Event organizers from San Diego to New York have promoted wear-a-hijab days to express solidarity with Muslim women who said they felt targeted after the San Bernardino attacks last year. The female shooter, Tashfeen Maliq, wore a face veil and abaya in an expression of the conservative interpretation of Islam she practiced.
Earlier this month, Portland State’s Muslim Student Association hosted its own Hijab Day. Standing before the booth, I asked myself, “Which ideology would I be expressing solidarity toward if I supported this symbol?”
Three years ago, headscarf promotional events started gaining popularity with the founding of World Hijab Day. Its mission is to challenge the idea of the scarf as “a symbol of oppression and segregation.” The organization and campaign is run by Nazma Khan, who formerly owned a headscarf business.
Digging further into Khan’s campaign, I struggled to delineate the line between choice and subtle coercion. In Khan’s interview on Narratively, she states that covering up “makes [her] feel peace at heart knowing that [she] obey[s] the command of [her] creator.” She adds, “Peace can be only found in obeying the commands of the one who created me.”
By framing the headscarf as a matter of following the command of the creator, the unstated message is that not covering disobeys God. This rigid interpretation helps me understand why states like Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as groups like the Islamic State, feel sanctimonious in their brutal enforcement of veiling. To them, the hijab is the unofficial sixth pillar of Islam, a commandment that must be implemented when a society lives under Shari’a, or Islamic law. Those who transgress are faced with fines, violence or even murder.
The Muslim woman who does not live under such circumstances, still faces the blurred line between choice and dogmatic coercion. The veneer of “choice” should be dropped if headscarves are taught as a divine obligation. Obligation, by definition, removes choice.
Further, the term hijab itself is a misnomer. In Arabic, hijab is translated as “barrier,” “curtain” or other similar derivatives. It never means headscarf.
Veiling only became scripturally explicit later through various ahadith, or reported sayings and actions of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. These collections were compiled centuries after Muhammad died and many are of questionable origin.
Those who advocate for head and body coverings based on Quranic verses point to the khimar (headcover) and jilbab (body wrap) as evidence of a holy mandate. Both clothing items are pre-Islamic influences of the Sassanian and Mesopotamian cultures.
I concede that interpretation involves bias but I’d argue that a religion of peace and equality is one where its core texts are allowed to be informed through the paradigm of humanism.
At PSU’s Hijab Day, I had the opportunity to both reaffirm and challenge my views by engaging with the headscarf instead of judging from a distance. Among the smiles, I felt nervous to approach a phalanx of women to ask if I could participate. I wanted to understand why many women around the world risked so much just to remove this piece of fabric. Is the hijab really that bad? Could I try it on?
I asked and received some uncomfortable laughs. One friendly Muslim Student Association member welcomed my request. During our personal interaction, the student opened up about her personal experiences. She was required to veil by age 10 and for many years viewed the headscarf as an oppressive symbol.
Only much later, after immigrating to the United States, did she personally find covering up valuable. The United States’ protection of religious freedom and practice allowed her to reclaim the headscarf for personal empowerment. She subverted a previously oppressive symbol to mean something new to her.
Is the hijab a symbol of misogyny or modesty? It can be both—that is the paradox of the hijab. Binary discourse on headscarves doesn’t reflect the realities of how the symbol is used across the world. It is not wrong to view it as a sign of oppression against female autonomy and sexuality. That reality exists, either institutionalized or enforced in family and community honor codes. However, many women willingly wear it of their own accord as an expression of identity. Theology may not even be relevant.
Let’s be honest about this spectrum of experiences before demonizing or glorifying it.
As for my personal experience in the hijab, I missed the gentle blow of the spring breeze on my hair, a simple right I never really considered valuable until it was momentarily taken away. The fabric around my ears muffled the sounds of urban life and I felt like my head was in a cage. I had the freedom to move, but the cage moved along with me.
I only wore it for a few minutes as an experience and was happy to take it off. If only every woman had the privilege of the event’s participants, myself included—the freedom to cover or not to cover—we would truly be in a place of freedom.
Thank you for a well balanced article and I really like your picture in Hijab. Andy, the country of Turkey which is said to be 99% Muslim used to have restrictions on Hijab and so did Iran at one point, America never has ever had such restrictions. I was told that by an American student who studied in Turkey at a Turkish university that she has seen more ladies in the Hijab here at PSU than in that Turkish University. As a former Muslim, I am not against the Hijab if its a personal choice and I thank you making that clear that it should be a choice. I am no longer a Muslim but if laws are passed against the wearing of the Hijab I will march with Muslims against such laws. Now, having said that, I found your article to be informative and fair. Thank you again.
It is interesting to note that Turkey (as you wrote) is 99% Muslim and that it was once Christianities second most important seat. Istanbul was once Constantinople. So what happened to all those Christians? Genocide is what happened. Just as Muslims have killed 70 million Hindus and Buddhists in southern Asia, so did they do to the Christians of Turkey.
“Among the smiles, I felt nervous to approach a phalanx of women to ask if I could participate.”
Looks like they held when they should have charged.
You felt like your head was cagex? You couldn’t hear because the sounds were muffled? Look, I appreciate your willingness to understand the hijab. But I have a very hard time supporting pepole who use my religion as an excuse to play dress up. We make such a big deal in society about white people appropriating other cultures, and the riots would be plenty if people starting dressing up in blackface. So why do you think it’s ok to wear a hijab?
I got more from the answer of the girl who spoke about her own experience than from you. You are not Muslim. You are not even female. You put on the hijab for 10 seconds, and wrote about it. And now everyone is going to applaud you for your experiement? No. We are not just a costume you put on to see what the “hype” is all about. We are PEOPLE. And if you want to know what we experience, then just ASK US.
And before you ask, no, I don’t support Hijab Day, and I speak out about it often.
It seems impossible, but some of that spittle leapt onto my lips and I had to wipe it off with a cloth napkin.
No, you’re not speaking from experience dear, you’re speaking from ego. You need to chill and think again.
Your comment delivers the same predictable trite seen almost everywhere about how noone can ever understand the Hijab like those that wear one. Effectively shutting down any sort of discussion about it because ‘you can’t tell me what not to wear, its my body blah blah blah’
Why can’t you be honest? Seemingly Fearless and confident women wearing the Hijab and the Niqab in places they are not forced to is simply a product of indoctrination disguised as empowerment.
Want to talk about “PEOPLE’, sure lets do that – It’s purely a matter of respect for other people, but women like you who bleat endlessly about their own right to choose are too busy demanding respect for themselves to see how disrespectful they’re being to others.
Be better.
@Janin
I don’t think you really comprehended what the author was doing and the purpose of it. No one’s using your religion as an excuse for “dress up”, it’s to try and better understand the hijab. If you’re going to judge it or support it, as he said “to both reaffirm and challenge my views by engaging with the headscarf instead of judging from a distance”. That’s a completely understandable reason. And this shouldn’t even be about whether you “support” people like him doing this or not, it’s an opinion piece trying to make a point. Give people a different view of the situation. Both who support it and who do not.
That’s not a really fair argument. You’re making a false equivalency. Blackface is the act of trying to look and act like a African-American and was used in shows in the 19th century. The Hijab is not part of a race, it’s part of a religion. Blackface deals with (during the old days) white people dressing up as someone of a different color. That’s comparing apples and oranges. And this isn’t related to “cultural appropriation” — not even going into why that kind of mindset is asinine — it’s using a religious element to understand the situation at hand. Is it sexist and oppressive by a patriarchal religion or is it a symbol of empowerment? Is there more to it? You can’t compare and obviously racist element to a religious element that is based on an archaic tome that some follow and choose to follow for the most part. They’re not one and the same.
You’re simply saying that you’re dismissing his view and experience because he’s not a female or a Muslim. That’s not how this works. You don’t get to dismiss a form of experience because they don’t have a vagina or follow the religion is Islam. The means you use to invalidate his experience can be used to say that you’re not him, you have no idea what he has experienced, and thus have no room to logically dismiss his experiences since you didn’t experience it. Women normally put on a Hijab in Islam. He put one on and tried to put himself in a mindset to understand the paradox he wrote about. Other than not having a vagina, he’d generally experience similar things in terms of how people react to Islam or how one feels wearing something that appears restrictive.
He’s not looking for an echo chamber to tell him how great he is for trying it out. He’s clearly trying to do what he can to inform people on the issue and give out his personal view of the topic. You don’t have to like it… But what exactly are you doing to look at the issue he brought up? I’d like to assume nothing.
Well, yea you’re right. You’re not a costume, you’re a human being. He put on a Hijab to try and understand the personal view he might have had about the Hijab without judging it from afar, but trying to wear it and see what he thought. And it’s not even related to a ‘hype’. You’re people? You write this as if he was putting you on. He’s talking about the Hijab, not you or Muslim women other than how some might feel and what it means to them, be it good or bad. He isn’t alluding to Muslim women not being people, so your comment really makes no sense.
Why ask? Why not ask and wear it? If you’re going to throw your opinion out there, you might as well try it. Christopher Hitchens was a contributing editor for Vanity fair and a well known journalist. He originally didn’t think waterboarding was not torture. He didn’t ask people what they thought, he also tried it and got waterboarded himself before giving his view on it. That’s what journalists do and all you’re doing is giving a knee-jerk reaction to the issue because you don’t like his method or view. You’re not actually retorting or disagreeing with anything relevant. You’re just arguing to argue because “you’re not a women” and “you’re not a Muslim”, as if that would completely invalidate and void his view on the situation; it doesn’t.
“We are PEOPLE.”
Yes and a misogynist people. Your prophet consummated his eleventh marriage (this one to a six year old girl named Aisha) when she was six years old and he was 53 years old. Your prophet enslaved women as sex toys. Your prophet, your Qur’an treat women as being half the worth of men. It is little wonder your PEOPLE have not contributed one thing to modern civilization seeing as though you essentially enslave half your adult population thanks to your misogynist values.
You look cute in the picture LOL. Reminds me of the times we made my baby brother wear hijab and took lots of pictures
You said, “is it modesty or misogyny?”
Physical modesty for women, choice or no choice, is misogyny.
That’s like saying modesty for men, choice or not, is misandry. Modesty for women (or anyone in general) physically isn’t “misogyny” unless it involves the hatred of and towards women for being women.
And Islam does embrace misogyny. It always has. It is enshrined in the Qur’an, Hadiths and Sura.
Are you even serious? This is a joke. There is no need to support or encourage this medieval custom. The world is progressing and all religions need to progress with it. And by the way Muslim women (are forced to) wear Hijab, not men. Any LGBT behavior is punishable by death in Islam.
Firstly, Andy, I’m impressed by the effort on your part to understand the concept and values attached to the hijab. I always believe unless the men understand the predicament of what women go through, the struggle for human rights will not be so organised and cohesive.
Secondly, you have explored all the right points in your investigative piece. It pains me to see what the glory of the core message of Islam could have achieved had it not been enshrined now in dogmatic sub-cultures and subtle coercive tactics to keep it focused on repressive rituals and symbols.
The hijab can never be a choice as long as even one person anywhere in the world is coerced whether through cultural conditioning or regressive laws. It takes away the whole meaning of choice. That it is being enforced, and it was enforced in a sudden mushrooming in the 80s as my experience in my home town in South Asia reveals an ideology behind it which at best can be concluded that certain fanatical ideologues are trying to impose on the global psyche.
I support every woman’s choice of what to wear or what not to wear. Wear a Hijab Day will find my support the day it also has a “Take of your Hijab Day” in support of the acid attacked women who were punished for not wearing it or following the diktats of extremist organisations in other parts of the world where we do not exactly have secular democracies or where a large section of secular population is held hostage by a theocratic few through fear of the gun!
Great article and comments.
I enjoyed reading this piece. While I do harbor vitriol towards Islam (and all religion in truth) I think the idea of trying to rationally look at this from both angles is the best option. Removing any form of bias, if at all possible, to see if it is what you thought or if you were wrong and it was something positive.
I will be honest, I likely never would have thought of taking this approach and I’m glad someone did.
Kudos, Andy.
Thank you for this obviously well informed factual and honest article. As a formerly opressed muslim woman who lived under sharia law, I appreciate that someone took the time to consider my point of view as well. I find western muslims are quite privileged and often know only and are subjected to a watered down version of Islam, are protected by secular humanist laws of the west, and often forsake their counterparts living in oppressive Islamic states under sharia. This often upsets me to no end, as those who have a voice now are the privileged western muslims wining over their right to wear hijab (a right which is already theirs by law) and those who are truly oppressed by hijab, are the voiceless. No one hears them. World hijab day is a spit in their faces. No one wants to admit that. You will not find any hijaabi woman with a voice campagning for the rights of oppressed muslim women who don’t want to wear the hijaab.
I’ve refrained from responding so far but I now want to address certain accusations that have been hurled at me since this piece’s publication.
First, I’d like to thank all of you for taking the time to read and share your thoughts – even if you found my writing deeply offensive. Most of you do not know me so you are reading the ramblings of a stranger, really, and I cherish the fact that you gave me the privilege of your time. Thank you.
For those who have said that “The paradox of hijab” is “Islamophobic,” I challenge you to cite where I’m guilty of that in the opinion piece. “Islamophobia” is usually defined by advocacy groups as an extreme hatred and/or fear of the religion of Islam and/or those perceived to be Muslim.
From reading the responses from those who are most angry, I see that many took particular offense that I described my experience with the headscarf as moving with a mobile “cage” around my head. The strong language was intentional, yet honest to my experience. I absolutely reject this as any smear on the religion of Islam. I’m able to do this with confidence because I do not essentialize the headscarf to the 1400 year-old, monotheistic faith. I reject fundamentalist interpretations of a diverse religion that would seek to homogenize expressions of faith, spirituality and identity.
Yemini-Swiss political scientist, Dr. Elham Manea, argues in her new book, “Women and Shari’a Law” that many in the West suffer from the “Essentialist Paradigm.” That is, they “insist on treating people as ‘homogenous groups,’ essentialising their cultures and religions … and discarding the voices of people from these very ‘cultures’ as ‘not authentic enough.’”
Many Muslims and ex-Muslims here have come out in support of my opinion piece (https://www.facebook.com/portlandstatevanguard/posts/1259311994097039); I thank them immensely for their public support. For those who feel offense on behalf of others, I ask you to take a moment of introspection and ask yourself if your solidarity truly lies with freedom and diversity, or an essentialized view of a religion and people.
I tried with the scarf for men (Sufi scarf) and i felt free. Nobody in the park in New Delhi assumed that I was a Muslim. People said: Nice!
See what a simple means of modesty has become today. I think that we have taken the trees fir the wood. The Head-scarf which is now a symbol of modesty seems to have taken away meaning of modesty to mean many other things but not what it should really mean. We see many women in wearing the head-scarf while showing off other parts of the body and and not to mention their lifestyles and behaviour in public. The trouble is that we have gone completely overboard as to who we are and taking with that the true sense of these good values. Sadly, this trend is bound to explode, unless we strive to conduct ourselves giving the true meaning to our lives. There are of course exceptions of those millions of women around the world whose lives are lived with understanding. Also lets not let the men off this. Modesty applies to them as well.