Islamic Culture : Hijab in Modern Islamic Society

Running head: ISLAMIC CULTURE
Islamic Culture
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Hijab in Modern Islamic Society
Introduction
Islam is the religion of the Muslims and is considered to be the second largest religion
after Christianity that the world believes in. the Islamic culture and the religion believes in
monotheism and the Muslims followers of Islam worship their single God , “Allah”. In literal
sense the religion of Islam means submitting one’s life to the will of the Almighty. The
Islamic Civilisation was responsible for the origin of Islam in the 7th century CE, in Mecca
and Medina, which in the modern day world is the Saudi Arabia. Hijab has been an age old
tradition of Islam for Muslim women. However, the hijab in modern Islamic society has been
putting up a big question mark for the rights of women and their expressionism.
Discussion
Hijab is the headscarf that is worn by the Muslims and the individuals who follow the
religion of Islam (Fayyaz and Kamal 2014). Hijab is the virtual sixth tenet or the sixth pillar
of Islam and wearing the hijab is considered to be the customs of the Muslims. It plays a very
important and significant role in their religion. The Hijab had been adopted by the Muslims
originally as an opposition to the West colonizers. According to Gould (2014), the Islamic
believers used to wear the veil as a symbol of national assertion during the nationalist
movements when the British colonizes encouraged them to match the tradition of the
European women by removing the veil. The holy book of Islam does not clearly refer to the
tradition of veil as a mandatory custom but there is indeed the reference of the Prophet
Mohammed’s wife who used to wear a veil to cover her head (Gould 2014). Thus the custom
of veil had been applicable to all the Muslim women. In the very beginning and as well as in
the modern day, the tradition of hijab is the means of differentiation of the women from the

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men. Moreover in the earlier times, the Hijab had been a representation of the class in the
Islamic society. The women which had been rich and belonged to the aristocratic class could
afford to wear a veil. On the other hand the women who had to work in the fields either had
to modify their headscarf or did not even wear at all.
As per the discussion of Woldesemait (2013), in the present times, the tradition of
Hijab is followed strictly by those Muslims who migrate to the European nations and the
United States. They try to safeguard their religious identity and feel proud of their customs,
where the religion of Islam is not respected much. There are critics in the modern day society
who argue that the women who wear the hijab or cover themselves behind the veil are usually
forced to cover their heads and bodies. However, according to Peng (2016), this is not true
and the Muslims argue this belief. According to them the tradition of Hijab is something that
represents their identity and is a symbol of their religious identity. Moreover Fayyaz and
Kamal (2014) discusses that the modern society debates that the veil is just for the women
and it is a means of covering and preventing to expose the feminine beauty. However, the
feminists as well as the critics also provide a justification to this. Removing clothes or
uncovering the body is not something that supports women liberation. Attracting the male
gaze is not something that encourages female liberation (Woldesemait 2013). The Muslim
women who are the real believers of Islam and the religion of monotheism, they support the
wearing of hijab even today (Zaidi 2015). For some women the hijab helps them to remain
safe in this modern day, and is a veil of convenience since it reduces them to be victims of
false comments and harassment in the public. According to Kamal (2014), the hijab has
transformed itself from being just a tradition of modesty to a stylized one. The Muslim
women in today’s times wear different colours of scarfs as their veil and there are modified
versions of wearing the hijab. Moreover, the modern Islamic society tries to spread the
ideology of the Muslims, and encourages the idea of the hijab. The Muslim Reform