Q&A

Q. What are the requirements for Muslim women's dress?

         A: Rules regarding Muslim women's (and men's) attire are derived from
              the Quran, Islam's revealed text, and the traditions (hadith) of the
              Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). In the Quran, God states: "Say to
              the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their
              modesty...And say to the believing women that they should lower their
              gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty
              and adornments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they
              should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty
              except to their husbands, their fathers...(a list of exceptions)"
              [Chapter 24, verses 30-31] Also, "O Prophet! Tell thy wives and
              daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer
              garments over their persons...that they should be known and not
              molested." [Chapter 33, verse 59]

              In one tradition, the Prophet Muhammad is quoted as saying: "...If the
              woman reaches the age of puberty, no part of her body should be seen but
              this --- and he pointed to his face and hands."

              From these and other references, the vast majority of Muslim scholars
              and jurists, past and present, have determined the minimum requirements
              for Muslim women's dress: 1) Clothing must cover the entire body, with
              the exception of the face and the hands. 2) The attire should not be
              form fitting, sheer or so eye-catching as to attract undue attention or
              reveal the shape of the body.

              There are similar, yet less obvious requirements for a Muslim male's
              attire. 1) A Muslim man must always be covered from the navel to the
              knees. 2) A Muslim man should similarly not wear tight, sheer,
              revealing, or eye-catching clothing. In addition, a Muslim man is
              prohibited from wearing silk clothing (except for medical reasons) or
              gold jewelry. A Muslim woman may wear silk or gold.

              (References: "The Muslim Woman's Dress," Dr. Jamal Badawi, Ta-Ha
              Publishers; "Hijab in Islam," Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Al-Risala Books;
              "The Islamic Ruling Regarding Women's Dress," Abu Bilal Mustafa
              Al-Kanadi, Abul-Qasim Publishing; "Islamic Dress," Muslim Women of 
              Minnesota; "Your Hijab and U.S. Law," North American Council for Muslim 

A reader on Muslimette.com left an interesting comment today, which reads:

“You’re right – non-muslims don’t have much problem with the hijab. It’s muslim girls and women who are ‘ashamed’ of it in a way. To some people, wearing a hijab is akin to slumming it, like not living up to what life is offering. But we have to face it – this life here is just a transition spot for the true believing Muslim. Sad and such a shame they cannot realize that…” -Z.

I have been wearing hijab since I was about 12 or 13 years-old and I can honestly say that I’ve heard more negative comments about it from Muslim women than from non-Muslims. None of these women actually wore the hijab and their reasons for not doing so range from “the hijab makes my hair fall out” to “I will start wearing hijabs once I’m out of college”… I wouldn’t say that I’ve heard a lot of these comments, but I’ve heard enough of them. On the other hand, I’ve only heard one or two negative comments about hijab from non-Muslims in my entire life (not counting the stupid things that a few people have said in my blog comments).


What about you? Do you agree or disagree with Z’s statement? Have you encountered more Muslim women who dislike the hijab or more non-Muslims who have a problem with it? If possible, please let us know what country you live in so that we can get a feel for what it’s like in different parts of the world.

John Esposito, professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, writes that the customs of veiling and seclusion of women in early Islam were assimilated from the conquered Persian and Byzantine societies and then later on they were viewed as appropriate expressions of Quranic norms and values. The Qur'an does not stipulate veiling or seclusion; on the contrary, it tends to emphasize the participation of religious responsibility of both men and women in society.^[22] He claims that "in the midst of rapid social and economic change when traditional security and support systems are increasingly eroded and replaced by the state, (...) hijab maintains that the state has failed to provide equal rights for men and women because the debate has been conducted within the Islamic framework, which provides women with equivalent rather than equal rights within the family."^[23]

Bloom and Blair also write that the Qur'an does not require women to wear veils; rather, it was a social habit picked up with the expansion of Islam. In fact, since it was impractical for working women to wear veils, "A veiled woman silently announced that her husband was rich enough to keep her idle

Qur'an

The Qur'an instructs both Muslim men and women to dress in a modest way.

The clearest verse on the requirement of the hijab is surah 24:30–31, asking women to draw their khimar over their bosoms.^[5][6]

Say to the believing men that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts; that is purer for them; surely Allah is Aware of what they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their khimar over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to [...] (Qur'an 24:30-31)

In the following verse, Muslim women are asked to draw their jilbab over them (when they go out), as a measure to distinguish themselves from others, so that they are not harassed. Sura 33:59 reads:^[6]

Those who harass believing men and believing women undeservedly, bear (on themselves) a calumny and a grievous sin. O Prophet! Enjoin your wives, your daughters, and the wives of true believers that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad) That is most convenient, that they may be distinguished and not be harassed. [...] (Qur'an 33:58–59)

 Alternative views

Women's head scarves for sale in East Jerusalem

Other Muslims take a relativist approach to ħijāb. They believe that the commandment to maintain modesty must be interpreted with regard to the surrounding society. What is considered modest or daring in one society may not be considered so in another. It is important, they say, for believers to wear clothing that communicates modesty and reserve in the situations in which they find themselves.^[7]

Along with scriptural arguments, Leila Ahmed argues that head covering should not be compulsory in Islam because the veil predates the revelation of the Qur'an. Head-covering was introduced into Arabia long before Muhammad, primarily through Arab contacts with Syria and Iran, where the hijab was a sign of social status. After all, only a woman who need not work in the fields could afford to remain secluded and veiled.^[8][9]

Ahmed argues for a more liberal approach to hijab. Among her arguments is that while some Qur'anic verses enjoin women in general to "draw their Jilbabs (overgarment or cloak) around them to be recognized as believers and so that no harm will come to them"^{[Qur'an 33:58–59]} and "guard their private parts... and drape down khimar over their breasts [when in the presence of unrelated men]",^{[Qur'an 24:31]} they urge modesty.

However according to the vast majority of Muslims Sunni and Shia, al-Mawrid al-Qawrid Arabic dictionary, Hans-Wehr Dictionary of Arabic into English, and the exhaustive ancient Arabic dictionary Lisan al-arab (literally the tongue of the Arabs), the word "Khimar" means and was used to refer to a piece of cloth that covers the head, or headscarf today called "hijab".

Other verses do mention separation of men and women but they refer specifically to the wives of the prophet:

Abide still in your homes and make not a dazzling display like that of the former times of ignorance^{[Qur'an 33:32–33]}

And when ye ask of them [the wives of the Prophet] anything, ask it of them from behind a curtain.^{[Qur'an 33:53]}

According to Leila Ahmed, nowhere in the whole of the Qur'an is the term hijab applied to any woman other than the wives of Muhammad.^[8][10]

According to at least two authors (Reza Aslam and Leila Ahmed), the stipulations of the hijab were originally meant only for Muhammad's wives, and were intended to maintain their inviolability. This was because Muhammad conducted all religious and civic affairs in the mosque adjacent to his home:

People were constantly coming in and out of this compound at all hours of the day. When delegations from other tribes come to speak with Prophet Muhammad, they would set up their tents for days at a time inside the open courtyard, just a few feet away from the apartments in which Prophet Muhammad's wives slept. And new emigrants who arrived in Yatrib would often stay within the mosque's walls until they could find suitable homes.^[8]

:According to Ahmed

By instituting seclusion Prophet Muhammad was creating a distance between his wives and this thronging community on their doorstep.^[11]

They argue that the term darabat al-hijab ("taking the veil"), was used synonymously and interchangeably with "becoming Prophet Muhammad's wife", and that during Muhammad's life, no other Muslim woman wore the hijab. Aslam suggests that Muslim women started to wear the hijab to emulate Muhammad's wives, who are revered as "Mothers of the Believers" in Islam,^[8] and states "there was no tradition of veiling until around 627 C.E." in the Muslim community.^[

^{The Hadith is in enjubment............o}

According to the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, the meaning of hijab has evolved over time:

The term hijab or veil is not used in the Qur'an to refer to an article of clothing for women or men, rather it refers to a spatial curtain that divides or provides privacy. The Qur'an instructs the male believers (Muslims) to talk to wives of Prophet Muhammad behind a hijab. This hijab was the responsibility of the men and not the wives of Prophet Muhammad. However, in later Muslim societies this instruction, specific to the wives of Prophet Muhammad, was generalized, leading to the segregation of the Muslim men and women. The modesty in Qur'an concerns both men's and women's gaze, gait, garments, and genitalia. The clothing for women involves khumūr over the necklines and jilbab (cloaks) in public so that they may be identified and not harmed. Guidelines for covering of the entire body except for the hands, the feet and the face, are found in texts of fiqh and hadith that are developed later.^[4]

One of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, Ayatullah Murtadha Mutahhari in one of his masterpieces on this subject, The Islamic Modest Dress, says:

"The fact is that the covering or its new expression, hijab, is not concerned with whether or not it is good for a woman to appear in society covered or uncovered . The point is whether or not a woman and a man's need of her should be a limitless, free association or not. Should a man have the right to satisfy his needs with every woman and in every place short of committing adultery?Islam, which looks at the spirit of the problem, answers: No. Men are only allowed to satisfy their s.e.x.u.al desires with their legal wives within a marital situation based upon the laws of marriage which establish a series of heavy commitments. It is forbidden for men to have any physical relations with women they are not related to by marriage."

In Indonesia, notably the nation with the largest Muslim population, and some cultures or languages influenced by it namely Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines, the term jilbab is used instead with few exceptions to refer to the hijab, as opposed to its "correct" modern Arabic definition. In some cases, colloquial use of the term Jilbab may refer to any pre-Islamic female traditional head-dress

The word "hijab" or "ḥijāb", (he-zjab)pronounced [ħiˈʒæːb] / [ħiˈɡæːb]) refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general

The Arabic word literally means curtain or cover (noun). Most Islamic legal systems define this type of modest dressing as covering everything except the face and hands in public.^[1][2] According to Islamic scholarship, hijab is given the wider meaning of modesty, privacy, and morality;^[3] the word for a headscarf or veil used in the Qur'an is khimār (خمار) and not hijab. Still another definition is metaphysical, where al-hijab refers to "the veil which separates man or the world from God."^[2]

Muslims differ as to whether the hijab should be required on women in public, as it is in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia; whether it should be banned in schools, as it is in France and Turkey; or whether it should be left for the women to decide