The Hijab and Islam
There is much talk about the veil lately that cause fear among non-Islamic people. It led to the conclusion that the Hijab is a symbol of extremism, oppression of women, and a threat to Western culture. But what is the origin of the veil and why the concern? The veil originated as a Persian elitist fashion to
distinguish aristocracy from the common masses. The fashion has moved in and
out ever since. Early Islamic scholars for example, tried to enforce wearing
the veil by declaring that all women were to be shamed. A female specialist in
Islamic studies mentioned that in times of national movements against colonial
powers, it became a symbol of resistance against alien policies. However, after
independence of the Islamic state about twenty years ago, the veil was
sanctioned as an emblem of enforced orthodoxy and social control, which became
a form of archaic social institution. As Islamic extremism rose, the women once
more were to be hidden behind veils. The new law legitimized and
institutionalized inequality for women.
In regards to religion, polygyny was not intended to
be an automatic right for Muslim men.
The Prophet Mohammad’s original intention was to provide protection to
widows and orphans. The Koranic verses on polygyny were recorded shortly after
a major battle, when many Muslim males were killed, and the women would have
been left destitute unless the surviving males took additional wives. In the
630s in the pre-Islamic period, both men and women were allowed to have
multiple spouses which Islam had condemned for both sexes. The Koran permitted
polygyny only in exceptional cases, mostly for war widows, whom the prophet feared
would become “unprotected” once their husbands were dead. Later, the wealthy
males along with their half - educated religious and political leaders again
revised the pre-Islamic forms of polygyny for men only. At the same time, the
Koranic preconditions for polygyny in marrying unprotected widows, changed, and
instead, became the practice to take young unwed women as their subsequent
wives.
According to a female Islam scholar, “Muslim women had
no idea of the rights given to them by their religion. Most had relied on the
interpretations by men. Islam is a religion that liberated women, and the same
religion is being used to oppress them.”
For example, much of the fourteen hundred years the
majority of Muslims have believed that in Paradise men will be supplied with
beautiful virgin companions. When women ask what happens to them in Paradise,
they never receive an answer.
Further, the Koran in fact, originally stated that both
men and women would be granted good companions in Paradise.
The manipulation performed by Arabic grammar in order
to mistranslate some key words, is obvious to the eye of an expert.
Accordingly, when the masculine gender is used in the Koran for an injunction
that it is felt a woman must obey, it is interpreted to indicate the female
gender. On the other hand, when the same pronoun is used for something that the
male wants to preserve for himself, it is interpreted to mean the male gender.
There are numerous examples of what the Koran intended
and how it's teachings have been diverted in meaning to something different
today.
