CELEBRATING THE VEIL: COMMEM0RATING WORLD HIJAB DAY

In 1981, a Palestinian student in the UK related the story of how he saw outside Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria, Muslim women had their veils ripped off by Hafez Assad’s security forces. He told of young men being held and rounded up because of having beards on their faces. Veils and beards were signs of Islamists, something which were frightening totalitarian regimes in the Arab world then.

In Malaysia in the 70’s the daughter of the foremost government leader on holiday from her studies in the UK was counseled and cajoled by religious advisers into taking off her veil which she had started to wear only after going to the UK. In the early seventies, women wearing the veil, prominent among them were University students were being mocked as ghosts, as backward people, with deriding slants such as “Kum Kum ghost”, “ghost with stockings”. One profession which vehemently opposed to the veil was the health and hospital services but faced with public pressure and greater Islamic awareness, the veil became the norm for Muslim nurses and most Muslim doctors. Recently, female artistes and celebrities marked their move in managing their appearances – their “hijrah” - by shedding their “free hair” for donning the veil, gaining praise, a larger fan base and even social status for some.

The phenomena riding the globe, Islamic resurgence, was too great and too overwhelming especially with the young and the idealists, persistently championing its symbols, for its women was the ubiquitous veil or the hijab. The hijab spread throughout campuses, streets, the countryside, schools, TV, hospitals and all over. The hijab came to stay, became mainstream, with its various forms and fashion, with its creativity and evolution. The hijab was a symbol of change for the ummah especially for Muslim women.

The hijab brought the ire of extremist secular regimes, which old Turkey was among the most notorious. Turkey had banned the hijab in public institutions, government facilities, government schools and universities. It had even unceremoniously removed a vociferous member of its parliament for wearing the veil in session. Its generals were so fanatical in their opposition that in a press conference in Washington, a reporter pointedly asked Turkey’s generals who were there on a visit, “Why do Turkey’s armed forces fear a veil on a woman’s head?”, drawing awe and surprise among the generals. But Turkey’s proud society, its social movements and changing politics made inroads in being more democratic and accommodating, including the increasing relevance of religion and its practices. In the beginning both the prime minister’s and president’s wives were being shut out of the public limelight because of their veils but it came to pass that this position was untenable and the hijab came to the fore. More democratic reform meant more freedom and restrictions to the hijab were being lifted in Turkey.

However, not all geo-political forces are ready to accept religious diversity and the freedom to dress. Old Europe seems scrambling to top the Islamophobe rankings by making discriminatory legislations, banning minarets in Switzerland, banning the veil in schools in France and others including the UK are mulling restrictions on the hijab, and the way Muslim women prefer to dress. The conservative Italian interior minister begged to differ by quipping, “How can you ask me to ban the veil, because all the pictures of Our Lady Virgin Mary show her wearing a veil!”. Down over the causeway, Singapore which has already banned the veil in schools and made restrictions on Islamic displays and rituals such as the call to prayers – the azan, it is publicly contemplating more prohibition of the veil. They appear not to take heed of US President Obama’s groundbreaking Cairo speech, where he addressed the issue, probably aimed at his European allies, questioning them on “why must there be discrimination against a woman who chooses her own way to dress and covering her head?”

There has been instances of misunderstanding and conflicts in the local scene concerning the veil but by the community keeping calm and pressing ahead to celebrate the hijab, common sense prevails. It remains a jihad – a cause - for some minorities in economically advanced nations, as it comes to unfortunately and unnecessarily symbolize a cultural clash as it reflects on the inability of modern democracies to accept plurality, cultural diversity and the freedom of women to choose their own way, their rights and personal identity. Old Europe and extremist secular nations tend to want to bar religious expressions in the public sphere, for they are unwilling to engage and debate, they seem to deny the right to an alternative world view and a religious narrative, a basic human right.