Wearing the Hijab

This morning I took the shuttle to the Embassy again.  As I was the only one riding the shuttle I had a nice conversation with the driver, Khaled.  We talked about a lot of things, but I thought his story of why women wear the hijab was the most interesting.

For those of you that don't know, 'hijab' is the Arabic word for 'veil'.  A veil in Egypt can take many forms.  Some women wear a simple headscarf with their very western clothes, while other women cover every body part- head, feet, hands, face, even eyes.  This tradition dates back to the time of the prophet Mohammed, who did not allow anyone to speak to any of his wives without the wife covering her face with a veil.  Other women adopted this custom in emulation of the prophet's holy wives.

I began by asking Khaled why some women in Egypt wear the hijab and some do not.  This is his explanation:

"A long time ago when Islam began there was a problem.  If a beautiful woman walked in the streets a man would see her and make love to her right there in the streets.  This was only beautiful women, the ugly women did not have this problem.  In order to make things better, all women began wearing the hijab.  That way, no one could see if she was beautiful or not.  Very soon wearing a hijab became a tradition.  Of course there were some problems, such as when a father insisted that his daughter was very beautiful, but when she married her husband found out she was not.  In these cases, a man would try to at least see part of the legs of his future bride.  You can always tell whether a woman has a nice body by looking at her legs.

"Now, a woman wears a veil if her husband says that she must.  The husband will say that he insists because he is a pious Muslim.  But many of these husbands tell their wives to wear a veil and then go take drugs.  This man is not pious!  Why should he insist on one part of Islam and violate another?   On the other hand, some women choose to wear a veil because it is more convenient.  They do not always want to be going to the beauty parlor so they wear a veil and no one knows if her hair looks nice or not."

I enjoyed this very practical explanation of the hijab.  I suppose for Khaled, and I suspect for most everyone else, the religious significance has given way to mere habit.  And although Khaled did not once mention the prophet Mohammed, at least the women who are forced to wear the veil may be able to comfort themselves that the Prophet's wives did the same!