head covering/ hijab. why do muslim women wear the hijab?

1 ANSWERS

1. GiGi
   

   Hijab or ?ijab (????, IPA: [hi.'d?æ?b]) is the Arabic word for "curtain / cover" (noun), based on the root ??? meaning "to cover, to veil, to shelter". In popular use, hijab means "head cover and modest dress for women" among Muslims, which most Islamic legal systems define as covering everything except the face, feet and hands in public.[1][2] According to Islamic scholarship, hijab is given the wider meaning of modesty, privacy, and morality, the word for a headscarf or veil used in the Koran is khimar (????) and not hijab. Still another definition is metaphysical, where al-hijab "refers to the veil which separates man or the world from God."
   
   Since the 1970s, hijab has emerged as a symbol of Islamic consciousness "and an affirmation of Islamic identity and morality" in opposition to "Western" values. Muslims differ as to how "hijab dress" should be enforced, particularly over the role of religious police that are enforcing hijab in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
   
   Article written by my muslim sister: I’ve worn the hijab, or veil, over my head and across my shoulders for as long as I can remember. My parents encouraged me to feel comfortable with it ever since I was two years old and wanting
   to mimic my mother, even though it isn’t mandatory for girls to wear the hijab until they reach puberty. I didn’t wear it all the time when I was small, but as I grew older—as I learned to fold, tuck, and pin it myself—it became natural to me.
   
   As a young African American Muslim, I was raised with many other young Muslims from all races, colors and cultural backgrounds in a close-knit Islamic community. I learned that wearing hijab was right, was normal, was what God wants. I remained content with what my parents and community taught me throughout elementary. By the time I entered high school, I had come to understand by watching the non-Muslim American society, especially the workings of its male-female interactions, that wearing the hijab is the best choice for any woman, for several compelling reasons.
   
   Man is not reminded of God when he looks at Woman’s body. He is reminded of his sexual instinct as a man, no matter what he says, or thinks he feels. The same is true for women at the sight of men. Since Man does not always understand the nature of Woman, has always dominated society, and has never been forced to consider Woman as genuine competition on any level, he has now begun to work with women toward his own ends, and convinces her that her compliance with his rules are the rights she has been fighting for. The new “rights” force Woman to play every role she takes on by Man’s rules. In some cases this denies her the needs, personal goals and pleasures that only women can understand. When she protests, Man tells her that being fleeced of her femininity is to her advantage or to the society’s advantage, depending on which rationale appeals to her.

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