Origins of Hijab

``by the grace of Allah, I now have the courage to wear the hijab. I don`t care what others may think about me. It`s my choice and I`m going to wear it.`` ............. this is what i call ``in your face islam``.......... next thing you know she will be demanding the right to blow herself up to please al-lah ............detroit is not safe any more ..........

I think there is something wrong with a society where a woman has to wear a hijab to feel ``liberated``, compare the rude stares and eve teasing incidents in western countries compared to islamic countries.

I have to apologise for the numerous postings of my response. It`s not my doing; somehow the computer went berserk. Seeing so many of them, embarrases me.

Let me request the editor to delete the superfluous repitition of my response. Thanks.

Mohammad Gill

Dear Inter-actors:

Some of you have taken me quite wrong. I`m quite open-minded; I`m a freethinker. My daughter does not wear a hijab; it`s her own choice. If one day she decided to wear it; it will still be her choice. Let me tell you a real story; I have probably mentioned it some place else also.

A Yemeni young lady is a supervisor in a bank in Detroit. Whenever I went to the bank, I saw her modestly dressed in western clothes. At first, I thought she was an Indian lady (I found later that she has Indian roots). Later on, I came to know her better because she helped me in getting a mortgage loan from the bank. She told me her parents or grand parents were Indian who had gone over to Yemen and settled there. She is a very nice, refined and enlightened lady (she has an MBA).

After a month or so, when I went to the bank again, I saw her wearing a hijab. I casually mentioned about it and then she opened up. She said, ``by the grace of Allah, I now have the courage to wear the hijab. I don`t care what others may think about me. It`s my choice and I`m going to wear it.``

What right do I have (or others have, for that matter) to impose my will on her and dissuade her from wearing the hijab? I believe she should have the right to decide for herself. Why are the people so hooked up on a piece of cloth which some women choose to wear. If they choose not to wear it, well and good. If some girls choose to wear miniskirts, it`s their choice and the society allows it. And wearing a miniskirt is no sign of refinement either; it`s just a dress.

Incidentally, the article was written to provide a historical perspective as to how the hijab was introduced in the Muslim culture. The focus of the article was not to support or condemn it. I believe some of the inter-actors are male chauvinists; they are deciding for the women what to wear and what not to wear. If a woman wants to wear a hijab, it`s not my place to criticise her.

Best regards and take a deep breath, let it go real slow,

Mohammad Gill

Regarding the last para - why is it that only muslim women who feel the need to assert their identity? What about muslim men? Why a symbol that connotes female subservience/subjugation when women as such are discriminated against? Isn`t it peculiar that in the face of xenophobia they want to (according to the author) separate themselves even more? Is the size of the veil proportionate to the assertiveness? I wonder if the egyptian graduate students with their fully veiled wives in tow are expressing their muslim identity through their wives?
I grant that there may indeed be women who have examined the issue and wear the veil as a way of asserting themselves. If these women are otherwise integrated then they may end up teaching the larger society that veil is not something to be feared, reviled or looked down on. However, it seems to me, that a large number of veiled women do it as a matter of habit (hehe). It`s a sign of female oppression and being proud of it. (For what it`s worth, I`d rank high-heels almost up their with the hijab - worn to satisfy women or to make up for lack of self esteem.)

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For an agnostic, it seemed that Quran used to be the best tool for the last prophet to sort out pretty much anything that was going on in his life; from his harem to not having a male offspring (ref: Surah-e-Kausar).

gill sahib,

...... the faithful can always come up with good reasons to do or not do something .......... you can always find all kinds of silly reasons to justify ridiculous and cruel practices ............. what are you going to justify next? ... slavery?.... concubines? .... wife beating?..........

Urstruly,

Orthodox Christian women in Europe and various parts of the world cover their heads because in one of the Pauline epistles, i believe it is 1 Corinthians, but perhaps in another one as well, Paul exhorts men to pray with their heads uncovered, but women with their heads covered, and for women to keep themselves covered. i remember during Bible study one evening, how one of the Orthodox priests explained that the `tradition` of covering heads came more out of the culture at the time.

didn`t know if you actually wanted an answer, but thought i`d offer one response anyways. :)

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Gill Sahib

Great read. Just a few days ago I read Naguib Mahfuz`s book, `Palace Walk` the first of the Cairo Trilogy and was moved by the wonderful depiction of the life of women in Islam. The hijab or purdah a central prop to the stage of male and female dynamics in the Islamic society. It was proof of a woman`s purity and muslim identity. I agree with what you say in your article. Here are three reasons women who wear Hijab have given to me at various times:
1. A symbol new immigrant women wear to reassure her husband that she is subordinate, will not assert her superiority in anyway, or rock the family boat.
2. Pride about one`s Muslim roots.
3. An obvious signal to the world that she is not interested in any advances. Great idea by the way...(In Canada, I met the heroine of the movie we were both acting in, who was as can be imagined a very beautiful and alluring woman. Outside the set, she wore a hijab. She told me she does it so that she always has a reminder to be guarded against temptation such as drink, drugs and men).

Quite an accurate account of the genesis of Hijab. Sometimes I wonder why Orthodox Christian Women in Europe also cover their heads.