“I want to stand between him and anybody he might be pointing it at,” said a white New Zealander who wore a hajib on 22 March, the Hijab Day celebrated throughout New Zealand.
By “him” and “it” she meant a shooter who might want to kill a hijab-wearing Muslim woman and the hijab, respectively.
Justifying her decision to wear a hijab, Prime Minister Jacinda Arden said: “So if in wearing the hijab as I did, gave them [i.e., Muslim women] a sense of security to continue to practice their faith, then I’m very pleased I did it.
“My job is to make people feel safe, the idea that people currently do not I find deeply distressing and its my job to bring that sense of security back.”
Thus, from the prime minister to a policewoman, New Zealand transformed into a homogeneity of hijabistan. The day of solidarity with Muslim women was supported by non-Muslim men and women all over the world. The wearing of the hijab did not go unquestioned, though. Not the old ones like “Isn’t the hijab a symbol of female oppression?” or “Why should Muslim women wear the hijab in a non-Muslim country?” The question was: “How many types of hijab are available?”
Well-intentioned celebration of the hijab may have unintended consequences for non-hijabi women
Raihan Ismail, a Canberra-based Arabist, differentiated between various types of hijab. But, more importantly, she enlightened the world as to why the hijab is worn in the first place. After a little autobiographical input (“I’m so comfortable wearing it that I can’t imagine myself without it.”), she explained: (i) “Some women wear it because they strongly believe it is their religious obligation,” and (ii) “There is a possibility that some husbands would tell their wives ‘please wear the niqab, I don’t want any other men to see you’ which is possessive.”
In the heat of the moment, one can ignore the Koran which does not enforce hijab but stresses modesty. The Islamists from London to Lahore were joyous and falling head over heels in love with anyone who saw the hijab as a surrogate for female Islamic identity. The Koranic truth about female covering women for modesty’s sake could not have been allowed to come in the way of facts on the ground.
The Hijab Day and its near universal support, especially coming from credible individuals and institutions, has vindicated the minority but violent Salafist ideology that creates a binary of good Muslim women (hijabi) and bad ones (non-hijabi). On the Hijab Day, the hijab-less Muslim women disappeared just as they have progressively been disappearing in the Muslin world. If today Afghanistan is one of the most insecure place for non-hijabiwomen in the world, all you need to do is some browsing to find out that before the CIA-sponsored and Salafism-inspired Jihad of 1979, Afghanistan was a haven for women. If in the Malay world of SoutheastAsia (Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, amongst others) the hijab and Muslim women are inseparable, you only need to watch some pre-1980s movies to find out that the hijab never appeared where the good woman (heroine, etc.) happened to be. In my own Lahore, American-supported dictator General Zia ulHaq inspired Salafist men of God to assault young women with sticks who would notwrap their heads and bodies in chaddors. Those moral policemen were applauded for their mission.The next step was to throw acids on the stubborn girls and women. The impact was immediate. The hijab was traded for the acid being thrown on the face.
“I wanted to say: ‘We are with you, we want you to feel at home on your own streets, we love, support and respect you’,” said Auckland’s Dr Thaya Ashman who proposed the Hijab Day.
I can imagine her words applauded in every Islamic country where hijabi women can be guaranteed complete safety. For the powerful Salafists and their sympathisers, the Hijab Day has equated the hijab with Islam without giving any concessions to non-hijabis who now can have the freedom to choose their own fate and eventuality.
“There are those who said that it was all right for women to show their faces to strangers and that the veil is a social tradition, and not a religious order. This is wrong because covering the face is a religious obligation,” said Saudi Grand Mufti Shaikh Abdul Al Aziz Al Shaikh in response to those Muslim men who claim that some leniency may be shown to women who do not wear the hijab. “Some brothers even took the step to show their wives in public. This is a very dangerous thing. We pray to God to guide them to the true path and help them repent.”
The writer has taught linguistics and media in various universities in Sydney. His latest book is a novel, The Infidels of Mecca (Rupa Publications)