Comments on: Is wearing Hijab oppression of a Muslim woman?

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:52:53 +0000

To quote Cassandrarose, who said ““Every Muslim woman is required to wear a scarf or some sort of head covering and loose-fitting, modest attire. ” By whom? Since when did “modesty” equate to a headscarf and saggy black clothes.”, I must disagree with her somewhat sarcastic question.

As a headcovering, modest-dressing *Christian*, the description of ‘some sort of headcovering and loose-fitting, modest attire’ basically describes what I wear – my hair in a bun and a hanging veil which covers most of my hair, ankle-length skirt, loose dress, double layer of clothing over the chest area. This is my choice, and I do it for the awesome God, my creator who loves me and who I would do anything to please. Even if it means doing something so socially unacceptable for a Western teenager as wearing a headcovering and modest dress.

So many of us, of all religions, suffer from misrepresentation by the media. According to the media, do any Christians wear modest dress and headcovering? Well… no. And yet, so many do. There are some churches which require it of their women, still. Eastern Orthodox, Amish, Mennonite, Hutterite, Brethren, to name a few. And then there are those who, like me, feel called to wear it anyway.

I think sometimes I envy Muslim girls a little because it is a known thing that their faith requires this standard of them. They’re not looked upon oddly for choosing to honour themselves, their God, and their bodies, by dressing modestly and covering their heads. They’re not from a faith where most people couldn’t care less.

It should also be noted that up until about 100 years ago, headcovering was very common in the West – a woman wouldn’t even think of going out without a covering of some kind on her head, even if it were just a hat! Since women stopped wearing the headcovering, look at how church attendance has dropped! Look at how standards of dress have dropped! We have become a faithless people.

I pray that young women will continue to choose to dress modestly when God desires it and that one day those who choose to do so will be free from oppression and suspicion from the supposedly ‘enlightened’ Western world.

By: Rima Mhg

Rima Mhg — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:28:27 +0000

As a Muslim woman wearing Hijab gives me dignity and respect for my self. In Islam a woman must wear hijab for this following reason
1. It keeps a woman from getting rape because hijab avoids a woman to be the center of attractions of male.
2. It also keeps away a woman from getting sin because hijab covered the vital parts of a woman’s body that could motivate a bad intention from male and lastly, Hijab makes the woman who wears it respectable and proud because she knows that she’s following the right path.

By: Rima Mhg

Rima Mhg — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 11:33:17 +0000

Being a Muslim woman I love to wear Hijab because that is our symbol and dignified. Wearing Hijab keeps a woman from harm such as rape, sin and etc. I’m proud to be a Muslim woman.

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:06:50 +0000

For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself. (Genesis 24:65)

By: Satchie

Satchie — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:52:38 +0000

In the West today countries are banning the hijab because of politics. It is not being banned for religious reasons or for the reason that woman are being oppressed. When these bans were brought into force in Germany and France, terror threats were on the increase. If Muslims do not approve or like the laws of the countries that they have chosen to adopt, they should all go back to where they originally came from!

The same is for FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), this is still practices by many Muslim countries. A law that was so obviously thought up by a man. It’s alright for Muslim men to keep all their bits and bobs, but if you are a Muslim girl growing up in one of these countries the fear of you being “promiscuous” is so great that you will need to be circumcised! Come on! This is not oppression?

By: veronica

veronica — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:09:29 +0000

salam aleikum evry1
i just reverted to islam
i read here, some people saying hijab is not compulsury, for my understanding, correct me if am wrong, but it is stated in the bible and the quran that women should cover up.
if we are to follow Allah’s will, we have to follow evryting that he commanded, not pick and choose on what we want to follow.

By: jackie woodard

jackie woodard — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 19:59:20 +0000

i believe that we should be respectfull with our bodys,and yes why not wear the hijab i love the hijab and am thinking of considering in wearing it,i think the muslims should feel proud to wear it l would.we should be able to wear what we want in a respectfull way.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:29:54 +0000

I am a Christian and I do not see what the problem with Muslims wearing hijab is. I guess that many Muslims would call what I wear – a long skirt, loose-fitting top, and a hanging veil – ‘hijab’.

I believe that Christian women are expected to cover their head and hair with cloth. If you read 1 Corinthians 11, it clearly says this. If you find out what the original Greek word meant for every time it says ‘covering’ in this scripture, you will find that while in the phrase ‘hair is the covering’, ‘covering’ literally means ‘something that covers’, when it refers to the headcovering, the word means something along the lines of a wrapped covering, a hanging covering, a cloth covering.

While I would not go to the extremes of modesty that many Muslim women do, I do not believe that they are opressed or forced into it. Yes, some might be, but they certainly aren’t the majority! Would not any ‘normal’ person be forced into wearing tight jeans and a revealing top?
I believe that women should keep their modesty by not wearing revealing clothes, not showing the shape of their bodies much, by covering their legs and the chests and their shoulders. I believe that God tells Christian women to cover their head in constant prayer with a hanging cloth veil.
Am I ‘opressed’? No, I am not. Everything I wear is my choice entirely; my parents do not agree with my levels of modesty, so no-one can say I was forced into it. If I can cover like I do and not be opressed, then why can’t the same be true for Muslim women?

By: oh brother

oh brother — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:39:24 +0000

“It is interesting to state the head covering for women is not an Islamic innovation but was also practiced by Judeo-Christian women centuries earlier, and yet is laughed at by the West today.”

This is incorrect. There is no evidence that ancient Hebrews or Christians covered their hair with a veil. I’m tired of people wresting the Scriptures and distorting history for their own agenda. Catholic nuns wear the veil because Catholicism and Islam are one and the same. Veiling is a pagan tradition that does not come from the Bible and Catholicism has pagan traditions within it. People are misinterpreting 1 Corinthians 11:5-10. They just stop at verse 10 and don’t read on to verse 15 and 16. The latter plainly states that a woman’s hair is her covering and a glory to her from God. Paul is most likely denouncing the custom of shaving a woman’s hair or covering it with a material piece of cloth.

Modesty doesn’t not have to include covering hair or necks. People always go to extremes. You have those that dress skanky and the opposites who enjoin through tradition and religion wearing baggy shapless clothes and covering hair which isn’t even sexual. The balance is in the middle. You can be modest without having to wear shapless clothes and still show the outline of a woman’s shape in a tasteful way. A woman’s shape is God given and should not be treated as shameful. And why do all these traditions make a woman go over the moon by covering every inch of her scalp, ankles and face and not for the man? Why does it put responsiblity on the woman to dress in extremes just because men’s minds are nasty? Men can think sexually about anything, anything. Islam depends too much on externalities instead of teaching internal self-control. If Muslim men can be modest without having to wear black and cover their hair or veil their face then Muslim women should not either. It’s clearly a double standard. And it’s about control.

By: Abul Hasad

Abul Hasad — Sat, 22 May 2010 20:29:08 +0000

Cassandra said:
“Every Muslim woman is required to wear a scarf or some sort of head covering and loose-fitting, modest attire. ” By whom? Since when did “modesty” equate to a headscarf and saggy black clothes. Hijab is oppression.
My response:
For someone who adheres to subjective morality, and an ideology characterized by relativism — you’re right, a “headscarf” does not necessarily equate to modesty. This is also why you see a Muslim woman’s sincere attempt at defining herself in relation to her way of life (Islam) as merely wearing “saggy black clothes.” In other words, you’ve got preconceived notions which are entirely subjective and characterized by prejudice.
It was God – an absolute standard for truth and morality, that commanded (and commands) ALL Muslims, not just woman, to adhere to a code of modesty known as the “hijab”.