I sent my daughter abroad to a Western country recently, but I found she is facing so many stereotypes about her hijab and is really struggling and asked me if I think taking off hijab is a good idea. And she asks this not because she doubts her religion, but because she understands the importance of both hijab and education but social forces in the West seem to be too antagonistic to her headscarf. So what to do? Face failing but with hijab, or take it off but to keep on learning?

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

We thank you for being keen that your daughter stays steadfast on the obedience of Allah and observes the Hijaab, and we also thank you for asking about the Islamic ruling on the matters that you need to know. We ask Allah Almighty to protect your daughter, preserve her religion for her, and increase her in guidance, piety, and righteousness.

The Hijaab is obligatory like other obligations of Islam; Allah Exalted be He, has ordained it, so it is an obligation to abide by it and it is forbidden to neglect it.

Allah 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]

Moreover, there is a stern warning against the woman who shows her beauty and does not cover herself. Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet said: “Two are the types of the denizens of the Hellfire whom I did not yet see: people having flogs like the tails of oxen with them, and they beat people unjustly; and the women who dress but appear to be naked, are inclined (to evil), and make others incline towards it; their heads are like the humps of the Bactrian camel, inclined to one side. They will neither enter Paradise nor smell its scent, which is smelled from such-and-such a distance.” [Ahmad and Muslim]

So your daughter must adhere to the Hijaab and not take it off. Studying is not a justification for her to take it off; the interest and the benefit of preserving the religion takes precedence over every other benefit.

Therefore, we recommend that you find a place for her to study while she is safe and secure about her religion. If you do not find such a place and your daughter is forced to stay and study there, then she has to fear Allah and be patient and adhere to wearing the Hijaab as much as she can and not take it off unless she is prevented from it.

For more benefit on the evidence for Hijaab and its conditions, please refer to Fataawa 81554, 83765, 83702, 81494, 354259 and 83033.

For more benefit on the ways to convince a Muslim woman to wear the Islamic Hijaab, please refer to Fatwa 63625.

Allah knows best.