Hijab is Sexist

Hijab came in a time when female infanticide was widely accepted and practiced. In fact, even the Quran points that out, saying "And when the girl [who was] buried alive is asked, for what sin she was killed" (1). They used to do that for that only because women might grow up to be raped, which would be disgraceful for the family. Of course, Islam didn’t condone this kind of action and prohibited it. So, Islam came and changed things to the better. Jahiliyya was a very dreadful time indeed. Not only did it condone infanticide, but also was very sexist to women in general. A woman wasn’t allowed to work outside the house, and anything she did would hurt man’s valuable pride. One of the things women had to do back then was hijab, better known as veiling. You know how hot shorts are in right now? How it’s cool to wear Converse and not wearing Converse would make you uncool? That was the thing with Hijab. In fact, some people weren’t allowed to be veiled, like prostitutes or slaves (2), so show their disgrace. When Islam came, and it had to expand among other non-Arab countries, the thought of non-veiled women couldn’t be bared; it was sort of like seeing nude woman on the street in modern-day countries. The pillars of Islam like Prophet Mohammad thought that “What if my daughter grows up to not wear veil if we live in one of those non-Arab countries? How can a man even accept that his daughter would be exposed to everyone?” Subsequently, veiling was obligatory. After discussing more than one scholar, the justification they gave to veiling was that it “protects” the woman from the filthiness of a man. Let me start by saying how ridiculous this is. Not only that, but it’s also both an objectification of women and an animalization of men. This simple sentence claims that men only think about women as a sexual object, and that all that men care about in a woman is sex. The thing is, we have been in situations where Islam finds what’s wrong and fixes it. An example could be drinking wine. Arabs used to excessively drink wine in the past, as we can find many poems explicitly stating that (See Abu Nuwwas poetry). However, Islam didn’t adopt drinking wine. It stood there and banned it, because it was inherently wrong in its opinion, even though everyone in the society drank. So, Islam isn’t afraid to stand in the face of what it thinks is wrong, even if the whole society is with it. This doesn’t happen with Hijab, though. Islam seems to adopt male animalization and female objectification. Instead of asking men to stop viewing women as a sexual object as they did in Jahiliyya (and are still doing nowadays), it asks women to dress themselves from the ankle up, covering every inch of their bodies just so men wouldn’t do the effort of not sexualizing the opposite gender. Islam didn’t hesitate when standing in the way of drinking wine, because it knew it was wrong. When it came to how men see women, Islam adopted that view, saying “Okay, I understand how men see women as sexual objects. It’s wrong but I understand it and I’ll build around it. Women, males think in a really bad way, so it’s your responsibility to wear Hijab to prevent that.” This, of course, emphasizes sexism, because it claims that women are responsible for the way men look at them. Another scholar said that men aren’t allowed to look lustfully at women, Hijab or not. Why isn’t that law enough to protect women? Why should Islam force women into wearing veils when there already is a law against men looking lustfully at women? Some might say that it’s because men might break that law. Well, mightn’t women break the law of Hijab as well? On the other hand, the same scholar pointed out that women looking lustfully at men was haram as well. Yet, men don’t wear Hijab. So, woman have to cover their body to prevent men from lusting over them, but men have to do nothing to stop women from that? Why? A short reading of history reveals to you that this is because long ago, due to the sexist surroundings of Islam (if not to say Islam itself), women were largely incapable of defending themselves from rapists. So, they had to cover their whole body. However, men were capable of defending themselves, so they didn’t need veiling. You can see how that doesn’t apply nowadays, especially with the growing female strength and confidence. Women are becoming physically equal to men with every passing day, as to break the stereotype of strong men and weak women. So, women don’t need a veil today. It’s outdated, and stands as a statement to laugh at women in the face as to being inferior to men. (1) https://quran.com...; (2) Ahmed, Leila (1992). “Women and Gender in Islam”. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 12–16.