The Concept Of Hijab: From The Eyes of a Hijabi

Assalamalaikum, if you’re an avid reader of my articles, you’ll know that I usually write on socio-political issues, but this article will be different. For a change, I thought maybe we should look with-in ourselves as a community and talk about issues that we have ourselves created. This article will talk about a topic that I’ve researched since I was 8, a topic that is so conflicted despite being as plain as a vanilla ice-cream, a topic by the name, Hijab.

Yesterday, I talked to some people about it and most of them, including girls of my age had the belief that if women will wear tight fitting clothes, then men will look at her, after all “there is some reason because of which women are asked to cover up”. The conclusion was drawn, women should not wear tight or revealing clothes and men should lower their gaze.

The problem is not with the conclusion, the problem is with the reason. Why should women not wear such clothes? Because then men would get attracted to her and trouble her. Speaking from personal experience, as a hijabi, my experience of every day teasing and following is no less then a women in shorts. Men look at me even though I’m covered from head to toe and they also look at girls who aren’t. My hijab doesn’t stop them from sliding into my dms and I’m sure it is their daily job sliding into girl’s dms. So it is no more the question about clothes, its mentality.

One of the person in the group told me to not do “pehle, baad mien”, when I quoted a verse from Quran Majeed. But I would because when it comes to women , men become Usain Bolt and are first to open Quran. I hope, they open Surah Noor, Verse 30 :

˹O Prophet!˺ Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and guard their chastity. That is purer for them. Surely Allah is All-Aware of what they do.

24:30

It was the men who were asked to lower their gaze first and not the other way around. To me , saying that men will look if women wear revealing clothes sounds like ladke toh ladke hote. To girls who have lived through sexual abuse, it is not only derogatory but also accusing and disrespectful.

I feel our way of understanding hijab is wrong and how we pass onto our next generation is completely wrong of course. We should do things because we love to do it, because Allah has asked us to do it. It should not be related to the other gender or because of a second party.

Women should cover up because they love to do it, because Allah has asked them to ,because He finds them beautiful that way. Similarly, men should lower their gaze because they love to do it, because Allah has asked them to, Because Allah loves them when they do it. It should not depend on if the women is covered or not and women should not cover up because then men would not harass her.  

I sincerely think men should stop focusing on women’s clothes and instead of finding someone to put blame on for their own indecency, should focus more on their gaze and their hayaa. After all, the world also has men who walk with lowered gaze, stay covered and speak softly in the same maushra that other claim as a ticket for their indecency. Or is the maushra different?