Symbolism of the Hijab and the Veil

Sym­bols may come off as strong polit­i­cal state­ments that arbi­trar­i­ly mean to impress with human sen­ti­men­tal­i­ty the his­tor­i­cal suf­fer­ing they have cost. Reli­gious sym­bol­ism, how­ev­er, comes with a mark of author­i­ty to sep­a­rate itself as an abso­lutist and total­i­tar­i­an mark. Hijab and veil, more or less, a reli­gious sym­bol does come with many an inter­pre­ta­tions, and with many affil­i­a­tions. For many, it is the word of God that must be upheld, for oth­ers, it is the sym­bol of oppres­sion of women who are denied their free will. While it may be true that hijab means absolv­ing of free will before the word of God, but not all Mus­lim women observe it. The mat­ter becomes worse if it is made com­pul­so­ry by the State, as in Sau­di Ara­bia and Iran, because it is there the mat­ter of free will becomes a ques­tion mark.

Before delv­ing fur­ther into the top­ic of hijab and veil, it is impor­tant to under­stand its con­cept. Hijab, as pri­mar­i­ly seen, is the sup­posed way of life for the women in Islam. How­ev­er, it does not elim­i­nate the fact that it is a sym­bol of patri­archy which admin­is­ters the code of dress and life dic­tat­ed to women. Hijab serves the pur­pose of ensur­ing mod­esty for women, as implied pro­tec­tion from male’s pranc­ing eyes. Also as a mea­sure for women to show them­selves only before their male guardians. This con­cept of guardian­ship seems akin to own­er­ship of women. It is more about pro­tect­ing objects and hon­or of men than pro­tect­ing women. The assump­tion that hijab is a sym­bol of pro­tec­tion needs a lot of evi­dence to back it up. Vio­lence against women has noth­ing to do with her cloth­ing, it rests with the intent of her per­pe­tra­tor. So hijab as a pro­tec­tion seems absurd, in fact, it can have a neg­a­tive impli­ca­tion for women who lack the con­fi­dence to face the world on their own. Some say that a woman wear­ing hijab is more respect­ed than a woman with­out it. This is again a dan­ger­ous asser­tion, preach­ing that respect for woman is only con­di­tion­al. There is not enough evi­dence to sub­stan­ti­ate that hijab is a neces­si­ty, rather, it is an ordi­na­tion from God to observe it, hence it braces itself as a com­pul­sion.

There are dif­fer­ent inter­pre­ta­tions on the mat­ter of hijab, though some ambi­gu­i­ty is involved. Most Mus­lim women don’t observe it. In con­trolled Mus­lim soci­eties, it comes as an absur­di­ty for women not to observe it and may even face penal­ties for not doing so. To gain social accep­tance women wear it, so they don’t feel alien­at­ed. It is under­stand­able why it becomes a mat­ter of free will for them when it comes to wear­ing one.

Hijab becomes a con­tro­ver­sy in the polit­i­cal spec­trum. More so, because in the glob­al con­text, a hijab has become an iden­ti­ty sym­bol, and comes as a force for Mus­lims to assert them­selves. In coun­tries like France and Turkey which bans hijab on cam­pus, many women wear it as an act of rebel­lion more than as an act of vir­tu­ous­ness. This is their nat­ur­al reac­tion in the West, where they are stereo­typed and opposed direct­ly or sub­lim­i­nal­ly. To many, hijab is also a mark­er of immi­gra­tion and assim­i­la­tion into the west­ern soci­eties, the rea­son why many con­ser­v­a­tives oppose immi­grants.

Pol­i­cy mak­ers in the West have a hard time devis­ing ways to ensure free­dom and will in their coun­tries, how­ev­er, their dou­ble stan­dards come at play when they ban hijab for women. The mat­ter gets eas­i­ly obfus­cat­ed when free­dom to prac­tice reli­gion and free­dom to ensure inde­pen­dent will of the indi­vid­ual hangs in bal­ance. Allow­ing head cov­er­ing does ensure free­dom to prac­tice reli­gion at the State lev­el but it can­not ensure free will on the domes­tic front.

Trou­ble in coun­tries that make it com­pul­so­ry for women to observe hijab is infring­ing on the free­dom of women who want to dress their way. That is when the Hijab comes under crit­i­cism of being an oppres­sive tool for Mus­lim women. But when looked at the coun­tries that ban it, it again does look as a tool to oppress women in the ways they want to dress them­selves in their reli­gious code. There is no jus­ti­fi­ca­tion in ban­ning it, because a woman must not be told how she should be dressed.

Hijab is also a mat­ter of cul­tur­al assim­i­la­tion into dif­fer­ent soci­eties. It is not humane to force a woman out of veil, what she has been prac­tic­ing all her life. Since child­hood, she’s been nur­tured about her mod­esty and wear­ing of head cov­er to pro­tect the will of God. It also has to do with tra­di­tions and cus­toms she is com­ing from, that may not nec­es­sar­i­ly be reli­gious in nature at all. So to assume that she does not have free will to wear it might be wrong, because she’ll be tak­ing it along even in envi­ron­ments where there is no com­pul­sion to wear it. To tell her to do away with it through leg­is­la­tion or by force will be a trau­ma­tiz­ing expe­ri­ence for her. Just the same way if a woman who has nev­er worn it in life is com­pelled to wear it.

In Pakistan’s case, there is a mixed soci­ety that thrives here. The wear­ing of veil is not as com­mon in rur­al Pun­jab and Sindh as much as it is in the urban cen­ters among the mid­dle class and upper mid­dle class in some cas­es. The soci­ety appears to be com­par­a­tive­ly much more rad­i­cal­ized today than it was in pre Zia era in the 70’s. With the rise of Madaris and home based tableeghi cen­ters, as run by Farhat Hashmi’s Al-Huda Cen­ter which also has sym­pa­thies with a rad­i­cal group of Jamia Haf­sa of Lal Masjid. The home based cen­ters have sprung up recent­ly with the help of for­eign fund­ing, pur­port­ed­ly by the Tak­firi and Salafist financiers main­ly based in the Mid­dle East. The wear­ing of veil in today’s Pak­istan is more reflec­tive of the mind­set that is creep­ing in today, that of sub­mis­sive­ness of women.

The hijab, or veil, what­ev­er sym­bol­ism is attached with it, should not mean to admon­ish it or demean it. It is a right of a woman if she so choos­es to wear it. How­ev­er, the mind­set that is affil­i­at­ed with it must be coun­tered through dia­logue and edu­ca­tion. The free will must be ensured through sophis­ti­cat­ed leg­is­la­tions. Out­right ban­ning of the hijab or the veil is bound to gar­ner more neg­a­tive reac­tion and even aggres­sion over these steps. The hijab will remain at the cen­ter of con­tro­ver­sy in the wake of Mus­lim polit­i­cal maneu­ver­ings in the world and as a sym­bol of con­trol by the Mus­lim rad­i­cals to dic­tate women on how they should live their lives.