Why
I as a Muslim Woman Don't Wear a Headscarf
Lamya Kaddor
Does the Koran really demand that women
wear headscarves? Or is it mainly older men who claim they can decide how women
should dress – with no theological foundation whatsoever? For the Islam scholar
Lamya Kaddor, there is no
question about it: the headscarf is obsolete
If I as a Muslim woman living in Germany ask
myself whether I should wear a headscarf or not, that gives rise to the
question of whether the additional head-covering called for in the Koran
(33:59) still fulfils its original purpose of protecting women from male
desire. My answer is: no. In contemporary Germany such covering-up no longer
serves that purpose. It is even more likely to bring about the opposite of what
God intended by exposing wearers of headscarves to discrimination.
Today the intended protection against 'annoyances' is
provided by a well-functioning legal system rather than by adherence to social
rules from the past. A free state based on the rule of law protects a woman,
for example by punishing attacks on her person. This protection may be
primarily concerned with bodily integrity, but people in a modern state are
more than ever responsible for themselves with regard to the freedoms accorded
– including in the realm of moral integrity. Covering my head cannot relieve me
of that responsibility. I cannot hide myself behind a little piece of cloth. A
free and democratic state grants rights and also imposes responsibilities. In
such circumstances I can behave honourably with and
without a veil or head-scarf – or not, as the case may be.
A 'fashion accessory' from Koranic times?
If this argument is accepted, one can also abandon the
Koranic demand for additional covering, directed towards women in Early Arabic
tribal society. What would still initially remain is the khimâr,
the head covering that was part of women's clothing at that time. The Koran
neither speaks against nor in any way emphasises that
form of covering. God uses the word only once in the Koran (24:31). That occurs
in passing in connection with a call for moral behaviour.
So there is no Koranic emphasis on such head covering. However, if God had
required a special head covering, would He not have said so explicitly? The khimâr thus merely constitutes a 'fashion
accessory' according to the spirit of that age. Viewed rationally, functions
consciously or unconsciously associated with head coverings across the course
of history – such as protection against sand or evil influences – are all
superannuated today and have lost their validity. People's powers of
imagination have changed.
In the Germany of the
twenty-first century – at the very latest – women's hairstyles are no longer
per se an erotic stimulus. The sight of head-hair no longer provokes sexual
fantasies and thus immoral behaviour – except perhaps
among fetishists. When you walk along a city's pedestrian precincts no one
turns to look at you because of your hair. Only if you dress provocatively or
in a particularly original way, and behave accordingly, do you attract some
attention. In addition, this isn't a male world that still thinks as it did a
thousand or more years ago. Thanks to the achievements of a free and democratic
state, and thanks to the prevalent understanding of relations between the
sexes, you no longer necessarily need a head covering in order to live morally.
The headscarf has become obsolete.
Misogyny
by Islamic scholars
Today's orthodox
comprehension of the obligation to wear a head covering is primarily based on
the interpretations of scholars who lived several generations after the Prophet
Mohammed. One can follow their judgements but they are not sacrosanct. As human
beings all scholars are fallible. Conservative and fundamentalist circles
constantly emphasise that our behaviour
should follow the Koran and the Prophet. Their spokesmen maintain that this
directly accords with what was laid down during the Prophet's lifetime and the
initial period of Islam.
However in reality
this view is mainly based on the ideas of scholars who lived some 600 (!) years
later – such people as Ibn Qudâma (d. 1223), Ibn Taymîya (d. 1328), or the latter's pupil Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzîya (d. 1350).
Bearing in mind the patriarchal social structures of that time, it is
unsurprising that interpretations of sources concerning relations between the
sexes were usually unfavourable for women – even
though that contradicts a striving (to be found throughout the Koran) towards
improving women's situation. That tendency is even less surprising if one
recalls the misogyny demonstrated by many scholars throughout the history of
Islam. Linking shame and a head covering is by no means as self-evident as it
seems. Sura 24:30-31 calls on both men and women to
behave chastely, but exegesis of the Koran up to the present day only puts the
emphasis on chaste behaviour for women.
No
political symbol
Nevertheless, the
Koranic injunction to dress in a way that is generally demure remains a
religious demand, to be fulfilled by wearing
'appropriate' clothing. A woman believer sees this as signifying that all those
parts of the female body which nowadays excite the idea of possible sexual
contact should continue to be 'properly' concealed beneath the kind of clothing
usual today. What is entailed in 'proper', 'appropriate', or 'decent' is left
to the reasonableness of every mature woman citizen, since at present there are
no specific directives based on Islamic sources. In prevalent practice, it is
mostly older men – learned or unlearned – who assume the right to determine how
a woman should appear, but there is no theological or sociological foundation
for this.
A similar situation
prevails regarding evaluation of the headscarf as a token of Islamic faith.
Such a function cannot be demonstrated in the history of Islam. The depiction
of the headscarf as a unifying element within the Muslim community is not well
founded either. In addition, its function as a political symbol, so frequently
evoked in public discussions today, also constitutes a historically unfounded
inflation of the significance of this item of clothing. This has occurred only
in recent decades, as an element in the opposition to Western influences within
the Islamic world.
Lamya Kaddor © Goethe-Institut 2011
Lamya Kaddor was born in 1978 in Ahlen, Westphalia, as the
daughter of Syrian immigrants. As a student she specialised
in Islamic Studies, and went on to train Islamic teachers of religion at Münster University. Since the 2003-04 school year she has
been involved as a teacher in the 'Islamic Studies in the German Language'
project. Her most recent book is "Muslimisch – weiblich – deutsch! Mein Leben für einen
zeitgemäßen Islam" (Muslim – Female – German! My
Life for an Islam in Keeping with the Times), C.H. Beck Verlag,
Munich 2010. This text is an abbreviated version of a study published in
Thorsten Gerald Schneider's Islamverherrlichung
[Glorification of Islam], VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010,
pp. 131–158.
Editor:
Lewis Gropp/Qantara.de
[Webmaster's note:] It is our view that the ratio legis of the relevant Qur'anic verses pertains to cleavage and not hair. Nonetheless, many Muslims have other reasons for covering the head, among which are respect for culture or personal piety. We respect these since we feel that expressions of piety are not always restricted to what is in the scriptural text or interpretation.
Posted
March 22, 2015. This article was published at Qantata.de,
the original is at this
link.