Today is #NoHijabDay. If you’re immediate reaction to this is to think that it is all about ‘right wingers’ railing against the veiling of women, you’d be very wrong. This campaign is driven by Muslim (and ex-Muslim) women taking off their hijabs on camera. Their core message is that covering your head should be choice, not an obligation.
If you are familiar with the recent history of the hijab in the west this movement is bound to strike you as a little strange (at least if you follow the party line). From Munira Ahmed channeling her inner-Obama on Women’s March posters to Nike bringing out a ‘sports hijab’, the dominant narrative seems to be that the hijab is somehow a symbol of female liberation.
Given that the most common Islamic explanation behind the need for the hijab is that it protects women through reining in male sexual desire, the defense of this garment, by those who would normally loudly denounce any focus on the effect of female clothing on men as ‘slut shaming’, is bewildering to say the least. Then again, logical consistency has never been a hallmark of wokeness.
Perhaps the strangest expression of the hijabi cheer-leading that exploded in most western countries over the past decade or so is #WorldHijabDay. On the 1st of February (yes that’s also today!) women around the world are encouraged to don the hijab for a day. One of the stated aims of this day, which is enthusiastically promoted on college campuses, is to safeguard the right of women to wear the hijab. Given that this right is enshrined in all western countries already (admittedly some ban the full-face veil), and that many reports where hijabs were pulled from Muslim women have been shown to be hoaxes, one struggles to see why this issue needs to be highlighted.
I strongly suspect that the bigger issue surrounding the hijab around the world is the fact that women, and often very young girls, are forced to wear it. This has been highlighted to me on several flights out of the Middle East where ladies around me got rid of their headscarves almost as soon as the flight was airborne. To further drive this point home, over recent years Iran’s prisons were filled with women who defied the regime by taking off what they regarded as a hateful symbol of their subjugation.
This brings us to some vital questions: Will those behind #WorldHijabDay issue a statement in support of the right NOT to wear the hijab? Will Linda Sarsour denounce the mullahs in Iran for their oppression of women who simply want to feel the wind in their hair? In Iran an image of a young lady holding her hijab on a stick (see above), to symbolize her utter rejection of it, went viral. Will western feminists track her down to make sure that she tells her story on every single talk show out there?
You probably know the answers to these questions. You must also know that ‘World Hijab Day’ has nothing to do with freedom. Which is exactly why we also need ‘No Hijab Day’!
Kind regards,
Peter
Ps. For more on some of the troubling aspects of Islamic practice, and a general analysis of Islam’s truth-claims, please see my book ‘Questioning Islam - Tough Questions and Honest Answers About the Muslim Religion’
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