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 democratic countries women are free to choose whether they want to wear the Hijab or not.

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.