In the end, the point isn’t about how much of a difference the hijab makes – the point is, rather, that perhaps we’re using the wrong litmus test when defining our religious obligations. An Islamic mandate to wear the hijab need not be legitimated by cultural, sociological proofs; rather, we submit to God’s commands because He commanded us to do so.
During recent weeks, a couple of our writers touched upon some of the complexities related to hijab. In our Readers’ Blog, Sobia Ali’s Are Non-Hijabis “Scantily Clad”, explored the misuse of a socio-scientific study to buttress religious notions of proper dress. While Ali makes it a point to limit her analysis to the misuse of the study – which found (surprise, surprise) that men objectify women in bikinis – by IslamOnline contributor Amel Abdullah, her article, I’m sure, reminds us all of similarly fallacious statements made by many others seeking to defend the hijab.
We’ve all heard the cliché defense of the hijab as a means of preventing male objectification of the female body. These statements rarely acknowledge that it is not the headscarf per se that helps prevent the male gaze, but modest dress as a whole (“hijab” as a term relates to the total modest dress, but in modern Muslim apologetics, has come to refer simply to the headscarf). In failing to make this distinction, these soundbyte defenses seek to reveal the benefits of hijab by comparing hijabis to women who wear seductive, revealing clothes. I’ve always had a hard time with these comparisons, not just because of the obvious logical fallacy, but also because the soundbyte defenders seemed to intentionally overlook the fallacy, perhaps afraid to tackle the obvious issue: does covering the hair make a significant difference in male objectification when compared to non-hijabis in modest dress?
In the end, the point isn’t about how much of a difference the hijab makes – the point is, rather, that perhaps we’re using the wrong litmus test when defining our religious obligations. An Islamic mandate to wear the hijab need not be legitimated by cultural, sociological proofs; rather, we submit to God’s commands because He commanded us to do so.
And if we still insist on referring to sociological proofs to legitimate the hijab, then perhaps it’s worth looking at anecdotal evidence that sometimes men find hijabis more seductive than non-hijabis. Check out Wendy Shalit’s A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue, for more. Apparently, not even a niqab – a headscarf revealing only a woman’s eyes – is enough to tame men’s desires. What does that do for the soundbyte hijab defense?
All this hijab-defending aside, as Darah Rateb explains in The Dehijabization Phenomenon, there are many other factors at play in a woman’s decision to hijabize or not, and these factors are compelling enough to constantly impact many women’s hijabization decisions so that even those who found themselves dedicated to it at one point now find their resolve weakening. Rabea Chaudhry revealed even more reasons affecting this decision; some of our readers have uncovered still others: as thestumblingmystic notes about herself, “I wanted to play sports again, I wanted to be able to go swimming without having to care who was watching, I wanted to be able to enjoy the breeze on my neck. I was questioning the practicality of having a fixed dress code for all times and places.”
Indeed, the factors that affect our decision to wear the hijab and our very perception of it are practically endless, and all this does not even touch upon how others perceive hijabis. Consider the Hijabi Monologues project, which seeks to battle stereotypes by telling the simple, ordinary stories and taking the focus off the darker stories of oppression.
Altmuslimah, too, seeks to replace the dramatics with raw stories of personal struggles and experiences. Please continue to share them with us!
Asma T. Uddin is Editor-in-Chief of Altmuslimah.
The only problem with the hijab discussion is that it seems to automatically go into “the hijab is mandatory” arguement and I find this uncomfortable. Not because I have a problem with people believing this, but because I have a problem with people telling me that this is an objective fact for all. It is an interpretation – not a fact. As a woman who does not wear hijab because I feel it is not mandated by Islam, I find myself more and more marginalized by the Muslim community. Therefore, when discussions surrounding hijab’s obligatory nature, or not, begin I quickly leave the discussion. But not before putting in my two cents to represent and defend all sisters like me.
thanks for tying all these articles together into a broader discussion about hijab, asma.
>>An Islamic mandate to wear the hijab need not be legitimated by cultural, sociological proofs; rather, we submit to God???s commands because He commanded us to do so.<<
i agree and disagree with this. i agree that we don’t need to legitimize what we do to non-Muslims. i think our collective defensiveness and insecurity resulting from this “pressure” have caused us to make some pretty ridiculous and non-nonsensical arguments for hijab (as Sobia discussed), among other issues.
on the other hand, i think we as a muslim community make these arguments for another reason too – in order to make sense of why we do what we do in a society that doesn’t do the same. and that i can understand, because i personally feel a need to make cultural and sociological sense of religious rules (esp. regarding social issues) in order to fully believe in and follow them. I can easily make sense of why I shouldn’t drink alcohol – I can observe the harm it does to others and that makes it easy for me to reject it, but I find making sense of hijab far more difficult when I constantly observe that it doesn’t make men control themselves, or make women more modest, or necessarily protect women, or whatever else it’s purported to do. And that makes me question it, and I don’t see anything wrong or unislamic or unfaithful about questioning it. scholars (and laypeople as well) have always questioned rulings throughout muslim history, because they understood that blind faith is not only pointless, but dangerous. their questions brought intellectual (and therefore societal) progress.
so i think it’s important for us to question and try to make sense of things, but to also be aware of where those questions are coming from – are they coming out of defensiveness or insecurity, or out of an earnest desire to understand the truth and make sense of reality and its relationship to the ideals of our religion?
note: my use of the word hijab in my post is referring specifically to the headscarf, not to the broader concept of modesty as asma described. i can understand modesty from a logical perspective, but i don’t think modesty necessitates the headscarf in all socio-cultural contexts.
muqarnas,
I’m in total agreement with your comment about the need and benefits of questioning the practical benefits or reasons for a given ritual, obligation, preferred practice, etc. I definitely wasn’t saying that questioning is a bad thing. My point was simply that for those who believe hijab is an obligatory act, whether it makes any difference in male objectification, etc. is, or should be, a moot point.