WE NEED FIRST to shed some light on the plurality of religious opinions and interpretations, old and new, concerning the issue of the hijab. This pluralism embraces both flexible and moderate opinions alongside hardline views, and demonstrate how extremist views became predominant in society not because they were the most authentic expression of the faith but because they were the most authentic expression of the patriarchal culture dominating society.

Secondly, we need to address the subject of the hijab and women’s fashion as a socio-cultural issue, one in which there are many and various points of view, rather than as a binary issue of faith (for religion, or against religion). Following the rise of political Islam groups in Muslim majority states since the seventies of the twentieth century, the hijab was turned into a political slogan as these groups endeavoured to promote it by various means in a bid to assert their political dominance over society.

The best example of this is how the ruling Islamist regime in Sudan – in its early years at the peak of its militancy – required Sudanese women appearing on state television to don the hijab, whether they were presenters or simply guests on the various programmes. If a presenter refused to wear the hijab, she was dismissed from her post. Yet the same television channel broadcast Egyptian and Syrian serials and foreign films featuring women unveiled. 

Now if the hijab is a religious requirement, what would be the religious logic in imposing it on Sudanese women only for Muslim women of other nationalities to be allowed to appear unveiled? The only logic one can discern in this was that the regime aimed to send a political message, both within the country and abroad, that it had ‘reshaped’ the Sudanese in line to its ideology.  

It is not possible here to present all the Islamic texts, ancient and modern, relevant to the subject of the hijab and its interpretations, so I will limit myself to some examples.

What is a hijab?

The word ḥijāb never appeared in the Holy Qur’ān in the sense of ‘a costume that women are obligated to wear’, and never in any context on ‘the features of women’s clothing’. The word ḥijāb is mentioned in several verses but with different meanings. The verse where the word ḥijāb appears in a context related to the situation of women where the Almighty says:

O you who believe! do not enter the houses of the Prophet unless permission is given to you for a meal, not waiting for its cooking being finished – but when you are invited, enter, and when you have taken the food, then disperse – not seeking to listen to talk; surely this gives the Prophet trouble, but he forbears from you, and Allah does not forbear from the truth. And when you ask of them any goods, ask of them from behind a curtain; this is purer for your hearts and (for) their hearts; and it does not behove you that you should give trouble to the Messenger of Allah, nor that you should marry his wives after him ever; surely this is grievous in the sight of Allah. ^[1]

In this verse the discussion about the women of the Prophet and the word ḥijab mentioned there denotes a physical ‘division’ or wall that separates the Prophet’s women from those who ask them for goods, and this was a peculiarity of the Prophet’s household.

However, some inferred from this verse that the ḥijab denoted an Islamic social system to be applied not only in the Prophet’s own household but to all Muslims, and that therefore the social interaction of men and women is forbidden: any dialogue between a man and a woman must therefore take place from behind a wall or a curtain in compliance with the guidance that the verse was giving: And when you ask of them any goods, ask of them from behind a curtain. Since the idea of women staying at home throughout their entire life is an impossibility, if they do go out they are to wear a garment covering their entire body, including the face and hands.

A face covering

Those who hold that a woman should cover her face (that is, wear the niqāb or the burqa^[2]) cite for justification the verse:

O Prophet! say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers that they let down upon them their over-garments; this will be more proper, that they may be recognised, and thus they will not be given trouble; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. ^[3]

This verse does make any explicit command to cover the face but it is nevertheless interpreted as such. This interpretation is the product of the prevailing cultural and social environment, 

Yet even in these antique, traditional interpretations of this verse, it was reported that women were commanded to draw part of the jilbab – a cloth that at that time covered the hair with the rest draped down the woman’s back. They were ordered to draw that jilbab over their chest to cover it, and some interpretations of the verse mentioned ‘covering the chest’ and did not include in this the face, while others did require covering the face.

The verse was adduced as evidence for covering the chest: this will be more proper, that they may be recognised, and thus they will not be given trouble – that is that a proper distinction is made between them as freeborn woman and slaves. Since slavery was prevalent, the freeborn women were required to wear something to distinguish them from slaves that they may be recognised, and thus they will not be given trouble (i.e. molested). This text addresses a social and historical context entirely different from our own contemporary context.

All the Qur’ānic texts that included instructions on dress commanded the believing women to make an adjustment to their costumes in such a way that made them conceal the chest, but there was no clear and direct command of any sort to cover the face or even the entire head. For example, there is this verse in Sūrat al-Nūr:

And say to the believing women that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts and do not display their ornaments except what appears thereof, and let them wear their head-coverings [khumur] over their bosoms, and not display their ornaments except to their husbands or their fathers, or the fathers of their husbands, or their sons, or the sons of their husbands, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or those whom their right hands possess, or the male servants not having need (of women), or the children who have not attained knowledge of what is hidden of women; and let them not strike their feet so that what they hide of their ornaments may be known; and turn to Allah all of you, O believers! so that you may be successful.^[4]

Commenting on this verse Ibn ‘Abbās said the following: 

Before this verse was revealed women used to let their head-coverings [khumur] drape behind their back, just as the Nabataeans do. But when this verse was revealed, they draped them over the breasts and the upper chest.

The addition of the pronominal suffix -hinna (‘their’) in the word khumuri-hinna (‘their head-scarfs’) indicates that khimar (‘headscarf’ – sing.) which is the head covering, was part of the clothing of women before Islam. In the commentary Al-Libāb by Ibn ‘Ādil, we have the following:

The women of the pre-Islamic era used to let their khimar drape behind them, and their folds were at the front. Their upper chests and necklaces were showing, so they were commanded to tie their head veils over these folds and to cover their upper chests and necks.

As for the phrase and do not display their ornaments except what appears thereof, there are different interpretations. Some interpreted it as ‘rings’ or ‘bracelets’, and others as kohl and other facial ornamentation. Still more interpreted it to mean ornamentation on clothes or as ‘the face and hands’ on the basis of a hadith mentioned in the Sunan Abī Dāwūd:

Asma, daughter of Abū Bakr, entered upon the Messenger of Allah wearing thin clothes. The Messenger of Allah turned his attention from her. He said: “O Asma, when a woman reaches the age of menstruation, it does not suit her that she displays her parts of body except this and this”, and he pointed to his face and hands.^[5]

There are those who infer from this hadith that the Islamic dress is one that shows only the face and hands. But the hadith is weak by the classification standards of hadiths, and is thus rejected by hardliners who say that the face must be covered on the grounds of the “interpretations” of the above Qur’ānic verses,. But it should be said that the above verses themselves have different interpretations, and any conclusions that it is the face that is to be covered are merely independent scholarly reasonings (ijtihad) conclusions arrived at by just some commentators and jurists.

Conclusion

All the verses that dealt with female costume did not name this costume as hijab.  They simply commanded women to make an adjustments to their usual way of dressing and did not order the face to be covered, or even the entire head, which used to be customarily covered by women. The part of the body that the verses ordered to be covered was the chest, a large part of which was revealed by women’s dress at that time in a way that brought them molestation from the ignorant. All these texts are closely interwoven with the social circumstances of a particular stage in history, one in which slavery, for example, which is now an extinct system. 

Thus it is clear that using the name hijab to refer to a type of dress that includes the covering of the head and the entire body, while showing the face and hands, or calling using it to refer to a type of dress that covers the entire body of a woman, including her face – is merely a human ijtihād. There is no ‘religious ritual’ or ‘worship’ in Islam known as hijab and the phrase ‘muḥajjaba (‘veiled’) woman’ or ‘wearing the hijab‘ are all newly coined societal terms which have in recent decades become widespread in many Muslim countries following the rise of political Islam movements and the tide of Salafism.

Suggested Reading

The Hijab is a political slogan – 2

I can therefore respect that style of dress where women cover their body except for the face and hands as a personal choice. But I do not call it hijab, and nor do I surround it with any aura of religious sanctification. It is the right of Muslim women, of course, to believe that this form of dress is a religious obligation, or that it is the dress most expressive of commitment to the ethics of modesty. Modesty is undoubtedly a religiously obligatory duty for Muslims – men and women – and constitutes the general purpose that may be deduced from the above Qur’ānic verses. It is entirely legitimate for anyone who feels reassured by this outfit and wants to wear it through religious motives, to do so as an “individual and voluntary” discretionary choice. It is our duty to respect it and stand firmly against those who persecute those who wear it on the basis that it is incompatible with liberation. We way this as a matter of human rights and religious and personal freedom. 

Yet it is with the same firmness that we must stand against the imposition of this uniform by law or regulation and against the persecution of those who do not wear it. 

As for the niqab and the covering of the face, and that black tent that erases the identity of women and hinders their social communication, that is only a slightly milder version of female infanticide – from my point of view. The niqab is a form of social infanticide that many Muslims have laboured hard to associate with the religion, not because there is strong evidence for this obligation in the noble Qur’ān – the texts differ as to their interpretation – but because it intersects with passions in a prevailing patriarchal culture that seeks to exclude women from public life. Even so the repressive methods adopted for combating it are useless, and themselves contrary to the principle of personal freedom. The only circumstances in which the law may interfere in obliging women to reveal their faces are when verification is required of personal identity – travel, commercial and financial transactions, examinations, voting in elections, entering public facilities, driving a car, and so on.

^[1] Qur’ān XXXIII (al-Aḥzāb), 53.

^[2] The terms are not synonymous with ḥijab. The niqāb covers the face and such that only the eyes and hands are seen; the burqacovers everything leaving just a mesh screen for the woman to see through.

^[3] Qur’ān XXXIII (al-Aḥzāb), 59.

^[4] Qur’ān XXIV (al-Nūr), 31.

^[5] https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4104