A veil that has been drawn over our speech- the hijab. The hijab is the known symbol for Islamic women. It is their way of exercising their liberty to practice their religion. For years there have been debates about whether or not wearing a hijab is a symbol of oppression. To understand this we need to dig deeper into the history of it all- and understand its context in terms of modern feminism. 

 

Let's start with the question of why people believe the hijab to be a symbol of oppression. Hijab became obligatory in Iran after Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini -led the Islamic Revolution in 1979 toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had banned the use of the head covering. 

 

Gasht-e-Ershad is a morality police in Iran to ensure that women always donned the hijab when outside. The Islamic government created an “Islamic Penal Code” that relies directly upon supernaturally inspired texts enclosed in the Shari'a (and its variations) (the collection of legal provisions divinely revealed to the Prophet). Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code jails women who do not wear it for 10 days to two months. 

This is what proves that government has made it an oppression when in the orgininal text of the Quran, it is a choice for devotion. 
 

Hijab means barrier or partition in Arabic. However, the word is increasingly being associated with women not having agency over their bodies. It is a fight against oppression and for religious and bodily autonomy. This shows that these religious laws were made by men as no woman would want the same for other woman to not have agency over their bodies, such mandatory "laws" or "oppressive natures" were never a part of the original religious texts.
 

CASE STUDIES

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Almost 4 decades after the Islamic revolution, women- supported by men, protested the killing of Mahsa Amini. She was just 22 when she was killed by the morality police on 16th September for not wearing the hijab traditionally. 

 

The mother of 16-year-old Nika Shahkarami, who died after going missing on September 20, insisted on Thursday she was killed by the state after joining an anti-hijab protest in Tehran.

 

The ban on hijab by the Karnataka government and upheld by the High Court (HC) has resulted in 17,000 girls missing exams. According to a new report, 16% of Muslim girls from Mangalore University dropped out this year.

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In Karnataka, a vast majority of Muslim students were not allowed entry into educational institutes if they wore hijabs, triggering a debate about whether the piece of clothing is an essential religious practice or can the judiciary declare doing away with it.

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More than 400 Iranians have died while fighting the Basij paramilitary and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Basij had trained 2.4 million Iranians in the use of arms and sent 450,000 to the front. 

 

The lopsided nature of the application of such orthodox laws has led to Iranians burning hijabs as a mark of protest. 

After observing these case studies what I have understood is the horrible and toxic duality of the hijab. First they were forced to wear the hijab (in Iran) and now they are being forced to take it off (Karnataka HC ruling). This violates article 15, which states that no one can be discriminated on any grounds. Women have embraced hijab for a variety of reasons, including expressing their identity in France or resisting neo-imperialism in Iran. 

 

An important question that needs to be addressed is- How does the hijab contribute to the patriarchy? Hijab-wearing women are reduced to being victims of patriarchy regardless of why they wear it-which is imperative to discuss as to why that happens. The hijab is seen as a battle between the oppressor (men) and the oppressed  (women). This narrow dichotomy denies women their authority and forces them to see the world through a lens where they are at the losing end. This idea was created through a man-made stigma, not from the principles of the Quran. But people don't realise the contextual meaning of the hijab and misunderstand it to be a symbol of oppression. Not all women who wear the hijab are oppressed—and making such broad generalizations is wrong. In light of the Karnataka High Court ruling, there has been a tendency to ‘protect’ all hijab-wearing women without determining whether and why they even need such protection.

 

Women are always portrayed as these helpless damsels in distress. I read somewhere that there is a part of our brain that distinguishes between living and breathing things and mere objects. An endorphin is released, when it rises we see the thing as living, if it decreases we see it as an object. A study was conducted on some men. They were first showed pictures of conventional women- traditionally dressed. The endorphin in their brain increased- meaning that they did see them as human beings with emotions. When they were showed pictures of women who weren't dressed conventionally, or wearing a hijab this endorphin DECREASED. Hence proving that their objectification was literal. They literally saw women as objects rather than living things with feelings. 

An example of the control that most men want to establish over women- women aren’t allowed to pray on periods. Why so? In the Quran, it's due to the fact that women should relax and have a break on their periods but what we are made to believe is that women are impure when menstruating. Same happens in Hindu households, and worse -women are confined to a room to "keep out impurities". So why is Islam given more blame for such false beliefs? 

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Another example I feel isn't discussed enough is domestic violence. At least from what I've seen, hijab wearing women are more prone to domestic violence as they are "already oppressed". I dug deeper into the Quran and found out that Islam was actually the first religion to give women basic rights like not wearing hijab, to have a job, right to education, right to own property independently, to initiate divorce, etc. 

So why do we show Islam, specifically its women, in such a bad light? 

What we need to realise is that there are always three sides to a story. Your perspective, their perspective, and the truth. We need to stop believing, building, and encouraging such damaging claims without knowing the truth. Rather we should search for the truth and always try to understand a situation from all sides. 

 

~Suhani Sarin