The many hijabs
May 14th, 2008Andrea Useem has a very interesting article on loving and leaving the headscarf up at Slate. She discusses the use of hijab (covering the head and body with loose, opaque clothing) as a marker of identity, although often justified on the basis of religious obligation by those who wear it.
I remember a few years ago when some friends and I were swimming in the local pool that offered special swimming times for Muslim women (it was after ordinary hours, and some Muslim women had organised it with the pool). A close friend of mine, who was an older convert than me (one of the first Muslim women I knew) told me she didn’t think hijab was necessary and would take off it off, except that she would lose all credibility in the local Muslim community.
Two things struck me at the time a) I had no idea that she or other hijabis thought that way b) it seemed to me that even if I (or others) believed it was a requirement for believing Muslim women to wear hijab, that’s no reason to marginalise a fellow Muslim who holds differently.
Since that time I’ve researched hijab and have my own views on the religious obligatoriness of hijab. What I do know, however, is that the modern hijab is much more than a religious act. It is/can be a political act, a feminist act, a non-feminist act, a psychological act and much more. This is what I think Useem is getting at. Even though the most common justification for wearing hijab is that it is simply a religious requirement, most women who wear it (at least in the Western world) have a plethora of examined and unexamined reasons for wearing it besides.
(Hijab flutter to Talk Islam)
A Melburnian Muslim convert blogs religion, academia and life in general.
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Salaam ‘Alaikum
I hereby move that we stop writing about hijab, jilbab, and niqab (unless it’s for style tips) and for it’s obligatoriness / maybeness / totally unnecessaryness unless we’re talking about the much-neglected hijab of men.
I hereby move that you can be an uncovered woman in the Muslim world or a covered woman in the Muslim world and still face inflation, unemployment, unequal rights, violence, poverty, terrorism, yadda yadda… I’m not dogging her for writing this, but I’ve read articles like this before. (Muslim Wake Up, some years ago… only that sister used to be a niqabi too!) Hash, re-hash, re-hashed hash. The end result of these aticles is the implication that as you spiritually mature, you take off the scarf… and if you don’t… Not sure why that’s better than the screeds that imply women who don’t wear it are wanton harlots.
So moved!
I know that’s where Andrea gets to at the end (not an obvious conclusion) but what she talks about before (in terms of identity politics) I do find interesting.
Actually, it reminds me of a feminist class I took back when I was an undergraduate and we were talking about how we mark our bodies is saying something to the outside world. I incidently remember I was wearing a huge maroon khimar at the time, and I said something along the lines of: ‘but if you veil you are marking yourself, but if you unveil you are still marking yourself as well. Just because other people misinterpret my markings, isn’t solved by taking off those markings, because then you’ll be misinterpreted again anyway.’
A sort of ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’.
For me (with all my CBT-ing and reading up on Buddhist and Sufi philosophy) it’s about intention. *Why* do you do X, wear X, not d X, not wear X. I do think that many of us wear hijab without purifying our intentions.
salams my lovely,
i agree with ummZ, I frequently tell myself that I’m not going to be pulled into this debate again, because it distracts us from other, much more important things. BUT the thing is, we have to make a choice to wear it or not wear it, so we therefore have to think about it critically, we cannot ignore it. In a sense we are pushed into it being a big deal,but because it is a big deal, we can’t pretend that the debate doesn’t affect us.
What is going to happen if I act on my feelings about it on a day to day basis? I’d like to be able to, but we don’t live in a world that allows us to be flexible in thought without being deemed superficial.Yesterday I wanted to take it off, today i like it, tomorrow i want to wear niqab and so on and so on. My focus now is to learn and purify my heart within the framework we have been given. i have sooooo many questions, doubts about orthodoxy, but when you are serious about truly understanding the faith I think we have to contend with it. But I did find the article interesting because it says exactly what I suspect. When I am open about directing myself towards a more orthodox Islamic model, partly because of scholarship and partly because anything less would cause enormous marital problems, people call me a hypocrite, but surely being a hypocrite is being secretive about it?
I think I made a comment on the Talk Islam site, that I think there is a third group, which is those who are more flexible in their dress. You see this in many traditional Muslim societies, where dress isn’t a political act, it’s largely cultural. In some places, headcovers are worn at the masjid, but not casually. In other places, women pull their scarves around their lower faces when strange men look at them, at other times it drapes loosely around their head and shoulders.
What I am interested in, is that these women feel perfectly comfortable being more flexible in their dress. In English discourse about hijab, it seems like there is a polar opposite, binaristic choice between “you wear it” and “you don’t wear it”. In reality, hijab is much more complex.
Even I am flexible within what I define as my limits. Whilst I always go out with a headcover, sometimes I don’t wish to project an image of Poster Child for Islam, and so I put on a skivvy and a cap. Other times, I love glorying in trailing veils and niqabs. It’s not that I’m being casual or whimsical, it’s like Western women who wear business suits sometimes, and sloppy-joes at other times. Who says I have to be locked into one style?
Actually, I don’t mind talking about hijab because I find it interesting as a concept, the reasons and motivations behind veiling, the different types of veiling etc. I’m wayyyyyy past the “no hijab = free and emancipated” (a la Muslim Wakeup or MSM) versus “no hijab = wanton harlet” (a la a zillion Salafi sites) debate.
(RE: last comment, having said that I can totally understand why others are so jacked off about the endless rumination about hijab. Mostly because most of the rumination is exactly that, like cows chewing cud.)
I stopped wearing short skirts years back because a) I started cycling, and my thighs got really fat, and b) my wife told me to stop nicking her clothes. But inside, I’m still wearing a skirt…:)
And I make sexy moves to very sultry music (this last bit is true, a friend said it looked a bit tranny yesterday!)
Ok, I’m not making political statements here, but I do have a ponytail which yesterday was correctly interpreted by a complete stranger to mean I am a headbanger completely into heavy metal.
Of course our clothing, markings, tats and piercings say who we are, as humans we cannot stop ourselves from making social displays. We want to be recognised, we want to meet like-minded people, and we want to tell others to back off.
There are those who find strength and comfort in conformity, so out comes a drab uniform worn by all and sundry, but it only lasts a while, before someone says, “actually, I’m gonna have a mingin’ haircut.” And before anyone thinks I’m referring to China, look at our youth culture. Yep, the girls might be wearing provocative clothing, but with all of them doing the same thing, it soon starts to all look like…meat.
When teaching in the class, I too notice the “talking hijab,” it might start off being very tight ’round her face, then it barely sits on her head! A moment later, with a brief glance from an older sister, and the scarf is tightly wrapped ’round her cheeks again. Then there are the “Tightly tented ones” and I never see any loose hair, and just the hands and the face. But then one of them shows me a full portrait on her mobile, sans hijab!
If you really want to believe that the way you dress is making some profound political statement, then go right ahead. I just see it as social displaying. And most people are cunning liars…:)
Salaams to all, wonderful discussion here. UmmYasmin, your last point is very important, I think, and something many of us notice when we travel overseas: that hijab-wearing is often more “flexible,” as you say, in countries where it doesn’t have such a powerful symbolic meaning. I remember thinking about that issue a lot when I still wore hijab, because I realized the issue was not that I didn’t want to wear the scarf, but that I didn’t want to wear it all the time. But because hijab is defined in many places as an either/or, I had to make it either/or.
Re: UmmZaid’s desire to leave this topic behind. I share your feelings in so many ways. When Slate approached me about writing an article on headscarves, however, I saw an opportunity to write about a decision that receives very little attention: the decision to remove the scarf. In the last few years, I have had so many friends and acquaintances make this decisions. Some of us have debated whether or not it constitutes a “trend.” I still don’t know about that. But, sadly, hijab remains an important issue, even if those of us in the Muslim world feel very “finished” with it.
I am interested in the endless variety of modes-of-expression you folks all use when wearing hijab (or anything else which covers the same area): how you choose to tie it, wrap it, the colour, the outfits which “go” with it etc. I guess that is the part which really makes the statement to others…
I mean, around here you have everything from the young hijabi wearing it with a t-shirt and fitted-jeans to the Afghani/Turkmen wearing their long flowing robes and hijab wrapped covering their mouth etc. And an endless variety between them depending on context (hijab with business attire, hijab with sports gear and the like). It’s fascinating actually and just being around hijab wearing Muslims really gets rid of the stereotype mentioned above - it is simply not realistic.
As someone who is interested in social anthropology, I am interested in seeing how these all come together and form I guess a more “Aussie” style - which is eclectic, multicultural and includes differences. For example, we have a convert friend who has “Arab” days, “Indian” days and so on, dressing in those styles. Other days it is tracky-dacks (however you guys spell it) and the plainest hijab you could ever find.
But I agree 100% on the whole not debating it etc. Those who want to wear it and believe in it will, those who don’t, simply wont.
Hmmm, I personally don’t believe that abandoning the talk on this subject is a good idea. We shouldn’t argue, belittle each other, etc. when speaking, but we live in a time where the external aspects of our faith are being belittled and many sisters are being given the wrong information. We defend ourselves, our rights and all, and we need to defend what is/has always been a part of this deen as well, and encourage sisters to see past all the ’smaller’ purposes of hijab and see the bigger picture of obedience to Allah
in this issue.
I don’t see how the hijab used as a means of identity is in anyway contradictory towards the essence of hijab. The qur’an says cover so you will be recognized and not bothered. Maybe that means something for different people at different times, but to me I feel that it’s acceptable to wear hijab to be identified as a Muslim woman. That’s one of the main reasons I first started to wear hijab. I wanted to be see as Muslimah. Of course that alone is not the reason why I’ve worn it every sense then. There are many times I don’t want to be seen as Muslim (like going for a job interview or entering an agency that I think will be somewhat Islamophobic). I don’t then take my hijab off (and it isn’t community pressure that keeps it on).
Hijab like many human acts aren’t one-dimensional or black/white. They’re dynamic and versatile. Some days I feel more of a connection with Allah
and I find on those days my dress is more modest and I’m feeling incredibly feminine. Other times I may feel more interested in other peoples acceptance or appreciation of me (maybe makeup, more fashionable clothes, etc). I think this is pretty normal variation.
It’s probably easier to be flexible in your dress and not be pushed into thinking about it, defending it, when you aren’t surrounded by people who want you to remain ‘one way’ and see every difference as going forwards or backwards etc. etc. I’m so totally over people being utterly obsessed with what the women around them are wearing. A man wears a thobe to the mosque and then jeans to the park and no one bats an eyelid, a woman wears abaya one day and trackpants the next and suddenly she must have been possessed by Shaitan. Honestly my hilltop is beckoning again!
I know that there is a lot of hypocrisy in our community with the men being allowed to get away with more haram and injustice (baggy jeans, however, aren’t haram for men, and a thobe isn’t wajib either), but we can’t forget the problem on both sides. We need to address it all, get educated on what the ‘awrah is for both men and women, and remind each other that lowering the gaze is a must for both genders. But before any of this will really sink in with people we need to address the spiritual aspect of our lives: the belief in Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala. It’s so hard to even want to implement these things when one is weak in iman, and it is very easy to get tempted to be like everyone else and fall off. We’re human but we can’t forget to encourage each other towards khair.
Reminding each other is beneficial if done in an encouraging and wise manner, without being pushy, without looking down upon the person, and with sincerity. Allah
praises those who call each other to the truth in Surah al-’asr and says that, along with calling to patience, those are the ones who aren’t in loss.
We need to strike a balance in all of this, really. We are told in the ahadeeth that we are all like the bricks of a building and we strengthen one another. If we weren’t all part of the same building it wouldn’t matter how broken and off the deen we were, but it does matter. We are hurting so bad right now due to ignorance and weak Iman, subhan’Allah
.