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Chill Out About the Hijab
Imagine you’ve had knee pain for a long time, and have been referred to an orthopedic surgeon for a consult. She walks in, and looks like this:
What would you think? The men might think, “Gaaaah … she is smoking hot! Best. Doctor’s. Appointment. Ever.” While the women might think, “Yeah, I’ll bet I know how you got through residency…”
It is exactly this issue that Muslim women say they are trying to avoid by wearing hijab. While covering is as common place as hummus in the Middle East, women who cover in the West face more scrutiny, and therefore must be readily able to defend their position. The often recited reason is something like this: “Hijab is a choice every woman must make for herself; I chose to cover my hair so that people know I’m Muslim, and will take me seriously and respect me as a person, not just a sexual object.” If we stop there, I actually have no problem with this argument.
Conservatives have long denounced the skimpy, revealing clothing that has become de rigeur in our society. Among evangelical Christians, modesty is heavily encouraged. As a professional, I’m cognizant of looking nice but not too nice when seeing patients, because I don’t want patients to discount my abilities and assume I got by because of my looks. Many professional women struggle with this balance, since being extremely attractive is not a desirable feature in certain professions. The focus on emphasizing inner beauty rather than outer is not unique to Islam, and neither is head covering.
In our dismay over the increasing threat from Islam on Western Judeo-Christian values, it’s easy for us to see the hijab as a symbol of all that Islamic extremists represent — oppression, hate, murder. But we forget that women have been covering their hair for a long, long time, and head covering is still seen in Christian and Jewish communities in America.
Until the creation of Vatican II in 1959, women were expected to wear a lace veil while in the church, and women attending Latin Mass today often still wear a veil. A friend’s mother once told a story in which she was at Mass as a little girl and forgot her veil at home; a nun came by and put a Kleenex on top of her head. Even in Protestant churches, women historically wore hats to church, though this fell out of favor after the 1960s as hats became distractingly large and elaborate. Martin Luther himself called for women to be veiled, as did John Calvin and John Knox. So where does the Christian tradition of hair covering come from? Easy — the Bible.
1 Corinthians 11:
5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.
7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9 neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.
13 Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.
While head covering is not popular among most contemporary Christians, there is a growing number of women that are choosing to cover their hair — just do a quick YouTube search and you’ll see for yourself — and Amish, Mennonite, and Catholic nuns all still engage in this practice.
Christians aren’t the only ones. Orthodox and Hasidic Jews also practice head covering. The mitzvah of kisuy sa’aros commands married women to cover their hair, keeping their beauty (their hair) only for their husbands. For this reason, observant Jewish women wear a snood or tichel. For a married ultra-Orthodox woman to show her hair would bring shame and distrust on her and her household.
So, slow your roll, Loretta, and chill out about hijab — it is not the problem. The real problem is all the other stuff: female genital mutilation; honor killings; throwing homosexuals from rooftops; those that treat women and non-Muslims like animals; and those that see their own fellow believers as an expendable commodity. The scarf is just as scarf, part of a long history of women’s modesty spanning many centuries and different religions.
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I agree with your premise that the Hijab ain’t a big deal, but need to state that 1 Corinthians 11 is an often abused passage.
A call to conduct yourself with propriety to one’s contemporary culture does not imply that those norms are lock in stone in perpetuity. Paul’s letters frequently deal with the issues of specific churches in different locations.
1 Timothy has a rather hilarious section on women remaining quiet in church if taken without a holistic reading of the whole bible. It seems a tad at odds with the 1 Corinthians comment that women will be engaging in prophesy in church.
Greek women of the time wore head coverings. It was culturally shameful not to. That’s not true in modern America. Wear a hat if you like one, but there is no biblical command for it.
Yeah, I don’t personally agree that women need to cover their hair per Paul, but those that do use 1 Corinthians 11:5 as their basis. There are lots of things that are said in the Bible that we don’t take literally.
Thanks for this post, VC. I think one distinction that needs to be made is the distinction between the scarf and the burkha. I frankly am uncomfortable with Muslim women who completely cover themselves. They are intentionally distancing themselves, creating a barrier between themselves and others. I’m focused on relationships in my life, and I think we create enough barriers that limit communication and connection without adding to it. Also, if the woman in the video is representative of other Muslim women, I was not impressed. She sounded elitist and arrogant to me; instead of encouraging people to not stare at her, she encourages them just by the fact that she stands out. She also is interested in creating distance and separation–she indicated that she wants to keep people from engaging with her. When she acts as she does, though, she also creates a psychological distancing. I believe there is a part of the Hadith or Koran that discourages Muslims from relating to non-Muslims. I expect that with or without her scarf, we wouldn’t be friends.
Women are certainly entitled to cover their heads and dress any way they wish. (I agree with your criticism of the immodesty that reigns today.) But the way that they see themselves in doing it can create a sense of “otherness.” When Muslims are judged negatively, they might want to take these ideas into account. How we present ourselves creates perceptions.
I don’t have any objection to hair covering, although I’d prefer to see it be voluntary only, and if required, then required of both men and women.
It’s face covering that I object to strongly.
It is a kind of subjugation that few women would submit to voluntarily. I’d guess that most who do submit “voluntarily” do so because of societal pressure.
Additionally, it is a security problem in this age of Islamic terrorism. There have been laws against face coverings in many states since the days of the Klan for this same reason.
I remember you making a similar point about personal armaments, imagining Jesus visiting an Olive Garden. I still chuckle over that one and have re-used the analogy on a couple of occasions.
Susan- the burqa and niqab certainly do create distance. But one could argue that people that get completely tatted up and pierced from head to toe also create similar barriers.
In any case, a Muslim, Jewish, or Christian woman that covers their hair is going to stand apart from the crowd and be known for their beliefs. The virtues of this are debatable.
And it is always amusing when dealing with some churches that claim they do, then clearly don’t. My own church is a hardline YEC one (a point with which I have argued) on the grounds of biblical literalism, but then doesn’t insist on head coverings – a logical inconsistency in my book. I’m not aiming to make waves with them as on the big stuff they are sound, but still, I do get a chuckle of this.
And never underestimate the power of pretentious piousness. “Look at how good I am” is a big driver.
I agree. I think those are even more grotesque and are clearly intended to get attention. It’s too bad that people who want to stand out don’t do it through virtuous actions and behaviors.
Not high enough barriers, IMHO.
I’m not letting anyone in a ski mask operate on me. I have no issue with a simple head covering ( I wear a hat a lot myself!) but the face must be clearly visible or I can’t trust that individual. Call it societal prejudice if you like, but that is no less valid than their societal need to hide their face. In their society, they get to demand their standards. In mine, they don’t.
KP and I were arguing a little the other day in the PIT about Biblical literalism regarding worship style.
Exactly.
My best friend was Catholic, and when I went to church with her, she covered her head with a little veil she kept in her pocket–this was after Vatican II. And I was Congregationalist, and my mom always wore a hat to church. The two customs looked the same to little-kid me.
As I understand it, the veil just went away. Women just stopped wearing it after a while. It was not a religious issue but a tradition.
I agree with what you have said about modesty. My Italian mother-in-law gave me a book about Our Lady of Fatima in which the Blessed Mother apparently mentioned modesty in dress as a problem of modern times.
The hijab is a cultural thing, and some women feel prettier with it than without it.
The full burka, as Susan Quinn has mentioned, is an entirely different matter, and I have very mixed feelings about it. For several years I followed a blog by an Afghanistan woman during the takeover by the Taliban, and it was horrific to see modern women forced to wear it.
I will add to this that there is a line that can be crossed, it’s just that the US is no where near it. My libertarian instincts left me initially opposed to France’s burka ban until I read this piece from some writer who you might be familiar with.
How many of the surveys that have been done on this issue make the distinction clear between the hijab and the niqab?
I’d wager that surveys that make the distinction clear would find very low levels of opposition to the voluntary wearing of the hijab.
On the other hand, I’ve never heard anybody get offended by jokes about nuns’ headgear. If it’s wrong to make jokes about hijab, how come The Flying Nun is ok?
That actually describes the attitude of the woman in the video, it seems to me.
There was a girl who was on TLC who dressed like this every day, for the same reasons that Muslim women say they wear hijab: so that people won’t see them as sexual objects. This chick later complained that people avoided her like the plague.
Yep, pretty much! Lots of pretentious piety there.
Because flying/wings. I guess if the woman’s hijab is going to start flapping and she flies away…
The plague would be more tolerable.
The taliban is evil.
I do not think people should be allowed to cover their faces in public. People wear masks to hide their identity. With a full Burka, too easy to hide a man.
Western nation, western norms.
Of course, I fully think that American servicewomen should be allowed to dress as Americans in nations they are stationed in, defending. If said nation does not like it, they can suck eggs.
Double standard? Yes.
Some cultures are just better than others, and any culture that thinks the women at the top of this post need to be covered up because men cannot control themselves is a pathetic, loser culture that deserves to die out and be replaced with a superior one.
How do I define “superior”? Easy. The best culture is the one that led to the creation of technology that put men on the moon. Everyone else is a distant second place.
Yeah, but they didn’t fly…
That isn’t really very hard to do, is it? I mean, french fries, harsh lifestyle and cheap clothing seem to have done it for most of the girls I dated.
I suspect that it is supposed to work the opposite way. If everyone is covered, nobody is better looking, so the less attractive have an equal footing. I would wager that the less attractive women are far more likely to support the hijab than the beauty queens.
Not so. My wife wears a wig, and only other wig-wearers ever notice. Observant Judaism is much easier to detect in men than women.
I agree mostly. If we are supposed to be tolerant of their way of dress here in America, then they should be tolerant of our cultures over there. If they want us to adopt the “when in Rome” attitude, then they should do the same over here.
I’m don’t like the niqab or burqa either. I wouldn’t pitch a fit about seeing someone walk down the street in it, but if I’m interacting with someone wearing it in a professional setting- not ok.
Ah, yes, the sheitel. I will have to say, I’ve never understood the wig. I get the concept of covering in order to not draw attention to your beauty, but to cover hair with hair doesn’t really make sense to me.
I’ve always liked this.
I agree, by the way, about covering the face. It works (to the extent that it does) in the muslim cultures that have the full burkha/niqab because women are severely restricted in their movements and aren’t interacting (much) on a professional level anyway. It is a human norm to want to see the face of a person you are interacting with—masks are eerie and frightening, and are intended by their wearers to be so, whether said wearers are Trick-or-Treaters or terrorists.