Social or Religious Hijab !

Rasha (Saudi Arabia)

September 4th, 2007

I have been observing an increase in number of women wearing hijab lately in the middle-east and other Muslim countries.
Women in Saudi Arabia have to cover their hair in public whether they believe in hijab or not. If a Saudi woman decides to remove her hijab in public then she might as well get arrested by the religious police (Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) .

So hijab or a head scarf is actually enforced upon women in this country although many women cover up willingly and acceptingly as part of their faith. Now that I have mentioned that, Saudi women outside Saudi soil have the freedom to choose whether to wear a head scarf or not!

It is interesting to see that many women decide to keep hijab but for other reasons, rather than it being part of religion and faith, they wear hijab to be accepted, to fit in and to find a future husband and get married.. So there are massive social rather than religious pressures on women to wear hijab!

A woman covering her hair with a scarf is considered more virtuous than a woman without! Even if she did that for very superficial reasons.. this is how society judges sometimes. Rather than judging people for their good deeds they are being judged on their appearances.
An example on that is a woman wearing hijab but have no Islamic or moral code of conduct in day to day life. That I would think is a façade and a big fat lie..

Now that some women wear hijab for social rather than religious intentions you can see how hijab is being misused. I see women with full makeup or having tight clothing that cover but actually reveal more.. and they call themselves hijabis. I am not here to judge anyone.. I am only pointing out how society manages to manipulate people into abusing Islam in a way..

I ‘d rather think that a person/woman should be more honest with herself and the people around her. Choosing to wear hijab is a personal and spiritual decision that a woman should make acceptingly as part of her faith and her relationship with God and not because societies pressures..

http://www.mideastyouth.com/2007/09/04/social-or-religious-hijab/