The Colors of Her Hijab: Deconstructing Perceptions of a Veiled Muslimah

The Colors of Her Hijab: Deconstructing Perceptions of a Veiled Muslimah

Fariha Ahmed

People often times try to make sense of things, they try to create mental categories and attribute people to these categories in order to better clarify a thought that they have. People tend to look for the black and the white, neglecting color. People often times lose access to the truth because they are too falsely occupied with the comfort that comes with making sense of things at their own ease.

                                                         

Today, the veil has become a symbol of the objectification of Muslim women. In past years, countries such as France even went as far as to prohibit women from wearing hijabs. Believers of such a ban thought that the veil went against the Enlightenment principles by which Europe was built upon. So in theory, these believers are just a small portion of the world wide population who think that a woman cannot choose to wear a hijab herself. It is saying that if a woman is seen wearing a hijab, she must’ve worn the hijab against her will. While the Enlightenment principles were essentially a positive thing, using those principles to say that the Hijab is against freedom of thought is ridiculous. In the modern day, we have heard stories of women having their hijabs being ripped from their heads by racist or anti-islamic citizens. Stories such as these remind us of the awful parallel that is so often associated with the hijab and other ideas. I believe it is necessary to deconstruct all parallels associated with the hijab and that we understand as a community that the hijab means something to each and every muslim woman that chooses to wear it. It is not an idea that people should seek to justify, normalize, or make sense of, but simply to respect.

In recent times, many activist groups have tried to "help save" all Muslim women. The issue surrounding this movement of feminism in relation to Muslim Women is not that it is intruding or helping the lives of women who they really do not know at all, but that is tends to overlook the importance of recognizing and respecting differences. For example, even after Afghanistan has been liberated from the Taliban, it is possible that Afghani women want something different than the assumptions of what the West want for these women. Even more importantly, it is crucial not to create a polarization that places feminism only on the side of the West. It is possible that Muslim women can wear a hijab and be happy and liberated, much to the West's surprise.

My project is a compilation of pictures that I have edited. Adding color and making the hijab look much more radiant is symbolic of something that I have long wanted to discuss. I believe it’s important that this dialogue be shared. The hijab is a spectrum of colors, it is free of people trying to “make sense of it”. The hijab is a decision of the woman who wears it, it is not “black” and “white”. The hijab is not representative of oppression, but a reflection of a woman’s choice. More specifically, women wear hijabs for many different reasons. It is sort of like a spectrum. As Lila Abu-Lughod so clearly states, "We must take care not to reduce the diverse situations and attitudes of millions of Muslim women to a single item of clothing." The objectification of Muslim women begins with the public's crazed obsession with the clothing that covers the woman's head. The truth is, the idea that the veiled Muslim woman is sheltered by her husband and society is just as misleading as it is to say that the veiled Muslim woman is absolutely liberated and empowered. It may be neither of these ideas. Treating the Muslim woman and her hijab as an object that we must define in society as either free or caged, black or white, is guilty of the same rhetoric.

Fariha Ahmed, Rutgers Business School
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me at fariha.ahmed@rutgers.edu

I am a Sophomore in RBS, majoring in Supply Chain Management and Marketing. I hope to work in the fashion industry someday. While I am a business student, I believe in being a well-rounded student, which has often times led me to take classes that constitute of a range of topics.