Alright, I know that Hijab is a very controversial issue in the Arab/Muslim world. Most people – specifically men, no skin off their nose- feel that hijab is (fard) a religious obligation on every woman who has hit puberty. Ask almost any sheikh, and he will say the same thing. There are a small proportion of very enlightened ones that do not feel it is fard. They do however advocate modesty for women. Now lets take a step back for a minute and examine what exactly the hijab is. The hijab is basically a way of dressing for Muslim women, which mandates that a woman has to cover all her body, and her hair. The only things that are permitted to show are her hands and face. The hijab did not start with the revelation of Islam. Free women (as opposed to slaves) in the Arabian peninsula and in the Middle East used to cover their hair. It was a symbol of status and freedom. Thus it started before the advent of Islam so it was not an invention of Islam. Once Islam arrived, it cancelled all slavery and so all women who converted to Islam became free. Thus all these women started to cover their hair as a symbol of their new found freedom and conversion to Islam. That was the historical explanation of it.

Now the religious evidence used to support it comes next. After sometime an aya (verse) was sent down in the Quran which stipulates that the women of the Prophet (his wives, daughters etc) are required to cover their hair and bodies. Thus this aya does not specifically speak to all Muslim women, just the Prophet’s women. Another aya was also revealed. Now this is the aya that most advocates of hijab use to support hijab. Roughly translated, it says that women should use their cover/headcover to cover their bosoms. Now the basic controversy here is that the word for cover/headcover in Arabic is the same thing. So it is not very definite what the word is referring to. Arabic is a very complex language with many nuances and meanings to each particular word.  Notice the aya does not say that there has to be a cover/headcover, only that something should be used to cover their bosoms. I feel- as do a small enlightened fraction of Muslims- that basically this aya is asking women to be modest. Now please keep in mind that this is a very rough/simplified explanation. There are many more things to say about this topic, and I have researched this issue thoroughly so I know much more about it than what is written here. If anyone would like to ask me any questions, please feel free to ask or let me know your opinion. So this is how I feel about the whole issue. People usually flip out when I discuss this with them, so I decided I would stop discussing religion with people face to face. Thus this is where all my discussion is going to go into. If you would like to know generally more about women and Islam from an open minded view, I suggest you look up the Moroccan author Fatima Mernissi.