Islam came to perfect noble morals and call for avoiding everything that stirs human urges and desires for the sake of reforming humanity and raising it above bestiality and disorder to attain higher levels of chastity and purity. The Prophet, , said: “Indeed, I was sent to perfect noble morals.”
Sexual desires and natural urges are a basic part of the human make-up. Hence, Islam is keen on controlling and directing such desires and urges in the right way. It has ordained marriage as the only channel for satisfying one's urges and sexual desires and making a family, which is the basic nucleus of the Muslim society.
The soul is a persistent enjoiner of evil. Hence, Islam prohibits everything that leads to arousing man's urges or stirring his sexual desires. Moreover, Allah The Almighty commands Muslims to lower their gaze and commands Muslim women to wear Hijab whereby they guard themselves. He also prohibited them from impermissible exposure of their beauty and from intermixing with non-Mahram (i.e., marriageable) men. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {And tell the believing women to reduce [some of] their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their head-covers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.} [Quran 24:31]
The order to wear Hijab has great significance in Islam, hence, Allah The Almighty commanded the Prophet, , to order his wives and daughters to adhere to Hijab before ordering the women of the believers. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.} [Quran 33:59] If the command to wear Hijab began with the wives of the Prophet, , who are chaste, honorable and pure, then what about the rest of the believing women, particularly in this age where temptations are widespread and Islam has become alienated?
Hence, Allah The Almighty threatens to punish the women who do not adhere to Hijab and who expose their beauty to non-Mahram men with a painful punishment on the Day of Resurrection. Describing the dwellers of Hell, the Prophet, , said: “There are two types of people who will be punished in Hell and whom I have not seen: men having whips like the tails of cows and they will be beating people with them, and women who will be dressed but appear to be naked, swaying in their walk and attracting hearts of men. Their heads will appear like the humps of the camels that are inclined to one side. They will not enter Paradise, nor will they smell its fragrance which can be smelt from such-and-such a distance [indicating that it is a very large distance].”
Non-adherence to Hijab signifies the woman's exposure of her adornment to non-Mahram men. It is impermissible in Islam for women to display their beauty to non-Mahram men so as to spare those men and the entire society the unfavorable temptations that are caused by such exposure. Muslim women are required to adhere to the Islamic dress code known in Arabic as Hijab; an Arabic word whose roots mean concealment and hiding.
Man's innate disposition implies chastity and purity. Hence, when the accursed Satan tempted Aadam (Adam), may Allah exalt his mention, and Hawwaa' (Eve), may Allah be pleased with her, to eat from the prohibited tree and achieved what he wanted, their clothes fell down revealing their private parts. They started picking the leaves from the tree to conceal themselves. This spontaneous and natural reaction that they showed without being commanded by anyone shows that chastity, purity and concealing ‘Awrah (private parts of the body) are part of man’s innate disposition. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {So he made them fall, through deception. And when they tasted of the tree, their private parts became apparent to them, and they began to fasten together over themselves from the leaves of Paradise. And their Lord called to them: ‘Did I not forbid you from that tree and tell you that Satan is to you a clear enemy?’} [Quran 7:22]
Before Islam, women in the pre-Islamic era would expose their beauty to men, wear see-through clothes, walk in the markets and offer themselves to men. Thus, the command of Allah The Almighty came for Muslim women to wear Hijab. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {And abide in your houses and do not display yourselves as [was] the display of the former times of ignorance. And establish prayer and give Zakah [obligatory charity] and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin], O people of the [Prophet's] household, and to purify you with [extensive] purification.} [Quran 33:33]
In the modern age, women have mastered the art of innovating new styles of impermissible exposure of their beauty and western factories have started supplying Muslim countries with transparent and tight clothes that reveal the body more than they cover it and thereby increase the women's charms. These factories have invaded the Muslim markets with wide varieties of powders, make-up and perfumes that arouse sexual desires and many types of shoes that make women sway while they walk and behave in a flirtatious manner.
When signs of the Islamic awakening began to appear in several countries and Hijab became widespread in Muslim lands and even among Muslim women in Western countries, the West flew into a rage and some of those who support and advocate immorality in Muslim lands adopted the same attitude. They waged a fierce war on Hijab and accused it of covering the woman’s mind and of being part of Islam's oppression of women. They used indecent words to describe the women who wear Hijab and accused them of backwardness and surrendering to the authority of man, along with other accusations.
This campaign has taken various forms. Some say that Hijab isolates the woman from other categories of society and deprives her of her role. Others call for emancipation of woman along with other unfounded and refutable claims. Those whose main concern is to liberate the woman from her values and self-respect have forgotten that Islam ordained Hijab only to protect the Muslim woman, honor her, exalt her status and appreciate her role in society.
The woman who wears Hijab is protected from the assaults of human predators and from those who only want her to be a source of enjoyment and a means of sexual fulfillment.
When such people feel that their argument is groundless and cannot stand by itself because of its weakness and lack of objectivity, we find them resorting to the opinions of Muslims who have been totally influenced by Western culture and who pretend to be principled like Marxists and those who are self-interested and behave as if they are Muslim scholars. Such people twist the facts, draw evidence in irrelevant places and explain Islamic rulings according to their whims, thinking that the Muslim Ummah (nation) will be deceived. They do not know that the honest scholars of this Ummah are lying in wait for them so they can refute their false evidence and claims.
When they are certain that Hijab has become a public demand and is spreading among Muslim women, they find no way but to wage war against it. During the past years, several Western countries have launched a harsh campaign against Hijab in schools and governmental offices. This campaign became especially severe in France where educational authorities expelled several Muslim girls because they insisted on wearing the Hijab. The French government's desire to ban the Hijab became clear when the French prime minister declared that it is time to exterminate Hijab from the French community and that there is no room for any girl who wears Hijab in French schools. The president of France, Jacques Chirac, confirmed this, adding that Hijab constitutes a cultural problem that threatens the secularist French community and must be, therefore, harshly and seriously resisted.
This vicious campaign extends to include the United States where courts passed a judgment that supports expelling several female students who wear Hijab. In the US women who wear Hijab are subjected to attacks because of Hijab, which seems to stir sensitivities among some of the fanatics in the US community.
In the Netherlands this campaign against ‘terrorism’ is far more feverish. The papers affiliated to the extreme right-wing have launched a non-stop fierce campaign against Hijab. These papers praised the attitude of a school headmaster who refused to allow a female student wearing Hijab to enter the school under the pretext that he believes in full equality between men and women and that the Hijab of the Muslim woman is simply a symbol of the oppression from which she is suffering.
On the other hand, we find bright examples in some European countries that recognized Hijab as part of the personal privacy and freedom of Muslim women. The German Supreme Court ruled that it is the right of the Muslim women to wear Hijab and prevented the relevant authorities from infringing upon that right and guaranteed that Muslim women would fully enjoy it.
Also, Denmark has acknowledged this right for Muslim women. A Danish court ruled that a male and female teacher should be dismissed because they expelled a Somali girl from school because she insisted on wearing Hijab. The court stated that wearing Hijab does not contradict the applied rules.
Unfortunately, some officials in Arab and Muslim countries followed that unfair campaign blindly and joined the vicious attack on Hijab. They even raised its standard and openly declared its ban on girls in schools and expelled those who insisted on wearing Hijab as a fundamental part of their religious identity and public personality.
In Egypt for instance, women who wear Hijab face several forms of harassment. A female television presenter was prevented from appearing on a satellite channel because she wears Hijab, on the pretext of stirring up sensitivities. Also, another woman who wears Hijab and works as an assistant pilot in an aviation company was dismissed because she refused to stop wearing Hijab, which did not affect her efficiency at work.
School in Alexandria which is affiliated with the French Embassy, expelled a Muslim girl because she wears Hijab. This provoked Egyptian public opinion against the school administration. The Grand Imaam of Al-'Azhar, Muhammad Sayyid Tantaawi, intervened and attacked the school administration. He called it to adhere to the prevalent Islamic traditions in Egypt. A private school also expelled a female teacher who wears Hijab and threatened to dismiss her unless she removed it. There are many more examples in this regard.
In Tunisia the administration of Al-Qanaal secondary institute prevented 38 girls from attending exams because they wear Hijab. Also, the administration of Al-Munthir ibn ‘Ammaar institute refused to allow Muslim girls to attend the exams because of their Hijab. Even though some of them were forced to remove their Hijab in order to take the exams, the director of the institute insisted that they should first go to the police office and sign a commitment that they would not wear it again in the future.
Tunisian educational authorities issued a statement on 1981 which deemed Hijab a sectarian symbol that they must resist and prevent in secondary schools and universities. This increased the amount of discrimination against women who wear Hijab in universities; even after graduation, they face great difficulties in obtaining government jobs.
The question is: Why did all these people unite to combat Hijab? What is the reason behind this vicious campaign that was launched at this particular time? Is the reason behind this the phobia of Hijab or fear of anything that represents Islam? Is it a disease and psychological remains that were formed within ill-natured people and found no chance to come out in this way except after the attacks of September 11, and the international developments and the so-called war on terrorism that followed?
However, people who have assured hearts that are filled with faith are certain that the storm will blow over and that the clouds of doubts will soon clear up. They are sure that Allah The Almighty will perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it.
Champollion