HIJAB- liberating or suffocating

Many people, who are Non-Muslims, have asked me this question-“Why do you wear Hijab?” As I get down to answering this question, I feel greatly annoyed that many of them have a preconceived notion that I am being forced to wear Hijab. They feel that my right as a woman is being undermined because of my Hijab, so to clear all these misunderstandings I thought of sitting down and writing this article today.

I wanted to list out the conversation that I usually have when someone asks me about my Hijab.

Q. Why do Muslim women wear Hijab?

A. Firstly, it is an order from Allah (S.W.T), and he knows best what is good and bad for us. We do not know what Allah (S.W.T) knows.

Secondly, on a more personal level Hijab is not a compulsion but a choice; I have chosen to make this choice.

Q. Don’t you feel oppressed in it?

A. Quiet the opposite, Hijab liberates me; it makes my world a safer place. I am hidden from the leering eyes and thoughts of lecherous men. Hijab grants me the freedom and beauty of being a woman. Why does my Hijab stand as a sign of oppression? When for me it is my shield and honor. Does wearing a Hijab signify that I am weak willed or incapable? No on the contrary it signifies that I am strong enough to follow the word of my god and simultaneously look after my worldly affairs. Who do you think is more oppressed a girl in Hijab who is dressed modestly or a girl in a bikini advertising some random product? For me the girl in the bikini is oppressed because she is selling her modesty to gain a few bucks.

Q. Hijab does not allow you to work freely, Islam stamps on this right of women.

A. Hijab according to me gives me an opportunity to broaden my horizon, it makes me more independent. Just by looking at my Hijab the wrong kind of people are warded away. It stands for my modesty, I clearly states that I am to be respected and not enjoyed.

Women in Islam are given every right to work and provide for themselves if the need arises. It is acceptable in Islam for a woman to work as long as she stays within the laws of shariah. I can become a teacher, designer, architect or doctor or whatever I choose to become. Infact Islam has provided for women in a way that no other religion has.

Q. Really? In what ways?

A, Allah (S.W.T) has said in the Quran that men have to care, provide and protect a woman. Which other religion has given the woman so much choice and so much respect. If a woman chooses she can sit at home and her husband has to fulfill and her needs. In context to property, she gets one fourth of the total property of her father.

Allah (S.W.T) has said in the Quran that he has made woman from the rib of man, to be his equal, to be respected and protected. She is the light of her home.

An example- If two twin sisters are walking on the road, one of them is dressed modestly, wearing the Hijab, fully covered from head to toe and the other sister is dressed in a revealing top and miniskirt. Now both of them are walking and a rowdy is standing at the street corner, whom do you think he will target? Whom do you think he will start harassing? Which one of the two would you say will get raped?

Of course the obvious answer is the girl in the skirt.

So you see Hijab protects women.

After this discussion mostly people understand what I am trying to tell them. I hope by reading this article some, if not all the doubts of people are cleared on the matter of Hijab.