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The Hijab Controversy by Abdul H. Manraj
About 10 years ago, I wrote an article dealing with the
head-covering / hijab,
which generated much feedback – both verbally and
written
– at that time and in the intervening years. Some of the comments on the
article were positive but there was also a lot of virulent criticism. As
one would expect from much of the intellectually stagnant Muslim world,
when revisiting or questioning rulings and traditions that have been
handed down to us with accretions over the centuries, the approach is not
to analyze the logic and evidence presented, but to attack the author /
messenger. Moreover, my qualifications were questioned, the insinuation
being that only “scholars” are eligible to indulge in such analyses, and
the rest of the Muslim world is obliged to follow their edicts /
fatawa like a blindly adherent flock.
Admittedly I’m a layman and not an Islamic scholar by any stretch of the
imagination, but I submit that common sense and intellect are not
exclusive to scholars alone. In fact, I have experienced numerous
situations where so called “Muslim scholars” display neither trait, which
of course has a profound effect on the Muslim laity.
My position (and the overlooked premise of the decade old article) has
been – and still is – that the hijab is an icon of Muslim identity
and is not a requirement, however, women who choose to wear the
head-covering should be allowed to do so. In its
Qur'anic use, hijab actually refers to a wall or curtain and
applied specifically to the Prophet Muhammad’s wives, but over the
centuries, the interpretation became synonymous with head-covering. Muslim
organizations and the majority of Muslim men and women portray the
hijab as a religiously mandated item of clothing, which is also the
position of orthodox Jews and Catholic nuns. The term “religiously
mandated” is somewhat of an oxymoron, as the Qur’an clearly states that
“there shall be no coercion in religion” (Q2:256), so on the one hand,
Muslims are fond of quoting this verse to prove that Islam advocates
freedom of choice, and in the same breath these Muslims dichotomously
claim that the hijab is
mandated. In some cases, those who choose to wear the hijab make
some of their Muslim sisters feel religiously inferior for not abiding by
the same dress code, so in essence outward appearance determines one’s
level of piety. While certain things would certainly seem ordered, every
single order has circumstances that might temper it, and anything that is
controversial should ipso facto
not be seen as "religiously mandated," more so since the hijab
certainly does not fit the category of ordered / mandated.
When quoting the Qur'an to make a case for the hijab, Muslims
usually cite 24:31 and 33:59, which tells the believing women "to draw
their head-coverings over their bosoms and not reveal their charms..."
(first instance), and then "to draw over
themselves some of their outer garments when in public so that they are
recognized as decent women and not annoyed..." (second
instance). It is paradoxical to presume that prior to these
revelations, women were covering their hair to
protect themselves from prying eyes because the hair was an "enticing
charm", but leaving their bosoms partially exposed as an act of modesty.
This style of dress was obviously in vogue at the time or the instruction
to cover the bosom would be pointless. It is preposterous to argue that a
woman's exposed head of hair is a more flirtatious act than a partially
exposed bosom (unless the medieval Arabs were more turned on by a head of
hair instead of cleavage), therefore the Qur'anic
instructions are clearly about modesty and not covering the hair per se.
Recently, there was an example of how ludicrous arguments are sometimes
presented in the name of religion. A Muslim woman sued the Orange County
Sheriff’s Department for not being allowed to wear the hijab while
in prison (for more information, see “Muslim
sues over right to wear head scarf”
by H.G. Reza, September 5, 2007 edition of the
The approach that Muslims take to the Qur’an and
ahadith (the Prophet Muhammad’s reported sayings and actions)
will determine their position on various decrees and cultural norms. Some
believe that the Qur’an and ahadith are
immutable regardless of the time space factor. Others (myself included)
believe that all statutes and traditions have to be understood in context,
and regulations have to be revised as conditions change. For example, I
don’t believe that any rational person would posit that slavery should
still be institutionalized today, since the Qur’an acknowledges the
practice but did not specifically abolish it. Furthermore, the majority of
Muslims unquestioningly accept thousands of
ahadith as infallible, even though many of these narrations are
at odds with the Qur’an’s universal message. Also conveniently ignored is
the fact that these stories were passed down through several generations
over hundreds of years. At the time that these
ahadith were collected, hundreds of thousands were reportedly
discarded, yet we are supposed to believe that those generations of
Muslims were somehow flawless, and that the
ahadith that remain with us today are impeccable. Documenting
capabilities were not anywhere close to the level we have today, yet in a
time when writing was done on leather skins, parchments, etc., and travel
took weeks, months, or years on foot, horseback, and camel, we are
supposed to believe that the hadith collectors either had a
"tractor trailer" of documents that they travelled with, or superhuman
memory. Bukhari supposedly collected roughly
600,000 traditions before finally settling on about 7,000. If all of these
ahadith were memorized instead of
written, then this uncanny ability to store such massive amounts of data
in memory and recall thousands of ahadith
without error has not been seen before or since that period. When people
lose the ability to think, question, and continuously progress, then the
result is the kind of decadence that is currently manifest in much of the
Muslim world.
The fact is that women played a prominent role in Muslim society during
the Prophet’s time and in a couple of centuries following his demise.
Women were jurists and even educated men, but all this changed (to a large
extent) following the proliferation of the
ahadith, which relegated
women to second class citizens and an almost slave-like status. The
ahadith
are perceived as pretty much reliable (especially
Bukhari and Muslim), so we are supposed to accept (without
question) reports like the ones below that are attributed to the Prophet,
which claim that the majority of women are mentally deficient, ungrateful,
and destined for hell.
Narrated Abu Sa’id Al−Khudri:
Once Allah's Apostle went out to the Musalla
(to offer the prayer) of 'Id−al−Adha or Al−Fitr.
Then he passed by the women and said, "O women! Give alms, as I have seen
that the majority of the dwellers of hellfire were you (women)." They
asked, "Why is it so, O Allah's Apostle?" He replied, "You curse
frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone
more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible
man could be led astray by some of you." The women asked, "O Allah's
Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?" He said, "Is
not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?" They
replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her
intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during
her menses?" The women replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the
deficiency in her religion." (Bukhari 1.301)
“...I also saw the hellfire and I had never seen such a horrible sight. I
saw that most of the inhabitants were women." The people asked, "O Allah's
Apostle! Why is it so?" The Prophet replied, "Because of their
ungratefulness." It was asked whether they are ungrateful to Allah. The
Prophet said, "They are ungrateful to their companions of life (husbands)
and ungrateful to good deeds. If you are benevolent to one of them
throughout the life and if she sees anything (undesirable) in you, she
will say, 'I have never had any good from you.” (Bukhari
2.161)
Sayings like the above (there are many others in the various
hadith collections) are used to
remind Muslims that women have a propensity towards evil, and they should
essentially not be heard or seen in public. With such patriarchal
attitudes dominating Islam for centuries, it is no surprise that many
Muslim women have come to believe that they are responsible for some of
society’s ills, analogous to an abused woman blaming herself for her
oppressor’s cruelty. There is a strong possibility that this notion of the
woman being the temptation towards evil infiltrated Muslim beliefs by way
of some of the early Jewish and Christian converts to Islam, as there is
nothing in the Qur’an that denigrates women to a fraction of the level
that the
ahadith do. The practice of veiling initially started among the
Syrian and Iranian elite, and then became a norm among the Jews and Arabs.
There is a lot of well-researched material available on the Internet that
reinforces my belief that the hijab is not mandated by the Qur’an
or authentic ahadith, but is rather a
result of Judeo-Christian influence (for example, see
To Cover or Not to Cover: That is the Question - Jewish Hair Laws
Through the Ages by Dr. Leila Leah Bronner,
Head
Covering by Ellen Kavanaugh, and
Head covering -
Women: will you cover your head?). Also below are a few Biblical
references.
For she had said unto the servant, What man is
this that walketh in the field to meet us? And
the servant had said, It is my master:
therefore she took a vail, and covered
herself. (Genesis 24:65)
And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a
vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open
place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she
saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not
given unto him to wife. When
And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the
woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the
jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water
that causeth the curse. (Numbers 5:18)
But every woman that prayeth or
prophesieth with her head uncovered
dishonoureth her head: for that is even all
one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also
be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her
be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he
is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
(Corinthians 11:5-7)
The Qur’an contains very little in the way of legislation and is actually
quite vague about men’s or women’s attire, instead primarily focusing on
ethics and spirituality. On the other hand, the
ahadith are replete with
minutiae. In fact, many of the
ahadith present such
conflicting reports that they actually create confusion. There are several
ahadith
that advocate that women should veil themselves, and there are also
reports that Muslim slave-women are exempt from covering their hair,
presumably because it was somewhat restrictive for them in getting their
work done. Muslims certainly cannot argue that Muslim slave-women were
less pious than free women simply because of their status in society, or
that slave-women were not as sexually attractive as free women. While the
focus is usually on the
ahadith that promulgate
veiling, the following
ahadith about hair
extensions and wigs are seldom mentioned.
Narrated ‘Abdullah (bin Mus'ud): Allah's
Apostle has cursed the lady who uses false hair. (Bukhari
6.409)
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "Allah
has cursed the lady who artificially lengthens (her or someone else's)
hair and the one who gets her hair lengthened and the one who tattoos
(herself or someone else) and the one who gets herself tattooed." (Bukhari
7.816)
Narrated ‘Aisha: An Ansari woman gave her daughter in marriage and the
hair of the latter started falling out. The Ansari women came to the
Prophet and mentioned that to him and said, "Her (my daughter's) husband
suggested that I should let her wear false hair." The Prophet said, "No,
(don't do that) for Allah sends His curses upon such ladies who lengthen
their hair artificially." (Bukhari 7.133)
Narrated Asma: (the daughter of Abu'
Bakr) A woman came to Allah's Apostle and
said, "I married my daughter to someone, but she became sick and all her
hair fell out, and (because of that) her husband does not like her. May I
let her use false hair?" On that the Prophet cursed such a lady as
artificially lengthening (her or someone else's) hair or got her hair
lengthened artificially. (Bukhari 7.818)
We have to assume that whether or not Muslim women wore hair extensions in
early Muslim society could not be determined when they were in public,
since they would (presumably) be wearing the head-covering. It would
appear then that the Prophet took a keen interest in how women appeared in
the privacy of their homes with their husbands and immediate family
members. In fact, the Prophet who was sent as a “mercy to mankind”
allegedly preferred to see a Muslim woman get divorced rather than wear a
wig to save her marriage, as the above
hadith claims. One would
also expect that there would have been some rulings for handsome or
muscular looking men given women’s proclivity towards sinfulness, but
there are none, or if there are, they are never cited. The burden is
solely on women to prevent societal promiscuity.
The arguments for the hijab
have now been spun to illogically claim that the head-covering actually
empowers women. The hijab controversy has reached a level of comic
proportions. Now there are advertisements about fashionable hijabs
so that women can appear more "beautiful" with their covered heads,
defeating its "alleged" purpose of modesty and not attracting attention to
oneself. I have seen young Muslim women in
shorts and with their stomachs exposed but with their heads covered. If
the focus on the hijab is hiding the woman's hair from lustful eyes
and keeping men's predatory urges in check, some women today obviously do
not feel the same way about exposed flesh. Or is the idea that "exposed
flesh" is not as tempting as exposed hair? This traditional style of dress
also has health implications, (see
Middle Eastern women may have vitamin D deficiency
by David Douglas,
and
Vitamin D “Inadequacy” Endangers Lives of Middle East Women).
Regardless of any evidence or rationale presented, Muslim traditionalists
would have us believe that God (in His infinite wisdom) made the woman's
hair part of her overall beauty (aura) to be viewed only by her
husband and immediate family. We can infer from this then that a woman's
face (regardless of its beauty or lack thereof) will not attract any
unwanted attention, and only the exposed hair will provide a "turn on".
Besides the factors already mentioned above, people's interpretation of religious obligations is also heavily influenced by their environment, level of education / intellect, and cultural upbringing, much more so than the actual wording of any doctrine. Whether or not Muslims choose to acknowledge it, there are many creedal beliefs and practices that were passed down to us as a result of Judeo-Christian influence, sectarian and political affiliations, various cultural norms, and outright fabrications, yet Muslims have adopted and refined these beliefs and practices without question throughout the millennia. Besides the hijab, other tenets include (but are not limited to) stoning to death, the second coming of Jesus, punishment in the grave, etc., so I encourage Muslims to do more research on their own. Established beliefs and practices are difficult to discard, so my objective is not to discredit Muslims who choose to wear the hijab as an icon of religion, identification, modesty, liberation, or whatever. Rather, this article is meant to provide Muslims with some additional food for thought and show the folly of the “religiously mandated” argument. Faith is a personal relationship between an individual and God. Claiming that something is a religious requirement is actually speaking for God, so one has to be careful that the evidence is incontrovertible when issuing such decrees. Furthermore, advocating that anything is compulsory in Islam (or any religion for that matter) perpetuates the notion of theocratic authoritarianism, rigidity, and intolerance, which stifles debate and denies people freedom of choice and personal accountability to God. And Allah knows best.
Posted December 18, 2011
http://forpeoplewhothink.org/Topics/Hijab-Controversy.html
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