Cover or hijab is a title that is mentioned not only in Islam, but in all historical and religious periods, and many Western and European theorists have addressed this issue. With the industrial revolution’s begining, the world slowly moved towards using women instead of men in factories, because women’s wages are lower than men’s and they have less expectations from the employer.
Why hijab?
This is a question that most teenagers and young people gave thousands of answers about. In fact, the arrow of the most deviations in the young generation is towards beliefs and religion, which the enemies of every society also focus on and ask, in the time of Greece, Cyrus, Aryans, Zoroaster was there any such thing like “hijab or cover”, that we want o follow it now?
This type of cover, the so-called hijab, which has Arabic roots, emerged after the advent of Islam and is specific to Muslims, but the evidence and what is mentioned in history indicates the complete covering of women and men in every historical and religious period. It may have faded at some point in time, but there was full coverage for both men and women.
The theory of various western and foreign people about women’s clothing and status in society
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a French theorist, states that the resemblance of women to men causes men to dominate women, men have their own clothing, and if women want to wear the same clothing in the same way, this leads to freedom for women.
Victor Hugo mentions the freedom of women as “slavery” and says that “slavery has been abolished in Europe for many years, but slavery continues in Europe and is imposed on women in another form that is called prostitution”.
In a book called “Feminist in America” was mentioned; when we allowed a woman to do anything and the hijab was also free; sexual harassment and violation increased, which in fact this shows, a society that declares war against shame and modesty is the enemy of women.
Will Durant says about the position of women; “When a woman shows up for a job, she does not need insurance or a thousand rights and entitlements that are given to men, and so many capitalists are crying out to defend women’s rights so they can get them under their own power. Furthermore, before and after the Middle Ages, women were considered to be higher than animals and lower than humans”.
Former American President John.F. Kennedy said, “I am not hopeful for the future of this society, because its youth have turned towards promiscuity.”
In response to the type of women’s freedom, Gandhi says; Whenever a woman seeks freedom, she is exposed to a new danger and becomes a toy and a tool of men’s lust. I prefer the human race to be destroyed than to remain and become inferior to any animal by turning a woman or the most delicate divine creature into lust.
Hijab in other religions
Ancient Greece
Women in ancient Greece had a hijab like a veil, a long dress that covered their entire body. Their clothing also indicates that when their girls and women went to the market or crowded places, they covered themselves from the eyes of men and wore a large cloth like a scarf.
By reviewing the historical documents before B.C., there was a tribe living by the Black Sea with very wild people, half of their race was Mongolian and the other half was European, their life was tribal and they spent most of the time in chariots.
In their ideology, a woman was a valuable being and they always kept her behind the doors, away from the eyesight of other men. Even in Ancient Greece, women were not present in all public settings and only went out of the house if they were visiting relatives and friends, or attending religious festivals.
Women’s hijab in Ancient Iran
Perhaps the most difficult conditions for women in Iran were specific to the time period of Ancient Iran, because women were not allowed for their faces to be seen except for their fathers, brothers and husbands, even this issue is well documented on the wall of historical paintings that have been left from that era. This matter is quite understandable.
According to what is mentioned in historical documents, apart from wearing a long dress, women wore an abaya or a chador (veil) so that their face and body could not be seen, in other words, women in Ancient Iran wore something that looked like two shirts. Women were like this in the Sasanian era, when the Zoroastrian religion was popular in Korea, even during worship, their men and women wore white veils on their faces so that they could not be seen.
Women’s hijab in Judaism
In the moral principles of “Talmud“, which is one of the most important religious books and in fact written jurisprudence and code of Jewish life, it is stated: “If a woman violates Jewish law, for example, he went among the people without any headcover, or just wondered about in public streets, or had heart-to-heart convo’s with men, or their voice was so loud that, when she spoke in her house, her neighbors’ could hear her words, then the man had the right to divorce her without paying any dowry”.
Women’s hijab in Christianity
It is stated in the Bible; Paul clarified in his letter to the Corinthians: “But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of a woman is a man, and the head of Christ is God. Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered disgraces his head. But also any woman who prays with a bare head disgraces her head; thus, this is how to shave.
Because if a woman does not wear it, she should also cut her hair, and if it is ugly to cut or shave a woman’s hair, she should wear it; Because man is not from woman, but woman is from man, and man was not created for woman, but woman for man. For this reason, a woman should have dignity on her head because of the angels. Judge in your heart, is it appropriate for a woman to pray to God uncovered?
In Bible, in Paul’s epistle, he says to Timotheus: “And also let their women dress in modesty and chastity, not in finery and gold and pearls, but as women who fight for religion do righteous deeds”.
A woman is an eternal gem if …..
No religion has described a woman as beautiful and valuable as Islam, a woman who has the highest status of humanity in the eyes of God, so why do we sometimes forget that a woman is not a commodity but has duties that are performed with all delicacy and not with a male’s violence!