-Analysis-
BEIRUT — I am a hijabi and come from a religious family, but that has never stopped me from criticizing the imposition of hijab on Muslim women or fighting against those who enforce it. I have often faced harsh criticism, sometimes laced with sarcasm, because my views do not align with my appearance.
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Yet every time I spoke about hijab, I did so from the position of a witness — something I consider both my right and my duty — to prevent another woman from experiencing the same contradiction between what she wants and what is imposed on her, between free choice and coercion.
To preempt any conclusions, I have never thought of removing my hijab, nor has it ever been an obstacle in my professional life. I have never envied a woman who does not wear it or felt jealous of one who took it off. I have embraced my hijab and grown to love it to the point that it feels like a part of my body, something I cannot do without. But that has not stopped me from questioning the reasons behind its imposition on Muslim women, including myself.
After much contemplation, I have come to realize that it is the first step toward suppressing women (Muslim women in particular) and confiscating their opinions and freedoms. This is not a repetition of contemporary feminist clichés or a response to movements concerned only with external appearances. Rather, it is the result of observing the conditions and struggles of Muslim women from birth until death.
Hijab as custom
I do not wish to cite the Quranic verses used by interpreters to derive the so-called hijab law. Anyone who examines these verses will undoubtedly notice that none of them explicitly mention hijab in the commonly understood sense (i.e., covering the head or a specific dress code for Muslim women, such as the jilbab).
Nor do I want to revisit the hadiths (Islamic oral anecdotes) that are said to support the obligation of hijab. Many researchers — an opinion worth discussing — consider those weak due to their lack of reliable chains of transmission (such as the narration of Ibn Duraik with Aisha).
It did not establish a fixed dress code for Muslim women to follow across different eras.
I also do not wish to delve into jurisprudential debates, as scholars still disagree on the nature of hijab: Should it cover the head and body while leaving the face and hands exposed? Should it include the niqab and jilbab? Or should it be a complete covering? There are so many differing views that they cannot be easily counted. These are matters that were compiled and structured long ago and are reintroduced whenever the opportunity arises.
What I wish to emphasize, although it is not new, is that hijab is merely a custom that, through tradition, has become a religious symbol — nothing more.
Early Quranic interpreters, who favored transmission over reason due to their limited knowledge and weak analytical capabilities at the time, interpreted the so-called “verses of hijab” without considering their historical context or the reasons for their revelation. The Quranic text referred to societal attire, customs and events that have since changed, disappeared, and become obsolete long before the time of those interpreters. It did not establish a fixed dress code for Muslim women to follow across different eras.
Tool of political Islam
Moving to modern times, with the rise of political Islam (both Sunni and Shia), particularly in the late 1970s, several religious figures and Islamist intellectuals led campaigns to reimpose hijab culture as one of the most significant tools for controlling Muslim societies.
At that time, Islamists created a new version of Islam aligned with their political project, filling it with numerous innovations — even contradicting existing religious texts when necessary or suspending them under the guise of interpretation, renewal and independent reasoning. Yet they remained firm on the issue of hijab, rejecting any attempt to reassess or reinterpret the texts because they understood its crucial role as a fundamental tool for societal dominance.
Even today, political Islam continues to launch campaigns encouraging women to wear hijab, reinforcing its role as a mechanism of control.
Age of obligation
Returning to the subject of Muslim women’s experiences and struggles, both Sunni and Shia legislators mandate that a Muslim girl must start wearing hijab as soon as she turns 9 years old. At this age, signs of puberty begin to appear, her body starts to develop, her breasts begin to emerge and her waist takes shape — marking her transition from childhood to maturity.
Consequently, she becomes religiously obligated to perform duties such as prayer, fasting, and, of course, wearing hijab. Yet those who zealously enforce religious adherence — whether family members or the surrounding environment — exert little effort to explain the reasoning behind hijab, fearing that such explanations might lead to doubt. Instead, they entice young girls with money, gifts, clothes and compliments — treating them like the children they are. If a girl happens to have a critical mind, she will ask questions and possibly rebel; otherwise, she will simply be conditioned into compliance.
This takes us back to the stereotypical view of women in monotheistic religions.
In discussing the age of obligation, the late Shia scholar Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah attempted to differentiate slightly by stipulating that the hijab requirement applies only when a girl’s “charms” become visibly prominent — meaning that if her hormones are slow to activate, she is exempt from the obligation until later.
Here, physical maturity is understood to mean that a girl’s body has become an object of desire, capable of arousing a man’s instincts. Thus, she must cover it so as not to become a source of temptation. This is a literal interpretation of terms frequently associated with women and religion: body, temptation, instinct and desire — all of which revolve around sex.
This takes us back to the stereotypical view of women in monotheistic religions — as symbols of sin, sources of seduction, evil and vice. Hence, hijab becomes the easiest and fastest way to suppress such temptations. The earlier society enforces hijab on girls, the sooner virtue is supposedly secured.
Recently, the partisan educational institutions have joined religious, familial and social institutions in glorifying hijab for girls, portraying it as an entry into the divine realm. Annual celebrations are now held for girls who reach the age of obligation, graduating each year a battalion of hijabi women molded to fit the authority’s preferred model.
Freedom of choice
Many Muslim women claim that their hijab was a personal choice and that they were not forced to wear it. In my view, hijab and freedom of choice are contradictory concepts. From a young age, Muslim women face enormous family, social, political and religious pressures. The least of which is the notion that adhering to hijab is a moral virtue while rejecting it is debauchery, immorality and dissolution.
This means that they are compelled — both directly and indirectly — to wear it, leaving them with no true freedom of choice, only the illusion of choice under coercion.
Even women who adopted hijab without being explicitly told to do so by male relatives (like myself) did so under immense pressure — chief among them the fear of standing out.
Muslim women continue to pay the price of a patriarchal interpretation of Islamic dress codes.
Millions of women in our Islamic societies have resisted their fathers, brothers, husbands or societal expectations by rejecting hijab, while many others have worn it due to familial or societal coercion. Some wear it to avoid feeling like outliers, while others do so to blend into their community. The pressure surrounding a woman’s body and hair in Muslim societies makes the question of freedom intensely relevant.
Ultimately, whether a Muslim woman wears hijab or not, she continues to pay the price of a patriarchal interpretation of Islamic dress codes, sacrificing her personal freedom in the process. She has yet to experience true freedom outside the influence of familial, societal, religious and political authorities.
Only when those influences disappear will we know whether hijab is a personal conviction or an imposed condition. Until that time, hijab remains a visible or invisible form of oppression, exerted by the highest forces of family, society, religion and politics.
