Does the Quran really mandate the Hijab? - Article - News

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The Arab Women's Organization, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Fund and the League of Arab States, recently met in Cairo to discuss the preparation of quantitative and qualitative indicators of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in their organization. It was the third meeting by experts, and held in order to provide support for the Arab States in preparing their national reports on their commitment to CEDAW.\ The Kingdom of Bahrain with host the event entitled Be Free on June 9-10. International organizations such as UNICEF and the Organization of Internet Control along with and a number of world-renown experts will participate. The goal of the two-day event is to discuss ways to prevent the trafficking and physical abuse of children through the Internet. \ The Center for Arab Unity Studies in Beirut has issued a new book on the concept of crimes against humanity in international law. Written by William George Nassar, the book covers the concepts of crimes such as genocide, torture, and apartheid, along with ways to identify criminal prosecution and the need for international protection for humanity. \ The Arab Today reported that the Jordanian Ministry of Development plans to conduct a study on the subject of elderly unmarried women in the upcoming months. Thought to be widespread throughout Jordan, the study will focus on the economic and social impediments of spinsterhood.\ An Australian court has agreed to allow a 17 year old female to continue medical treatment that has lead to confusion of her legal gender identification. After the ruling, the court has allowed doctors to remove her breasts in order to appear more masculine. She has already completed several hormonal therapies in order to prevent the onset of menstruation. Doctors have attributed her desire to change her gender due to depression.\ Doctors at the British Queen's University reported that the number of patients with juvenile diabetes has increased significantly within Europe. More than 20,000 children under the age of five are now believed to be afflicted.\ The United Nations Children's Fund "UNICEF" has been asked to take firm action to stop the trafficking of children amidst the background of a new report stating that more than 150 million girls and 73 million boys under eighteen years of age are forced to have sex every year in different parts of the world. \ The government of the United Arab Emirates has launched a humanitarian initiative which ensures that, upon legal age, any citizen the country deems an orphan will be submitted for employment and receive a secured monthly income. The Human Resources Section of the Dubai police will implement this initiative.\ 18 organizations in a local Jordanian community recently signed the Memoranda of Understanding with the Organization of American Jurisdiction to implement the program "Combating Child Labor through Education." The program will continue for a period of four years, with funding from the Department of Labor in America, at an estimated cost of U.S. $ 4 million.\ A U.S. study reported that an estimated 3.5 million children under the age of five are at risk of starvation in the United States alone. These findings coincide with another study by the U.S. Food Group, which indicated that more than 20% of American children in eleven states suffer from hunger due to the lack of food.



Does the Quran really mandate the Hijab?

Farzana Hassan

Debates on whether the Quran enjoins the hijab on Muslim women are often bitter and unceasing, as the polemics usually stem from variant interpretations of religious texts that are considered authoritative and indisputable. That’s why I recently set about searching for a religious argument that might clinch the debate—at least for moderate and open-minded Muslims, if not for the unyielding orthodoxy.

While verses of the Quran, as with any other religious text, are subject to interpretation and re-interpretation, I find the following particularly useful as a defence of my own premise-- that indeed there is no requirement in Islam for women to wear the hijab to cover their hair.

The verse is well-known:

33:59 O prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters and the believing women that they should cast their outer garments [Jalabeeb]over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient that they should be known (as such) and not molested: and Allah is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful.

Now if Allah really wanted women to cover their hair as badly as their Muslim brothers would have them believe, why would He simply not say so in plain and unambiguous words? Why wouldn’t He just clearly state that believing women must cover their hair? The Quran it is claimed is a book of clear guidance. Why then would God deliberately confound Muslims over an issue that is as important to them as the modesty of women?

Not only is there no explicit injunction mandating the hijab in the Quran, there are also moral arguments to be made against its institutionalization. Propriety and decorum in society ought to be the responsibility of both men and women. They must therefore, both ensure decency in public. Societies and cultures often set minimum standards for such decorum for individuals. However, when the state or religious body begins to mandate and institutionalize a particular religious garment for women, it places unnecessary demands on women to conform to a particular religious viewpoint. Individual choices and freedoms hence begin to lose meaning.

Moreover, when women decide to don the hijab, they are in effect admitting to being sexual objects in need of being covered up. Many women say they must do so in order to be respected. But women ought to be respected regardless of whether they wear the hijab or not—be it for their humanity, intellect, individual character or myriad other traits. It is an affront to womankind to suggest otherwise.

Some women wear the hijab as a statement of identity. But there is no need to perpetuate an identity built on false premises. The hijab has become a part of Muslim identity only because Muslim women have been lied to about its religious significance.

I urge my Muslim sisters to look at the issue dispassionately, rather than follow the interpretations of old blindly. They will find that there is little to support the claim that the Quran expressly mandates the hijab. On the other hand, I am not for once denying that it enjoins modesty on both men and women.

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