Why should women
wear it?
And say to the believing women that they should lower
their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not show off
their beauty and ornaments except what is (ordinarily) visible
thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not
display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their
husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or
their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the
slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of
physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of
sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw
attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! turn ye all
together towards God, that ye may attain Bliss.
Surah 24 Verse 31
O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the
believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their
persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be
known (as such) and not molested. And God is Oft-Forgiving, Most
Merciful.
Surah 33 Verse 59
The first reason for wearing
hijab, then, is that it is a command
from God. Religious Muslims - like any other religious people belonging
to any revealed religion - don't feel comfortable in deliberately
disobeying God! If some Muslims, despite of the semantic clarity of the
Qur'anic verses, still think that this ruling is not mandatory, this
will not alter the message.
We can have some Muslims who unjustly or ignorantly deny the illegality
of drinking alcohol, eating pork or even committing major sins like
stealing, fornicating… etc. This does not mean that such things are
permitted in Islam! In Islam it is very easy to detect or judge whether
a certain ruling is mandatory or not, by going back to the major sources
of Islamic legislation. This we technically name as
‘shari'a’.
Those sources are the Qur'an, the Holy Book of Muslims, and
sunnah,
which is the sayings and guiding acts of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), as
stated in authentic books. So, simply this is the very same case with
hijab.
Notice that this ruling of
hijab, is highly esteemed among Muslim
women, despite the big pressure of most regimes in the Muslim majority
world to forbid it. Sometimes it is forbidden by force or women are
discouraged from wearing it. The issue is seen as a means of
secularizing or globalizing the Muslim states! This is, in-fact, except
for two or three Muslim countries, which encourage their women to
observe this ruling or at least "let it go".
The rest are on a savage war against it. Turkey is the outspoken example
of such hostility, but the other regimes are not less hostile, albeit
silently, towards it. Despite this fact you can find Muslim women
insisting on wearing it, even if it costs them their jobs and social
status ...
In fact, there is wisdom behind this heavenly command of
hijab
and behind Muslim women's challenge to wear it. It is that in the
Islamic culture - like many other cultures - the idea of women's
respectability and virtue is related, among other things, to the
propriety of their dress. In Christianity for example, nuns cannot show
up without their
hijab. Also, regular ladies wear it while
attending masses, which is a reflection of self-admission that God wants
to see them this way! Also, as far as I know, in Judaism, the most
religious faction amongst Jews, namely The Hassidics, have their strict
rules about covering women’s bodies. Even in secular societies, some
women judges have to cover their heads, during sessions, as a way to
show their dignity and self-respect.
Remember that your own puritan American society, before being swept over
in the 1950s, by this permissive value system, used to look with
embarrassment to any woman going out to the street without her hat! Mini
skirts only appeared recently together with the secular and atheist
style of life that some people in the west - and the East as well -
chose for themselves.
You can also tell that
hijab is the way Islam neutralizes a
woman's stereotyped role as a mere female, by inciting the society to
deal with her as a human being away from her "extra feminine
powers"! No wonder then that the majority of Muslim women refuse to
let their ‘mill go with all winds’ and that they insist on keeping
their Islamic identity. This is regardless of the consistent unfair
criticism and sometimes satire against it. They wear
hijab, not
only in submission to God's order, but also because their inherent moral
code is in full harmony with its philosophy.
Muslim Women should read hijab????