not annoyed..." (Holy Qur'an, 33:59)

Other secondary reasons include the requirement for modesty in both men and women. Both will then be evaluated for intelligence and skills instead of looks and sexuality. A Muslim woman who covers her head is making a statement about her identity. Anyone who sees her will know that she is a Muslim and has a good moral character.
The Muslim woman who covers is filled with dignity and self esteem; she is pleased to be identified as a Muslim woman: as a chaste, modest, pure woman. She does not want her sexuality to enter into interactions with men in the smallest degree.

A Muslim school girl is quoted as saying, "We want to stop men from treating us like sex objects, as they have always done. We want them to ignore our appearance and to be attentive to our personalities and minds. We want them to take us seriously and treat us as equals and not just chase us around for our bodies and physical looks."

Answer 1

Most men are, by nature, not looking at the intellectual arguments when dealing with women in tight, skimpy garments and showing cleavage. Modest clothes are better for both men and women if they want to deal with each other on an intellectual level rather than pieces of "meat".

This whole debate is contrived and it is obviously better in public that women dress modestly. The modern fashions are partly responsible for the very high divorce rates and teenage pregnancies and single mothers.

The argument that you should not hide a diamond is only valid in private and among people you trust. How many women would walk publicly in town with expensive diamonds and gold jewlry?

If women want to be treated with respect (liberated from lust?), then modesty is required.

Answer 2

Hijab is a cultural thing. English culture is western culture.
If this muslim schoolgirl has an issue with men treating her as a sex object then maybe she should be in an all girls school and study her little socks of and become an activist to get rid of top shelf material and cat walk models in flimsy outfits and she should be waving her placard in the high street, in front of the shops that sell padded bras for 8 year olds.
She could adress her head teacher and tell them she got issues with school girls wearing regulation uniform that almost shows their crack!
Hijab is culture. Within a cultural context yes. This muslim school girl's parents have chosen to live in a western country and if the girl doesn't like the customs maybe she would be better off returning to her roots at least for her education.
There is nothing wrong with head dress. Just not Hijab. It shows a deep disrespect for the adopted country. Suppression or liberation has nothing to do with it in a non-muslim country. It becomes a statement. And to reduce a cultural tradition to statements is loosing the root of your culture. And religion and culture is NOT the same in my book.

Answer 3

In my book it`s you Muslim women who loose out wearing this silly garb. Do you think that "your" men don`t ogle us western women? They do, and married to one of you or not they have liaisons with us because they get fed up with seeing you in the same unbecoming thing day after day. I work with a young woman who has 2 kids by a Muslim Pakistani bloke, cos he had an arranged marriage and then realised he didn`t fancy his wife. That knocks Ajmal`s preachings for six. You can dress moderately without going to this extreme.I do, and I have a good moral character with no religion. It`s not religion and dress that makes you a good moral person. How can you be making a statement about your identity in one of these things when you all look the bloody same?!!

Answer 4

In most instance i think they do it out of choice and a desire to fulfill their ideals. In many parts of the world i think there is strong pressure to wear the hijab.
From the quote of the Qur'an that you have given - can that not be understood to say that women should cover up their bodies but not nessecarily heads (i don't speak Arabic so don't know the exact translation)?
I can also draw parallels to wearing dark sun-glasses in that somehow it makes you feel protected and apart from the rest of the world. However, this is why the US army told their soldiers to remove them when talking to people as the soldiers eyes where not visible and so people couldn't communicate effectively.

I think they should be allowed to wear the hijab but bear in mind that they will be alienating people around them who do not understand Islam.

Answer 5

All that may be true and it is upto the Muslim woman if she wants to wear the veils but they may find they are annoyed even more by doing so now since they wont be able to enter banks, shops, hospitals etc shortly due to security reasons in the UK. Times move on!

Answer 6

If you believe God created you then it is confusing for your religion that you are from birth a sexual being that is attracted to bilateral symmetry, healthy skin, clear eyes, healthy hair, a certain waist to hip ratio, all the ways we determine someone will produce healthy and viable offspring.

You believe God created you, and rational examination proves you will naturally evaluate mates in a way that insures healthy children, yet you reject the way God made you and frustrate his creative prupose by hiding potential mates under a cloak, a practice which disguises the clues to health and illness, successful child-bearing and viable offspring that God programmed you to evaluate in choosing a mate. In doing this you reject the Creator's unmistakable intention.

That your prophet instructed you to do this indicates that your prophet did not understand the creation, let alone have direct revelation from the creator. So whether Hijab is liberation or oppression, it is clearly a doctrine of one man, sincere or false, well-intentioned as he may have been, and not the revealed will of God, who certainly could have designed you to mate based on intellect or moral rectitude if that was His desire. Otherwise you propose that God is too stupid and incompetent to create humanity as he intended. It's far more likely that your prophet was in error and not speaking for god in this regard.

Answer 7

I do not want to criticize your religion. But I hope many of your women choose not choose to wear the hijab. I do not see it as a religious issue so much as a women's issue. I see it as a symbol of female subjugation that is practiced too much by too many followers of Islam.

It is my hope that my Muslim sisters will lead the way in the reform of Islam--and make it a truly great religion again--this is not the way.

Please see "Burqa Girls" from today's blog: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-GgIFACYzfqWx8YwvtspSWVmWzA--?cq=1&p=3463


Please also take a look at this and the other article that is hyperlinked in the body of it on this subject: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-GgIFACYzfqWx8YwvtspSWVmWzA--?cq=1&p=2707

Answer 8

In the west, wearing a hijab insures that women will NOIT be judged on their intelligence or their skills, but on their insistence in forcing people to deal with her religion. It will be expected that she is judgmental and self-righteous. This is not beneficial to either her or to the social structure of the west.

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Answer 9

Tell me, in Islam if a woman is raped, does she have to produce 4 male witnesses or be tried for adultery.

They must have great self esteem.

She doesn't do it out of pride, but fear of repercussions in Islamic court.

Answer 10

I am very happy to wear hijab, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. Nobody has told me to wear it. I'm an unmarried convert to Islam. Beleive it or not, people, I CHOOSE to dress this way. There is nobody forcing me. Why would you want to force me to dress some other way?