The Hijab: Liberation or Oppression?
The Hijab: Liberation or Oppression?
The Hijab. This is the outer cloak worn by a Muslim woman to cover her beauty; it includes her hair and her body.
For years there has been this common perception in the West that the Hijab symbolises a woman who is oppressed, a woman without a voice that needs liberating by removing her veil and giving her due rights.
However, perceptions are changing; the women in the Hijab now are quite often the women who previously frequented the clubs or pubs. Women regardless of colour, race or age are often reduced to a face or a couple of eyes. In a society where beauty is determined by what can be seen rather than what cannot, this must be an extremely difficult change to make and one that should be noticed.
The Hijab has been noticed, and it has made a significant impression upon the media. We’ve all seen on the news what a contentious issue the Hijab has become. France has become the Hijab focal-point of recent times. What people don’t realise is that France is not alone in their stance against the Hijab. In Turkey, the secular republic has banned headscarves in public institutions; in some German states, laws have been approved to stop teachers from wearing veils. Then we have Singapore; incidents in Egypt; Belgium; Russia, and even Denmark where the Hijab has become a major talking point and a source of controversy.
In a world where poverty is rampant, deaths are daily and the "war on terror" is ongoing it is ironic to see the Hijab dominating the front pages. Why is the Hijab sending ripples through so many governments? If someone wants to cover up then is it really a problem?
The general perception of Islam is not a positive one at present, especially through recent media attention with terms like "Islamophobia" being rampant throughout the front pages. Any form of openly displayed Islam must be "fundamental" or "extremist". Maybe the people who fear these terms; mainly the governments, are hoping that if they suppress Islam, then the "fanatics" will die away. If this is the strategy then it’s not very well thought out to say the least, oppression in any form only leads to a reaction; generally a rash one. Publicly the countries cite their various reasons for their stance against the Hijab; France’s whole argument is based on secularism:
President Jacques Chirac said this year: "Secularity is one of the republic's great achievements. It plays a crucial role in social harmony and national cohesion. We must not allow it to be weakened."
It’s extremely ironic that Chirac maintains that secularism upholds "social harmony" when its very ideals take away the basic rights of people to wear religious symbols. Secularism is outside of religion by its most basic principles. If secularism is not accepting religions, it is itself becoming a religion or an ideology, and a "fundamentalist" one. Secularists then judge religions on whether they are compatible with the secularist religion. People should have the right to express themselves with whatever symbols they are comfortable with.
Making these symbols something to hide can only fuel ignorance for generations to come. Will this lead to an increase in private schools which will form and regulate their own cultures behind closed doors? This is not the way to integrate the diversity of different faiths and cultures- which ironically the secularists argue is their whole reason for banning religious symbols. This will only teach our children the ‘us against them’ theory. This should not be the way for the future, yet somehow this is the road we are all unwittingly being led upon.
People innately have different perceptions, different ideas and ways. Diverse levels of intellect, foresight, education and environment are all among the factors which make us interestingly different. To put it simply; it's the way in which we have been created; as stated in the Qur'an:
"O mankind! We created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you might come to know each other." (49:13)
Our differences should lead us to learn and experience , to absorb and to give some of our ownselves to others. The fact that a woman may want to cover herself should not lead to political and social dialectic in what is becoming an increasingly pragmatic world. Surprisingly, the move to wear the Hijab is not something which is done on a whim, imagine a change that will affect your every interaction with society, it will lead you to be steteotyped and quite often looked down upon; to cover yourself in such a fashion is not to be underestimated. Such a life altering change has to be driven by powerful cognition, by analysing and criticising until firm conviction reaches the mind and heart, firm knowledge that this is indeed the truthcoming from an All-Wise Creator.
Such certainty comes from studying verses like the following:
"O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) all over their bodies. That will be better, that they should be known (as free respectable women) so as not to be annoyed. And God is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful"
[al-Ahzaab 33:59]
Think about this verse; to be known as respectable, and not to be harassed and made into an object of desire. When a woman is not covered she is attractive to others simply because a woman is naturally an object of beauty. By wearing tight fitting clothing, make up and perfume, a woman accentuates her beauty, making her desirable. The whole reasoning behind the Hijab is that the woman does this for her husband only. To be attractive for the only man who should be attracted to her, the only man that has access to her beauty; both inner and outer.
A society where less and less is being worn each day can only lead to problems, the increasing rates of broken families, rape, divorce, sexually related diseases and so on, are causing society to fragment piece by piece over time. By covering up and guarding our modesty we can safeguard society, the dignity of our mothers, daughters, and sisters, and most importantly the sanctity of our own homes.
Ironically, stripping the women of their veil can only increase these problems, fuel dangerous ignorance and cause the opposite of what we human beings need to achieve; peaceful unity
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