07-13-2004, 09:00 AM
Assalamualaykum....
The hijab is not a "religious symbol", nor is it "an act of worship", nor is it a way of "showing", "displaying", "professing", "asserting", or "flaunting" anything. It is not even the act of wearing of the scarf itself. And it is not just the "scarf".
The Muslim woman covers all the parts of her body, not in order to "display" anything, but to hide the parts of her body from men, so as not to arouse in them any "sexual" desires.
The Muslim woman does not need to cover her head, when she is sure that she cannot be seen by men, as for example when she is among women. Nor does she need to cover her head in front of her husband and sons, nor in front of her father and brothers. Nor in front of small children who are still incapable of having sexual desires. Nor in front of very old men who are so old that they cannot feel sexual desires.
Nor is the "hijab" limited to the covering of the body. It also means avoiding any contact with men that can lead to any form of flirtation or sexual intimacy. This is applicable also to men.
So, why do women have to cover their female attractiveness from men and avoid their company?
Do not the "modern liberated women" do exactly the opposite - seek to make themselves as "sexy" (attractive to men) as their imagination can conceive and their money can buy?
To answer this question one has, first of all to reject the idea, that the "hijab" belongs to the realm of religious symbols, like the Christian cross, or the Jewish scull-cap. The nearest items familiar to the Europeans that are close to the "hijab" are: "condoms", "contraceptive pills", "clinics for sexually transmitted diseases", various medical and social services dealing with abortions, "unmarried mothers", psychiatric disorders, alcoholism and drug addiction, and "breast cancer diagnosis and treatment facilities". It is these items that are the European equivalents of the Muslim hijab, not the "cross" or the "scull-cap".
It will also help to understand that Islam is not a "religion", as this word is understood by Europeans.
It is also essential to understand the difference in the standards of morality of "modern" European women and Muslim women. For a Muslim woman to walk in the street with open hair is the same as for a "modern" European woman to walk in the street totally naked. A Muslim woman whose scarf is torn off in the street would feels the same as a "modern" European woman whose mini-skirt is torn off in the street. She would feel violated and exposed.
To force a Muslim woman to expose herself in such way is an act of gross indecency and sexual harassment.
For the European secularists this might be difficult to understand, because the words "honour" and "decency" have lost their meaning in the European languages. But in Arabic and in Asian and African languages these words still have their original meaning.
So why is the hijab so important? Is it not just a lot of old-fashioned Victorian "prudery"? Should not the Muslim woman be "liberated" from it, like her European "sister"?
It is a known fact that humans have difficulty in controlling their sexual urges. It is also a known fact that failure to control sexual urges leads to spread of sexually transmitted diseases, break-down of the family structure, sex-motivated violent crimes and general corruption of the society.
The modern "secularist" European ways of dealing with the consequences of uncontrolled sex are: "condoms", "contraceptive pills", and various medical and welfare services. But these secularist means of dealing with uncontrolled sex have only a limited success in prevention of spread of sexually-transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, and they totally fail as means of prevention of the corruption of the society as a whole.
The Muslim hijab is the way of preventing uncontrolled sex by removing any possibility of such behaviour. - Prevention is better than cure.
But does not the hijab deprive the woman of her "sexuality" and "femininity"?
The purpose of "sex" is reproduction of the Human Race, not abuse of the human body in search of perverse "pleasure".
The purpose of the woman's "femininity" is to give birth to her children, to feed them with milk in the early stages of their lives and to bring them up as healthy human beings. And there are no better conditions for fulfillment of this natural purpose of the woman than a stable family protected by the institution of marriage.
The abuse of the woman's body by the "Modern Western Secular Society" is not "femininity". It is dehumanization of the woman and turning her into an object of public entertainment. And this leads to the corruption of the society which we witness today.
Nor are the ways in which the modern Europeans use their sexual organs "sexuality" in the true sense of that word. The factually correct description of this behaviour is "sexual depravity", or "sodomy".
Hijab is not a symbol or ritual - it is a means of preservation of the health and well-being of the Human Race. It is the failure by the Muslim scholars to explain this to both Muslims and non-Muslims that has lead to the misguided view by the French Authorities that the hijab is a "religious symbol", like the Christian cross or the Jewish scull-cap.
One should also understand why the French are so vehemently opposed to "religion", as they understand it. Their "secularism" is a reaction to European Christianity. The Qur'an called the Christians still 1400 years ago to abandon their "Trinitarian Doctrine", because idolatrous worship of human beings eventually leads to the loss of moral values. We see the truth of this statement confirmed today.
The French intention to ban the Hijab and the controversy surrounding it provide an excellent opportunity for Muslim scholars to develop better understanding of the Qur'an in the light of the evidence before their eyes and to provide guidance to Mankind in the light of that improved understanding.
It is also a call for setting up educational institutions where children would not be corrupted by the secular sodomitic culture and making these institutions an example for the rest of the world.