Nothing veiled about the hijab
The hijab (a scarf wrapped tightly around one’s head to conceal every wisp of hair), popularly called the veil, is an ally of an empowered modern Muslim women and shouldn’t be equated with backwardness. The hijab expresses a translational form of Islamic feminism that has been marked by the entry of women into all public spheres of Islamic life including formal religious learning.
Muslim women choose to wear the hijab as a way of showing self-control, power and agency. For many well-educated women Muslim women, wearing a hijab offers a way for them to take control of their bodies and challenge the ways in which women are subjugated by patriarchal values.
Veiling was once an armoury of the poorer classes. Today it is the mascot of the most enlightened Muslim girls who are pursuing prestigious careers in top class universities. A woman can wear a hijab as a sign of modesty, yet still embrace all of the rights and opportunities enjoyed by Western women Prophet Mohammad said, “Every religion has a chief characteristic and the chief characteristic of Islam is modesty.” In Islam, modesty is a virtue for both men and women. In fact, the Prophet himself was described as being the epitome of modesty in his behaviour with people. When the Quran tells believers to lower their lustful gazes and guard their chastity — important aspects of the modesty tradition — it begins by commanding this to men before women.
The Arabic word for modesty is hayaa. The interesting thing about this word is that it is linguistically related to the Arabic word for life (hayat). Muslim scholars believe that there is an intimate connection between the two terms. Modesty, it is said, is the virtue that gives spiritual life to the soul. This connection between spiritual life and modesty exists because the virtue is not just about outward appearances; rather, it is tolerance first and foremost about the inward state of having modesty before God — meaning an awareness of divine presence everywhere and at all times. It leads to moral consciousness about oneself even in one’s most private moments. The outward is a reminder of the inward, and the inward is essential to the outward.
For women who observe hijab, it is a path that helps in preserving their moral chastity and coming nearer to their Creator. It is a means to inculcate modesty. It’s a badge of their womanhood, representative of their resilience as females in a world determined to control every aspect of their being. The most sobering words come from Michelle Obama which she shared when she addressed hijab-wearing students as the first lady of United States: “Maybe you read the news and hear what folks are saying about your religion, And you wonder if anyone ever sees beyond your headscarf to see who you really are, instead of being blinded by the fears and misperceptions in their own minds. And I know how painful and how frustrating all of that can be. But here’s the thing — you all have everything, everything, you need to rise above all of the noise and fulfil every last one of your dreams,”
There’s nothing veiled about the hijab.