To Veil or Not to Veil: Thoughts On Modesty

I noted with interest a column in The Globe and Mail by Farzana Hassan and Tarek Fatah of the Canadian Muslim Congress arguing that what is today regarded as Islamic dress “has nothing to do with morality” or even Islam. The authors note that “[t]here is not a single reference in the Koran that obliges Muslim women to cover their hair or their face. The only verse that comes close to such a dress code (Sura 24, ‘The Light,’ verse 31) directs believing women to let their head coverings obscure their bosoms.” Hassan and Fatah lament the malevolent influence of “Islamists” who “have turned the hijab into the central pillar of Islam.”

The Legitimacy of the Veil

While Hassan and Fatah probably mean well and while many share their point of view, it is ultimately not credible. The authors’ argument hinges upon the fact that the hijab is not mentioned in the Qur’an. But the Islamic head covering is mentioned many times in the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (hadith, pl. ahaadith.) To reject these traditions is to reject a fundamental element of Islamic theology and to effectively become an apostate. While some question this viewpoint, they are an eccentric minority with no following at major theological institutions from al-Azhar to Qom.

To counter the claims of Fatah and Hassan, here is just one example of contrary evidence:

Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: Asma bint Abu Bakr, entered upon the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) wearing thin clothes. The Apostle 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 her face and hands.

There are many other examples.

The real debate is not whether the hijab is required, but whether it is required to cover the entire body or just everything except the face and hands. Hardcore Salafis believe the entire body must be covered (I have seen a lot of this in London and Saudi-influenced places in the USA) whereas moderates feel that the face and hands do not need to be covered.

Excerpt from an Indonesian textbook.

Hassan and Fatah are pretending that their own theology does not exist. In this they are just like the Saudi-subsidized John Esposito, whose Islam: The Straight Path similarly asserts (see p.98, for example) that the hijab is not part of Islam and that it was just a custom borrowed from the Byzantines. I can sympathize with these apologists; the Western world, with its comparatively liberal view on women’s dress code, would be far more accepting of Islam if it believed that the requirement is just to be “modest.” But for thinking believers, the hijab is not just modesty, but an act of obedience, purity, righteousness, a symbol of faith, bashfulness (“part of the nature of women”), and a shield against jealousy.

Thoughts on the Veil’s Psychological and Social Effects: The Case of the Australian Mufti

Because the hijab is regarded as central to female virtue, unveiled women are by definition less virtuous. Many young Muslim men regard unveiled women as fair game for verbal or physical harassment. In one example, Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, gained notoriety when he stated that non-Islamic sexual activity is

90% the woman’s responsibility. Why? Because a woman owns the weapon of seduction. It’s she who takes off her clothes, shortens them, flirts, puts on make-up and powder and takes to the streets, God protect us, dallying…Then, it’s a look, a smile, a conversation, a greeting, a talk, a date, a meeting, a crime, then Long Bay jail. Then you get a judge, who has no mercy, and he gives you 65 years.

Al-Hilali was referring to the Sydney gang rapes of 2000, in which 14 Muslim Australian youths were convicted of sadistically and enthusiastically gang-raping 14-16 year-old Australian girls. The girls were told, among other things: "You deserve it because you’re an Australian." While calling for more friends to join in on the rapes, one of the assailants wrote in an SMS: "When you are feeling down ...bash a Christian or Catholic and lift up!"

Al-Hilali goes on to compare non-Muslim Australian women to “uncovered meat,” citing the writer al-Rafihi:

…if [he] came across a rape crime, [he said he] would discipline the man and order that the woman be jailed for life…because if she had not left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldn’t have snatched it... If you take uncovered meat and put it on the street, on the pavement, in a garden, in a park, or in the backyard, without a cover and the cats eat it, then whose fault will it be, the cats, or the uncovered meat’s? … If the woman is…wearing the veil and if she shows modesty, disasters don’t happen.

Al-Hilali is not part of any “tiny minority of extremists” – on the contrary, he was elected Mufti by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, serving in that role for almost twenty years. When some criticized Hilali’s comments he replied that he was only trying to protect women’s modesty.

British Muslim and Islamic scholar Abduljalil Sajid, prominent member of the Muslim Council of Britain, defended al-Hilali, saying that “his intentions are noble in order to make morality and modesty part of our overall society,” and that his words had been “taken out of context.”

Support for Al-Hilali also emerged from Denmark, where another mufti declared that women who do not wear headscarves are “asking for rape.”

Being unveiled is a symbol of moral corruption, a mark of whores and unbelievers. This view reasonates, in the words of Australian Muslim moderate Tanveed Ahmed, “with social conservatives in general, who see human freedoms, especially with regard to sexuality, as having gone too far.”

Some youths in Sweden are inclined to agree (translation courtesy of a friend.)

“It is not as wrong raping a Swedish girl as raping an Arab girl,” says Hamid. “The Swedish girl gets a lot of help afterwards, and she had probably fucked before, anyway. But the Arab girl will get problems with her family. For her, being raped is a source of shame. It is important that she retains her virginity until she marries.”

“It is far too easy to get a Swedish whore… girl, I mean,” says Hamid, and laughs over his own choice of words. “Many immigrant boys have Swedish girlfriends when they are teenagers. But when they get married, they get a proper woman from their own culture who has never been with a boy. That’s what I am going to do. I don’t have too much respect for Swedish girls. I guess you can say they get fucked to pieces.”

This Swedish girl wasn't veiled; obviously she was "asking for rape."