Morocco’s Nouhaila Benzina trended when she became the first player to wear a hijab at Women’s World Cup
By Dr. Hend Alborsan, from Australia
It must be noted that the veil or what is popularly known as the Hijab was never limited to Islamic societies. The existence of the veil long precedes Islam.
The rules associated with women’s veils were mentioned in a detailed manner in the Assyrian law, in making references to the women that are obligated to wear the veil, and those who are not entitled to veil themselves.
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The veil was obligatory when it came to the wives and daughters of the “master”, as well as for the maidservants accompanying them. The veil was also imposed on the “holy seducers” after their marriage.
As for prostitutes and female slaves, the veil was forbidden for them, and the woman who was arrested for wearing the veil without possessing the due right, was subjected to punishments such as flogging, tar poured on her head, and her ears being cut off.
Gerda Lerner’s analysis of patriarchal societies throws light on the division of women into “respectable” and “reprehensible” that was central to the male-dominated system. She asserts that women’s position in the class hierarchy was determined by their relationship with men, the source of protection.
This is based on their sex-based identity and not on their professional activity, or their relationship to the means of production, as is the case for men.
In other words, the use of the veil played a role in classifying women, and its use was an indicator for men to make a distinction between women who were under male protection and those available to everyone.
The veil was used in Sasanian society, the Christian Middle East and the Mediterranean regions before and during the emergence of Islam. In the last years of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), his wives were the only Muslim women on whom the veil was imposed.
After the passing away of the Prophet, and as a result of the Islamic conquests in the neighbouring regions, it was common for the women of the upper classes to wear the veil. The veil became a common item of upper-class women’s clothing, through a process of assimilation of those cultures that were on the scene long before the arrival of Islam.
While clothes in general are connected to cultural and environmental conditions, this has changed both in Islamic and non-Islamic societies, when they endowed the veil with a value that expresses identity, and is no longer linked to the environment in which people live.
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Women have paid the price for these patriarchal perceptions that imposed the veil on women to protect men. Instead of ensuring that men respect women, and build their character from the inside properly, so that a man does not fall into temptation, men have imposed their laws and conditions on the woman by veiling her, and stripping her according to what they want, making her into an object with an ‘awrah’ or nakedness that must be covered.
The whole woman is naked according to this kind of a perception as she is a potential source of temptation. The woman’s entire freedom is constrained by how men see her body.
My point is that the veil was an unknown thing in many societies, and did not express any religious or political identity, as happened later to women. In addition, certain things such as looking at the woman’s body as a source of temptation owing to which it must be covered and also veiled, so that men are not seduced — these things are of much more recent origin.
In the past, women were not conspicuous in terms of their adornment or known for displaying their beauty and charm. This is something that is prevalent today owing to the fact that the cosmetics industry has captured the markets and beauty-related items are promoted globally.
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Women and girls of the modern world are not satisfied with merely using the old-world natural preparations such as henna, antimony eyeliner and natural oils.
A strong campaign against the veil, for mostly political reasons, happened in Turkey during the time of Ataturk, in Iran at the time of the Shah, and in some Arab countries, such as Tunisia at the time of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The status of women, and the issue of the veil in the Middle East, has been a prominent subject often connected to moral perspectives with the focus being more on issues related to appearance than anything else.
It was inevitable that there would be some kind of a resistance to the politics of oppression when women are forced to wear the veil. Extremism and tyranny create a reaction among the masses. Moral policing has led to harassment of women and young girls, which, in my view, is completely wrong.
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The veil should be a matter of choice. Women should be free to choose what is good for their body and for their appearance. The recent case of the death of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian girl tortured for her improper Hijab has ignited a movement for social change in Iran. It was reported by eyewitnesses, which included the women who were detained with Amini, that she died because of severe beating.
The veil was imposed on women because there was a demand for separation of sexes. Women were being inspected before they entered the universities and the separation of sexes was forced on the society.
A man believes that by veiling the outward body, he preserves and protects it. However, if the veil is not internal and does not stem from the depths of the woman who wants to preserve herself, then all the veils that have been set around her will not prevent her from going against moral norms and fulfilling her desires.
Hence, there are contradictions experienced by the woman on whom the veil is imposed as a form of identity, if this idea has not taken root in her. The state of the veil in the Middle East is similar to the state of these societies in their understanding of religion in general.
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We see religious icons and symbols that fill the world in the way organized religion is practised in mosques, churches and temples, but we do not see true believers.
There are religious manifestations but unfortunately there is no true sense of the importance and meaning of religion. By this argument, the presence and absence of the veil comes to the same thing because it is not doing its job of making people morally conscious.
It merely remains a formal thing that is imposed by custom and tradition. The external form does not reflect the essential values which relate to the true meaning of the veil.
Across the world, liberation movements are fighting to change this practise in order to ensure that women have the freedom to choose what they think is good for them.
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In the 21st Century, the important question is not simply about the veil. The important question is about the rights of Muslim women. Muslim women’s choices must be respected by the governments and by society.
Discussions in the modern world are connected to human rights. Muslim women’s right to choose to wear or not wear the Hijab is also a human right. The 21st Century is the age of human rights.
The situation now is not the same as it was 50 or 100 years ago. Everyone is more conscious of their rights and choices. Nobody can or should be judged by their clothing. A person should be judged by their character.
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A woman who wears the Hijab can be a very modern woman in her thinking. A woman who wears modern clothes may not be modern in their thinking. So, the thinking is important and not the clothes.
Just as there are good and bad people everywhere, so also there are people with different traditions, customs and clothes. A value judgement should not be made based on whether a woman wears or does not wear the Hijab.
Women of all nations should be respected and accepted as equals everywhere by the men. There should be no discrimination based on gender or clothing.
References:
1-Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford: OUP, 1986.
2- Ahmed, Layla. Women and Gender in Islam, The Historical Roots of a Modern Dialectical Issue. Trans. Mona Ibrahim – Hala Kamal, The Supreme Council of Culture 1999, pp. 18-19
3- [2]- Ibid.: pg. 9
-Ibrahim, Abdullah. Feminist Narrative, Patriarchal Culture, Female Identity, and the Body. Beirut: The Arab Institute for Studies and Publishing, 2011, p. 222.
4- Death of Mahsa Amini. (2022, October 18). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Mahsa_Amini
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Very well written article from a very intelligent woman
very good & very informatic article
Thank you, Dr. Hind. The issue of women’s veiling was not a topic of discussion in all religions before World War I. For example, with regard to the Jews, their greatest and most famous scholar, Moshe Ben Maimon, says: Every woman who leaves her home without a hijab is considered an infidel, outside the Jewish religion. As for the Christians, in 1917 they imposed an additional piece of veil on the nuns so that all women would understand that the veil is a great necessity for the believing Christian woman… otherwise she is not Christian. As for Islam, it has not added anything to the dress of Arab women. They have been veiled and covered with their clothes for thousands of years before Islam, according to Arab traditions and customs. … After the First and Second World Wars, tens of millions of men died in Europe, and new cultures dominated the world that did not recognize religions or traditions, such as communism and unlimited freedoms under the guise of democracy… This was in response to the conditions of that stage… where women needed Men to help her face… the harshness of life… she was forced to take off her hijab… and she used makeup in an insane manner to tempt those who remained men or those with money, and deviance spread… and all of this was also accompanied by weak convictions in religions, churches, and the cross, which did not help them stop… Wars… It also happened that global control was in the hands of the American and English Protestants… These originally did not believe in the Church and its ancient concepts… nor did they believe in the Catholics or the Orthodox… and they encouraged nudity… with the intention of challenging the ancient Church… As for the rulers of the country Islamists who fought the hijab…they were a group of culturally backward people…and they believed that nudity would bring them closer to their Western masters, and that they were following their example in fighting outdated human and religious traditions…and finally, Dr. Hind…history reminds us that women of society throughout history They were veiled… and these ladies… the queens and princesses… were wary of their men, the maids, singers and dancers… That is why Cleopatra says to her lover Antony…: I fear that a war will break out between my country and yours, and that honorable men and respectable women will die, and Strippers will take revenge on their masters, and slave traders will take revenge on their princes. …This is what actually happened and became famous after World War II…and other wars.
This is a balanced, wise article written with humanity, spirituality, and compassion. It traces the origins of the veil, and resonates with scholarship. Here is a write up that will strike a chord with all sane and right thinking people.
Ms Alborsan deserves accolades for an article that is clear, lucidly and fluently written. I thank this journal for bringing this to the public