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[Arabic ḥijāb, curtain, veil, from ḥajaba, to cover.]
The practice of veiling, covering either the entire face and body or only the hair and neck.
Islam - a religion of balance, moderation, and modesty - places a strong emphasis on the maintenance of proper boundaries, whether social or moral. The practice of hijab among Muslim women is grounded in religious doctrine, yet the Qurʾan does not require it. Support for veiling is found in the hadith of Sahih Bukhari: "My Lord agreed with me (Umar) in three things. . . . (2) And as regards the veiling of women, I said 'O Allah's Apostle! I wish you ordered your wives to cover themselves from men because good and bad ones talk to them.' So the verse of the veiling of the women was revealed" (Bukhari, volume 1, book 8, sunnah 395).
Display of the self in public, for men as well as women, is a subject of considerable concern in Islamic teachings and practices. The care, treatment, and presentation of the human body are influenced by Qurʾanic teachings, as well as by hadith, and codified in the shariʿa. In examining Islamic teachings about bodily presentation, the issue of boundaries (hudud, in Arabic) is of primary importance, particularly gender boundaries and spatial boundaries, which usually overlap in daily practice. Islam draws a clear distinction between the public and the private. Men's and women's roles in these domains are complementary, not equal. Since Islam views the family as central to and crucial for the survival of society and the continuation of proper human life, boundaries that specify men's and women's roles, and boundaries that mark off the private realm of familial space from wider public spaces are elaborated and crucial for the preservation of an Islamic social order. Concerns with literal and figurative boundaries are evident in everyday practices, including dress, bodily ornamentation, architecture, and contact between men and women.
The practice of veiling is a visible recognition of the maintenance of proper boundaries. It is a way of keeping proper distance and ensuring respect and moral behavior between men and women in public space. In private, women do not veil, and in public women may well be wearing attractive clothing and elaborate jewelry under their abayas or chadors. The Qurʾan and hadith stipulate that a woman should not display her personal adornments or physical charms to anyone but her husband (Sura 24:31 and Sura 33:59). There are, however, a wide variety of views on how much of a woman's body should be covered from public view. Islam is not an ascetic religion preaching the negation of the flesh. The veils and headscarves worn by observant Muslim women in public are often used to aesthetic effect to accentuate the eyes or the curve of the face, emphasizing, though modestly, a woman's best features. Scarves and veils are often embroidered and edged with subtle lace designs for added aesthetic impact within the bounds of Islamic propriety.
Veiling as a social practice predates Islam. Depending on the wider social and political contexts, hijab's meanings, for Muslims as well as non-Muslims, have changed, sometimes dramatically. In the nineteenth century, upper-class urban women were more likely to veil than were working-class or peasant women. By the 1960s, the reverse was the case. The veil has been a charged political, cultural, and moral issue, as well as a site of misunderstanding and conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims, or even between observant and nonobservant Muslims. Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim country, has witnessed some of the fiercest debates on the meaning of hijab; veiling is perceived as a threat to the secular political order established by Atatürk in the 1920s.
In the early twentieth century, many leading Arab women activists and intellectuals displayed their modernity by removing the veil, as did Huda al-Shaʿrawi upon her return to Egypt from a women's conference in Europe. Yet the veil is also a potent symbol of resistance to the West and its political and economic agenda in the Middle East and North Africa. From the late 1970s until today, many young women throughout the Arab and Islamic world have voluntarily adopted hijab and conservative dress in general in order to make a political as much as a religious statement of identity and ideological commitment. Many women assert that the veil guarantees them freedom, dignity, and greater scope for movement in a world that sexualizes women. According to this argument, the hijab deflects and neutralizes the objectifying male gaze, enabling women to emerge as autonomous subjects in the public realm. In Iran, the hijab became obligatory for all adolescent girls and women shortly after the Islamic revolution (1979). The changing balance of forces between conservatives and reformists in Iran is often read in the degree to which women comply with hijab and how much hair they reveal.
Bibliography
Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.
Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock, and Bezirgan, Basima Qattan, eds. Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977.
Mernissi, Fatima. Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in aModern Muslim Society. New York: John Wiley, 1975.
Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1991.
Moruzzi, Norma. "Women's Space/Cinema Space: Representations of Public and Private in Iranian Films." Middle East Report 212 (Fall 1999): 52 - 55.
Sabbagh, Suha, ed. Arab Women: Between Defiance and Restraint. New York: Olive Branch Press, 1996.
Shaʿrawi, Huda. Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist 1879 - 1924, edited and translated by Margot Badran. New York: Feminist Press, 1987.
Zuhur, Sherifa. Revealing, Reveiling: Islamist Gender Ideology inContemporary Egypt. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.
— LAURIE KING-IRANI
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Hijab or ħijāb (حجاب) is the Arabic term for "cover" (noun), based on the root حجب meaning "to veil, to cover (verb), to screen, to shelter"
In some Arabic-speaking countries and Western countries, the word hijab primarily refers to women's head and body covering, but in Islamic scholarship, hijab is given the wider meaning of modesty, privacy, and morality.[1] The word used in the Qur'an for a headscarf or veil is khimār (خمار).
Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World by Macmillan Reference states about hijab:[2]
The term hijab or veil is not used in the Qur'an to refer to an article of clothing for women or men, rather it refers to a spatial curtain that divides or provides privacy. The Qur'an instructs the male believers (Muslims) to talk to wives of Muhammad behind a hijab. This hijab was the responsibility of the men and not the wives of Muhammad. However, in later Muslim societies this instruction specific to the wives of Muhammad was generalized, leading to the segregation of the Muslim men and women. The modesty in Qur'an concerns both men's and women's gaze, gait, garments, and genitalia. The clothing for women involves khumūr over the necklines and jilbab (cloaks) in public so that they may be identified and not harmed. Guidelines for covering of the entire body except for the hands, the feet, and the face, are found in texts of fiqh and hadith that are developed later.
Despite the same Qur'anic obligations being issued for men and women, rules regarding dress developed so that men were to cover from their navels to their knees, whereas a women were to cover all their bodies except what was essential, that is, the hands and face.
The Qur'an instructs Muslims to dress in a "modest" fashion. The following verses are generally interpreted as applying to all Muslim men and women.
Surah an-Nur ayah 31 states:
And say to the faithful women to lower their gazes, and to guard their private parts, and not to display their ornaments except what is apparent of it, and to draw their scarves (khimars) over their bosoms (jaybs), and not to display their ornaments except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers, or their sons, or their husband's sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their womenfolk, or what their right hands rule, or the followers from the men who do not feel sexual desire, or the small children to whom the nakedness of women is not apparent, and not to strike their feet (on the ground) so as to make known what they hide of their ornaments. And turn in repentance to Allah together, O you the faithful, in order that you are successful
In the following verse, Muslim women are asked to draw their jalābib (when they go out), as a measure to distinguish themselves from others, so that they are not harassed.
Those who harass believing men and believing women unjustifiably shall bear the guilt of slander and a grievous sin. O Prophet! Enjoin your wives, your daughters, and the wives of true believers to draw their cloaks over them [when they go out]. That is more proper, so that they may be distinguished and not be harassed. God is ever forgiving and merciful. If the hypocrites and those who have the ailment [of jealousy] in their hearts and the scandal mongers of Madinah do not desist, We will rouse you against them, and their days in that city will be numbered. Cursed be they; wherever found, they would be seized and put to death.
Following verses give special directives to the wives of Muhammad though some commentators believe that all women should imitate their example.
Wives of the Prophet, you are not like other women. So, if you fear God, do not be too complaisant in your speech, lest the lecherous-hearted should lust after you. Talk with such people in plain and simple words. Abide still in your homes and do not display your finery as women used to do in the days of ignorance. Attend to your prayers, give alms and obey God and His Messenger. O woman of this house, the Almighty wants to cleanse you from the filth [these hypocrites want to besmear you with] and to fully purify you. Communicate what is taught to you of the verses of God and the wisdom revealed by Him [to your visitors]. The Almighty is very discerning and all-knowing.
The hadith (Arabic plural ahādīth) are traditions concerning the practices of the early Muslim community. They were transmitted orally for more than a century before the first collections were written down. The hadith, accepted as canonical by Sunni Muslims, took their final form some three centuries after Muhammad's death.
The Arabic word jilbab is translated as "cloak" in the following passage. Contemporary salafis insist that the jilbab worn today is the same garment mentioned in the Qur'an and the hadith; other translators have chosen to use less specific terms:
http://askmuslims.com/women.html
Traditionally, Muslims have recognized many different forms of clothing as satisfying the demands of hijab. Debate focussed on how much of the male or female body should be covered. Different scholars adopted different interpretations of the original texts. Sunnis recommend that women wear loose clothing that is not form fitting to the body either modest forms of western clothing (long shirts and skirts), or the more traditional jilbab, a high-necked loose robe that covers the arms and legs. A khumūr or shayla, a scarf or cowl that covers all but the face is also worn in many different styles. Most salafi (sunni) scholars encourage covering the face. Many of them say it is mandatory to cover the face. Other scholars oppose face covering, particularly in the west for personal safety where the woman may be a victim of islamophobia. These garments are very different in cut than most of the traditional forms of hijab, and they are worn worldwide by Muslimas.
Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, an Islamic scholar well-known for historical contextualization of Muhammad's revelation[1](p.93), argues that Qur'an mentions khumūr only as a 7th century Arabian dress, but there is no command to wear it in specific. In his interpretation of verse [Qur'an 33:59], he argues that "they may be known, and thus they will not be given trouble" and the context of the verse shows that the directive to wear jalābib was for a specific situation. He also believes that the special restrictions for wives of Muhammad are not applicable to all women at all times. He considers "head-covering" for women a cherished part of Muslim social custom and tradition but not compulsory.[7][8]
Most other scholars, however, have provided evidence as to why the hijab is mandated. There have been very few Muslim scholars who argued that covering the hair is not obligatory.
Some contemporary Muslims believe that the commandment to modesty must be interpreted with regard to the surrounding society. What is considered modest, or daring, in one society may not be considered so in another. It is important, they say, for believers to wear clothing that communicates modesty and reserve in the situations in which they find themselves.[9]
Detailed scholarly attention has been focused on prescribing female dress. Most scholars agree that the basic requirements are that when in the presence of someone of the opposite sex (other than a close family member - see mahram), a woman should cover her body, and walk and dress in a way which does not draw sexual attention to her. Some scholars go so far as to specify exactly which areas of the body must be covered. In some cases, this is everything save the eyes but most require everything save the face and hands to be covered. In nearly all Muslim cultures, young girls are not required to wear a hijab. There is not a single agreed age when a woman should begin wearing a hijab; however, in many Muslim countries, puberty is the dividing line.
In private, and in the presence of mahrams, the rules on dress are relaxed. However in the presence of husband, most scholars stress the importance of mutual freedom and pleasure of the husband and wife[10].
The burqa is the most observant example of this belief: not even a woman's eyes are visible. Originating in what is now Pakistan, it is more commonly associated with Afghanistan. Typically, a burqa is composed of many yards of light material pleated around a cap that fits over the top of the head. There is an embroidered openwork grille where the burqa passes over the eyes. This type of veil is cultural as well as religious.
Traditionally Muslims, Salafis particularly and others generally, believe that the garments known today as jilbab and khumūr are the very garments demanded by the Qur'an. However, Qur'an translators and commentators translate the Arabic into English words with a general meaning - such as veils, head-coverings and shawls.[11] While some scholars argue that verses [Qur'an 24:30] teach etiquette for male and female interactions, where khumūr is mentioned in reference to the clothing of Arab women in the 7th century, but there is no command to actually wear them in any specific way. Hence they consider head-covering a preferable practice but not a directive of the sharia (law).[12]
Although certain general standards are widely accepted, there has been little interest in narrowly prescribing what constitutes modest dress for Muslim men. Most mainstream scholars say that men should cover themselves from the navel to the knees; a minority say that the hadith that are held to require this are weak and possibly inauthentic. They argue that there are hadith indicating that the Islamic prophet Muħammad wore loose clothing that uncovered his thigh when riding camels, and hold that if Muħammad believed that this was permissible, then it is surely permissible for other Muslim males.[citation needed]
As a practical matter, however, the opinion that Muslim men must cover themselves between the navel and the knees is predominant, and most Muslims believe that a man who fails to observe this requirement during salah must perform the prayer again, properly covered, in order for it to be valid. Three of the four mathhabs, or schools of law, require that the knees be covered; the Maliki school recommends but does not require knee covering.
A significant minority also consider that men should wear long sleeves in public, covering the arms up to the wrists. Such a law was in place in Iran for some time after the 1979 revolution.
According to some hadith, Muslim men are asked not to wear gold jewellery or silk clothing. Some scholars says that these prohibitions should be generalized to prohibit the lavish display of wealth on one's person.[13]
In more secular Muslim nations, such as Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt, many women are choosing to wear the Hijab, Burqa, Niqab, etc. as an act of defiance against the secularization of society, but also because of the widespread growth of the Islamic revival in those areas[citation needed]. Similarly, increasing numbers of men are abandoning the Western dress of jeans and t-shirts, that dominated places like Egypt 20 to 30 years ago, in favour of more traditional Islamic clothing such as the Galabiyya.
In Iran many women, especially younger ones, have taken to wearing transparent Hijabs instead of Chadors to protest but keep within the law of the state.
The colors of this clothing varies. It is mostly black, but in many African countries women wear cloths of many different colours depending on their tribe, area, or family. In Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India, a lot of Muslim women wear bright orange and red garments which look similar to the Hindu Sari.
In Turkey and Indonesia, the majority of women do not wear any kind of veil, except when they attend Friday Salat, while in many of the western Nations, where the majority of Muslims are from immigrant backgrounds, the majority of women choose to wear the veil as a way of keeping in touch with their heritage.
Some Muslims have criticized strict dress codes that they believe go beyond the demands of hijab, using Qur'an 66:1 (which is usually interpreted to apply to asceticism) to apply to dress codes as well; the verse suggests that it is wrong to refrain from what is permitted by God.[citation needed]
| Afghanistan | Under the Taliban, the burqa was obligatory. Under the current government, it is technically optional but in southern Afghanistan it is de facto obligatory. | |
|---|---|---|
| India | There are no laws enforcing ħijāb in India as it is a secular, Hindu-majority country, but in some conservative, Muslim-majority areas, there is social pressure to cover. Many Indian Muslim women wear the burqa, although many others wear the dupatta or chunari. | |
| Indonesia | Headcovering is not obligatory under the law but some women choose to wear a headscarf referred to as a djilbab. In some areas headcovering is mandatory under Islamic law. | |
| Iran | The current Iranian government requires women to wear loose-fitting coats or cloaks in public such as the chador, as well as a head scarf that covers the hair. | |
| Malaysia | The headscarf is known as a tudung. Muslim women may freely choose whether or not to wear the headscarf, except for religious rites and ceremonies when the tudung must be worn. | |
| Morocco | The headscarf is not forbidden by law, but not encouraged by governmental institutions and generally frowned upon by urban middle and higher classes. It is becoming gradually more frequent in the north, but as it is not traditional, to wear one is considered rather a religious or political decision. In 2005, a schoolbook for basic religious education was heavily critized for picturing girl children with headscarfs. | |
| Pakistan | While Pakistan has no laws enforcing ħijāb, there are many parts of the country where there is strong social pressure for women to observe ħijāb, or purdah, which is a cultural practice observed even by some Hindus, pardah is a Persian word. Many Pakistani women who observe purdah wear a garment called the pak-chadar, a headscarf with attached veil. However, there are also many Pakistani women who simply wear a dupatta or chunari to cover their heads. These are long scarves, often made of a light material, that match the woman's garments. | |
| Saudi Arabia | The Saudi Arabian version of modest dress is composed of an abaya or loose robe, ħijāb or headcovering and niqāb or face veil. The Saudi niqāb usually leaves a long open slot for the eyes; the slot is held together by a string or narrow strip of cloth. Abaya and ħijāb are required; the niqāb is required for Muslim women but optional for other women. | |
| Tunisia | Tunisian authorities say they are encouraging women, instead, to "wear modest dress in line with Tunisian traditions i.e. no headscarf.[14] | |
| Turkey | In Turkey wearing religious symbols, including headscarfs for women, is prohibited in public schools and state buildings. | |
John Esposito, professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, writes that the customs of veiling and seclusion of women in early Islam were assimilated from the conquered Persian and Byzantine societies and then later on they were viewed as appropriate expressions of Quranic norms and values. The Qur'an does not stipulate veiling or seclusion; on the contrary, it tends to emphasize the participation of religious responsibility of both men and women in society.[15] He claims that "in the midst of rapid social and economic change when traditional security and support systems are increasingly eroded and replaced by the state, (...) hijab maintains that the state has failed to provide equal rights for men and women because the debate has been conducted within the Islamic framework, which provides women with equivalent rather than equal rights within the family."[16]
Bloom and Blair also write that the Qur'an doesn't require women to wear veils; rather, it was a social habit picked up with the expansion of Islam. In fact, since it was impractical for working women to wear veils, "A veiled woman silently announced that her husband was rich enough to keep her idle."[17]
The veil has become a subject of great controversy in non-Muslim countries with significant Muslim minorities, such as France and Britain, where it has been seized upon as a symbol of oppression of Muslim women and the “backwardness” of Islam. Senior British government minister Jack Straw was recently drawn into the debate after he suggested that communication with some of the Muslim members of his constituency would be made significantly easier if they ceased covering their faces.[18]
Such arguments highlight the much greater significance and symbolism the veil has assumed in recent times. It can no longer be seen in purely religious terms, but is now an important aspect of a wider cultural debate that first emerged during colonial times. Writers such as Leila Ahmed and Karen Armstrong have highlighted how the veil became a symbol of resistance to colonialism, particularly in Egypt in the latter part of the 19th Century, and again today in the post-colonial period. In The Battle for God, Armstrong writes:
“The veiled woman has, over the years, become a symbol of Islamic self-assertion and a rejection of Western cultural hegemony.” [19]
While in Women and Gender, Ahmed states:
“…it was the discourses of the West, and specifically the discourse of colonial domination, that in the first place determined the meaning of the veil in geopolitical discourses and thereby set the terms for its emergence as a symbol of resistance.” [20]
The issue of the veil has thus been “hijacked” to a degree by cultural essentialists on both sides of the divide. Arguments against veiling have been co-opted, along with wider “feminist” discourse, to create a colonial “feminism” that uses questions of Muslim women’s dress amongst others to justify “patriarchal colonialism in the service of particular political ends.”[21] Thus, efforts to improve the situation of women in Arab (and other non-Western) societies are judged purely on what they wear. Meanwhile, for Islamists, rejection of “Western” modes of dress is not enough: resistance and independence can only be demonstrated by the “wholesale affirmation of indigenous culture”[22] – a prime example being the wearing of the veil.
Critics of conservative interpretations of the hijab point out that while many claim wearing it does not necessarily signify oppression, those for whom it does are not always free to state their true views on the matter.
In several countries, most notably Saudi Arabia and Iran[23] women must wear the national version of Islamic dress or face punishment by religious police. While some women wholeheartedly embrace the rules, others protest by observing the rules in slipshod or inconsistent fashion, or flouting them whenever possible.
Some women have dared more pointed protest. As early as 1905, Bengali writer Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain criticised it in her utopian fantasy Sultana's Dream. Iranian-American novelist Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic novel Persepolis, and Parvin Darabi who has authored Rage Against the Veil are some of the famous opponents of compulsory veiling. In 2006 Jack Straw the former UK Foreign Secretary caused controversy when he revealed that he had asked Muslim women to uncover their faces at his constituency meetings.
Turkey and Tunisia are the only Muslim countries where the law prohibits the wearing of hijab in government buildings, schools, and universities. See Ali Khan, Suppressive Rulings.
The French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools (2004) and the banning of the niqab in the Belgian city of Maaseik[24] (2006) are seen by some (mostly those who support a conservative interpretation of female hijab) to be part of a general trend of Islamophobia in the Western world.
Tracing the Victorian law of coverture, Legal Scholar L. Ali Khan provides a critique of the British male elite that wishes to impose its own "comfort views" to unveil Muslim women from Asia, Africa, and Middle East.[25]
Some women choose to wear styles that are more ostentatiously restrictive than local mores might require - perhaps as a sign of Islamic enthusiasm and or piety.
In her discussion of findings from interviews of university-educated Moroccan Muslim women who choose to wear the Hijab, Hessini argues that wearing the Hijab is used as a method of separation of women from men when women work and therefore step into what is perceived to be the men’s public space, so in this case, when women have the right and are able to work, a method has been found to maintain the traditional societal arrangements.[26]
Both genders are told to lower their gaze and not to stare at each other in public [citation needed].
See the website www.headscarf.net detailing the ethics of the hijab
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Hijab". Read more |
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