Are Muslim women the only ones who wear "Hijab"?

Question

I still see some nuns who cover their heads.

Answer 1

Not so many. But they choose to be part of an archaic tradition as well. Most nuns realize there is no need for it anymore. And none of them cover their faces.

Answer 2

I dont understand what you tring to say and what answer you want... what do you mean nuns still cover their heads...a woman whether a nun or a muslim who covers her body parts including her hair does it to protect herself from getting hurt.. the reason for that is becoz woman are pretty and some guys find that beauty irresistable..do you see how many girls get raped everyday..why is that? Its mainly becoz of the way they dress, and the places they go to...

the point of hijab is very useful, a woman can save her self and the man from commiting a crime.....

Answer 3

Nuns do. But it's mostly Muslim women who wear hijab.

Answer 4

True, women of other religions cover their heads, but I don't believe they would call the item a hijab. I believe only Muslims would call it a hijab.

Answer 5

foriegn women visiting have to wear them too. Nuns don't cover the face i don't think.

Answer 6

ive seen nuns

Answer 7

yes nuns also cover their hair and body, they are more restrict than muslims when covering their body.
http://www.archstl.org/prayer/images/belleville_poor_clares.jpg

Answer 8

There are Christian and Jewish women who wear them too, just not as regularly. It's a sign of humility and in many funerals women of all faiths wear it as a sign of deference and humility.

Answer 9

"My body is my own business."

MULTICULTURAL VOICES
A Canadian-born Muslim woman has taken to wearing the traditional hijab scarf. It tends to make people see her as either a terrorist or a symbol of oppressed womanhood, but she finds the experience liberating.

I often wonder whether people see me as a radical, fundamentalist Muslim terrorist packing an AK-47 assault rifle inside my jean jacket. Or may be they see me as the poster girl for oppressed womanhood everywhere. I'm not sure which it is.

I get the whole gamut of strange looks, stares, and covert glances. You see, I wear the hijab, a scarf that covers my head, neck, and throat. I do this because I am a Muslim woman who believes her body is her own private concern.

Young Muslim women are reclaiming the hijab, reinterpreting it in light of its original purpose -- to give back to women ultimate control of their own bodies.

The Qur'an teaches us that men and women are equal, that individuals should not be judged according to gender, beauty, wealth, or privilege. The only thing that makes one person better than another is her or his character.

Nonetheless, people have a difficult time relating to me. After all, I'm young, Canadian born and raised, university-educated -- why would I do this to myself, they ask.

Strangers speak to me in loud, slow English and often appear to be playing charades. They politely inquire how I like living in Canada and whether or not the cold bothers me. If I'm in the right mood, it can be very amusing.

But, why would I, a woman with all the advantages of a North American upbringing, suddenly, at 21, want to cover myself so that with the hijab and the other clothes I choose to wear, only my face and hands show?

Because it gives me freedom.

WOMEN are taught from early childhood that their worth is proportional to their attractiveness. We feel compelled to pursue abstract notions of beauty, half realizing that such a pursuit is futile.

When women reject this form of oppression, they face ridicule and contempt. Whether it's women who refuse to wear makeup or to shave their legs, or to expose their bodies, society, both men and women, have trouble dealing with them.

In the Western world, the hijab has come to symbolize either forced silence or radical, unconscionable militancy. Actually, it's neither. It is simply a woman's assertion that judgment of her physical person is to play no role whatsoever in social interaction.

Wearing the hijab has given me freedom from constant attention to my physical self. Because my appearance is not subjected to public scrutiny, my beauty, or perhaps lack of it, has been removed from the realm of what can legitimately be discussed.

No one knows whether my hair looks as if I just stepped out of a salon, whether or not I can pinch an inch, or even if I have unsightly stretch marks. And because no one knows, no one cares.

Feeling that one has to meet the impossible male standards of beauty is tiring and often humiliating. I should know, I spent my entire teen-age years trying to do it. It was a borderline bulimic and spent a lot of money I didn't have on potions and lotions in hopes of becoming the next Cindy Crawford.

The definition of beauty is ever-changing; waifish is good, waifish is bad, athletic is good -- sorry, athletic is bad. Narrow hips? Great. Narrow hips? Too bad.

Women are not going to achieve equality with the right to bear their breasts in public, as some people would like to have you believe. That would only make us party to our own objectification. True equality will be had only when women don't need to display themselves to get attention and won't need to defend their decision to keep their bodies to themselves.



Naheed Mustafa graduated from the University of Toronto in 1992 with an honours degree in political and history. She is currently studying journalism at Ryerson Polytechnic University