The
West Embraces the Hijab as Muslim Women Risk Their Lives for the Right to
Choose
by Abigail R. Esman
Special to IPT News
February 13, 2018
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 Of all the photos of
my wedding day, one has always carried a particular, unique kind of joy. It
is an image not of me but of my bridesmaid, an Iraqi refugee, throwing her
bare arms gleefully into the air, her black curls tumbling freely down her
back. She had chosen the occasion of my wedding to remove the headscarf she
had worn for decades – of her own choosing, to be clear, but with the
belief that wearing it was a measure of her piety, her integrity, her
virtue.
Yet, here she was, scarfless, and still pious, still virtuous – only
visibly so profoundly, richly happier than she had been before. A former
"fixer" from Basra who had been kidnapped and shot alongside
journalist Steven Vincent (who was killed in the attack), she had
been in America just barely more than a year.
I have thought of that photo frequently during the latest uprisings in
Iran, as dozens of women risk arrest or perhaps worse by removing their hijabs in public. For my bridesmaid and
me, that day marked a passage and a moment of unforgettable elation. I
imagine a similar feeling has come to each of the women in Iran as well,
for all the dangers they confront because of it.
I have also thought of that photograph as I watch Western cultures,
frequently tripped up by the manipulations arguments of pro-hijab Islamists
and concerns about perceived notions of justice, increasingly embrace that
same cloth. Oddly, but not insignificantly or surprisingly, from British schools that debate allowing girls as young as
9 to wear the hijab, to a new "Hijab Barbie," to clothing lines developed
by Macy's, Nike and others, the West's concern seems to be far
more about perceived "Islamophobia" than misogyny. Oddly, but not
insignificantly or surprisingly, neither schools nor corporations have
shown a similar desire to embrace the orthodox religious clothing choices
of other groups. Where, for instance, is Orthodox Jewish "Sheitel
(Wig) Barbie"? Oddly, but not insignificantly or surprisingly, this
overwhelming concern about religious attire both overlooks and negates the
hijab's sexualization of women and young girls, just as Western countries,
hyped by the #metoo movement, are obsessing over the sexualization of women
and young girls.
In fact, the new celebration of the hijab seems to be about celebrating
all those things that we in the West generally condemn: pushing a new
"must" trend for women in fashion and behavior; showing
preference for one religious group over another; and above all, increasing
the very real risks to those Muslim women who choose not to wear a head-covering
by making models and icons of those who do.
Which is why the implications of all of these pro-hijab gestures should
worry feminists and all secular Americans – feminist or not. Barbie, after
all, was never about reflecting what girls really look like, or making them
feel "included:" Barbie is an unrealistic ideal, the ludicrously-proportioned
eternal 20-year-old beauty whom girls are meant to aspire to be. Similarly,
Macy's new clothing line supports, rather than discourages, a conservative
view of Islam that represses women, in place of encouraging Muslim girls to
assimilate and strive for greater freedom. Not to mention the patronizing
assumption in a "modest" line of clothing that somehow Muslim
women are incapable of putting together their own more modest outfits
without the help of a Macy's label.
And yet all of this occurs in a kind of tone-deafness, not only to the
implications of a growing pro-hijabi, conservative Muslim culture, but to
the protests of Muslim women around the world who are calling for it to
stop. Moderate Muslims. Secular Muslims.
Those women, and the brave protesters in Iran, merited no mention in the
Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) news release Friday urging people to support Macy's new
"Muslim-friendly modest attire that is coming under attack by
Islamophobes."
In the UK, meanwhile, even as the Foreign Office invited its staff to cover their heads to recognize
World Hijab Day, a group of Muslim women has petitioned the education secretary to "demand that
no young girls (especially not in state-funded schools) should be forced
into conservative forms of dress." Or as the activist and journalist
Asra Nomani put it in a 2016 New York Times op-ed on "World Hijab
Day"– a day when non-hijabi-wearing women are encouraged to don the
scarf , "Today, well-intentioned women are wearing headscarves in
interfaith 'solidarity.' But to us, they stand on the wrong side of a
lethal war of ideas that sexually objectifies women as vessels for honor
and temptation, absolving men of personal responsibility. This purity
culture covers, segregates, subordinates, silences, jails, and kills women
and girls around the world."
Others have noted the lack of any religious mandate for the veil, a
garment that has traditional, but not Quranic origins. According to
University of North Carolina professor Sahar Amer, the word "hijab," which means "barrier," is
never used in the Quran "to describe, let alone prescribe, the
necessity for Muslim women to wear a headscarf or any other pieces of
clothing often seen covering women in Islamic countries today. Even after
reading those passages dealing with the female dress code, one continues to
wonder what exactly the hijab is: is it a simple scarf? A purdah [burqa]? A
chador? Or something else? Which parts of the body exactly is it supposed
to cover? Just the hair? The hair and neck? The arms? Hands? Feet? Face?
Eyes?"
Some, however, argue that the hijab makes them feel liberated, freed of
the sexualization of women in contemporary culture. But it is a false
sense. As Nomani and others note, the purpose of the hijab is specifically
to "protect" women because they are nothing but sexual objects
who need to be covered, hidden, protected from the lust of men who see them
as nothing but the objects of their desire. "Veils for me represent
both religious arrogance and subjugation: they both desexualize and
fervidly sexualize," journalist Yasmin Alibhai Brown, a British-born
Muslim, wrote in the Guardian. "Women are primarily
seen as sexual creatures whose hair and bodies incite desire and disorder
in the public space. The claim that veils protect women from lasciviousness
and disrespect carries an element of self-deception."
True, a hijabi woman does not wear her scarf in private, around her
female friends. But I remember my bridesmaid in the year before she shed
her scarf; even at home, she remained always slightly on alert. An
electrician might come. A neighbor. A man. One had to be careful. One had
to be prepared. It was a state of constant anxiety, as if facing an
unpredictable but inevitable attack.
No woman, no girl, should be encouraged – let alone forced – to live in
this kind of fear. No girl, no woman, should be urged to hide the person
that she is. And no woman should be celebrated for her subjugation. As
ex-Muslim Yasmine
Mohammed, author of the upcoming From Al Qaeda to Atheism, tweeted recently, "The absurdity of #feminists in
the West embracing modesty culture while their disempowered sisters in the
#Muslim world risk arrest, imprisonment, and worse to free themselves from
the #hijab would be comical if it wasn't so tragic."
That tragedy is real, and increasingly, Western corporate and academic
cultures are complicit in its reality. I think of my joyful bridesmaid, her
arms stretched skyward into the August afternoon, and wonder why we aren't
building this reality instead.
Abigail R. Esman, the author, most recently, of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in
the West (Praeger, 2010), is a freelance writer based in New
York and the Netherlands. Follow her at @radicalstates.
Related Topics: The
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) | Abigail
R. Esman, hijab,
feminists,
Iran
protests, marketing,
Macy's,
Barbie,
Nike,
World
Hijab Day, Asra
Nomani, Sahar
Amer, Yasmin
Alibhai Brown, Yasmine
Mohammed, The
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
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