Hijab: Oppression or Freedom? The Truth Behind Why Muslims Wear It
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What do you think would happen if an atheist girl wears a hijab? Would it be prevented, or would it be declared as freedom? Let's say that obviously she was not doing it because of Islam but because she liked how it looked or because of some kind of problem with her hair. Imagine if that was stopped or if the states stepped in and marginalized that person. Everyone would be against that, right? So why do people oppose and governments stand up against a woman If she has found her philosophy of life and how to interpret her purpose in this world through Islam, If you ask me, even an atheist can wear it. Atheist? Yes, because the covering, is at the same time something natural.
It's an innate inclination of women. Today, we are going to prove this very clearly in 4 parts… At the most basic level, hijab means, as commanded by Allah, covering certain parts of the body. It should also prevent the body curves from being exposed. The main issue we're going to discuss is not whether it's difficult for someone or not, but whether the fitter So if you have a prejudice in your mind, I ask you to put it aside for a while. I want you to see the logic, the purpose of Islam's perspective. According to 2020 statistics, $16.7 billion was spent on cosmetic procedures in the US.
I don't know what this statistic means to you, but what it means to me is that there are countless women out there who don't think they are beautiful enough. Social media or modern culture has presented us with a perception of beauty that says you are beautiful as long as you fit the criteria, I said.” But in reality, very few women look like the ones in photos or on TV with those heavy makeup. This perception of beauty is far from reality. Therefore, when a woman is exposed to this, she starts to feel ugly and insufficient. Imagine a girl growing up with a toy like a Barbie doll with an exaggerated physique. A perception of beauty far from reality was formed in her mind.
Then, she starts to think that this false beauty perception was real while watching those movies and TV series. Then she grows up and starts using social media. There, she also sees people who do not look the way they really are. Over the years, she forms a standard of "beauty" in her mind, and when she compares herself to it, she thinks she is ugly. In this case, she has two choices. 1- She will think that everyone who looks at her thinks she is ugly and she will be affected psychologically. And many people get into depression in this way. 2- To avoid being considered ugly, she will uncover herself as much as possible; she will start dressing up in a revealing way.
She will start to corrupt her fitra for the looks and opinions of others and sacrifice her values. She will make long preparations before leaving the house. She might also begin to change some parts of her body through surgery if she has the opportunity. There are many examples of both cases. So which one would she choose? She doesn't have to choose one or the other. There are perceptions and she shouldn't feel bad about them and be a slave to those people's desires and wishes. By falling into this trap, they put themselves in danger of being state that and exposed to the dirty looks of men. We will discuss this in more detail later.
In conclusion, the lack of a concept like hijab plays a big part in this. At this point, Islam says to women: "You are superior and above anyone's judgment of whether you are beautiful or not. Allah created you in a special, unique beauty." If a woman wears the hijab, in a way she declares that “I don't have to fit into the standards of others; only one person, my life partner, my husband, should love me and find me beautiful.” She will live her life not for the opinions of others, but for Allah. There are three things that family councilors and marriage therapists say are essential for a marriage: Trust, Love, and Respect.
A woman's nature is to seek a man with whom she feels peaceful, happy and secure. Likewise, a man wants to trust his wife, build a loving relationship, and be happy. To maintain the happiness of the family, this bond must not get damaged. Family counselors also emphasize this: There must be mutual loyalty and trust to prevent any harm to the marriage. This is where Islam offers the solution of covering for both parties. In the 30th ayah of Surah Nur, Allah says: In other words, the first covering is the eyelids of men, and in the next area women are commanded to cover themselves. It's a double protection.
Allah is taking a measure to protect the institution of family and the happiness within it. Today, there is a battle going on behind the scenes against these two types of coverings. So what happens when these are removed from the family? The trust and loyalty that we are talking about starts to get damaged over time. They begin to corrupt from the inside without anyone noticing. In the nature of every woman, there's a tendency And if a woman with this tendency goes out without a hijab, the desire to be praised for her beauty will come into play. And this can make her live her entire life just to be praised and admired.
So she will spend her days outside with clothes that reveal her beauty, with her hair done, her makeup and her accessories. What percentage of men do you think says, Let a social experiment from a few years ago give us the answer for this. A woman walked in the streets of New York City, in a revealing outfit for 5 hours. As a result of the experiment, she was verbally harassed There were also many people looking at her with openly bad intentions. But there's something very interesting about the rest of the experiment: The same woman walks around the same city, but now in hijab for 5 hours. What is the result? Nobody looks at her the way she was looked at in the first case.
Yes, this is a reality that corrupts the family. And whether the spouses realize it or not, it's slowly damaging the loyalty and trust between them from the inside. With jealousy and broken trust, loyalty and peace are corrupted internally. A husband will never accept that someone should stare at his wife, verbally harass her, hurt her, break her heart or upset her. He's jealous and possessive. It's in his nature. For a woman, it's in her nature to want her husband to only be interested in her and not look at other women in a desiring way. These two feelings of jealousy and protecting each other from others can be satisfied if only both of them follow the commandments of the hijab.
But let's now imagine the other way around. If both spouses were careful with their protection, what would be the difference? The social experiment tells us that a woman should save her beauty for her husband and her husband alone, as a true sign of loyalty. Her husband will not worry if others are looking at her. In the same way, If a man pays attention to his eyes, he will be showing his loyalty to his wife in a certain way. It will leave no doubt in her mind like, "Is he looking at someone else, is there someone else in his life?” She will not feel uncomfortable thinking about this. She will not have any uncomfortable thoughts like this.
So the absence of this faithfulness and trust means that the eyes are now turned outward. It means that the ground is being set for the breakdown of the family. There's some very serious data that we came across while researching this subject. I will also mention them later as well. There's a research by the famous organization General Social Survey (GSS), a research on the rates of cheating between 2010 and 2016... and the results are horrible. Among the married couples that are surveyed; 20% of men and 13% of women were found to be cheating. In other words, there's infidelity in almost one out of every four families.
Again, the same study says that 40% of these cheating couples got divorced afterwards. Isn't a 6-year study and these results are scary enough? This shows that not paying attention to covering for both parties hurts the family. Also, the psychology of cheating is very different. Not everyone who does it can hide it. I'm not talking about getting caught. Health testing centers conducted a survey of 441 subjects in 2021 and 47.7% of those who cheated on their spouses confessed it in a week. Also, 26.6% waited a month. In other words, out of regret, it cannot be hidden. It comes out somehow and then it leads to divorce or to wounds that cannot be healed. Would this result really have occurred?
If an entire country had paid attention to both type of coverings and kept their bodies and eyes away from anyone other than their spouses? I leave the judgment to you. The famous boxer Mohammed Ali, explaining the hijab to his daughter, said: Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground, covered and protected? Where do we find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You've got to work hard to get to them. Your body's sacred. You're far from precious than diamonds and pearls. That's why you should be covered too.
A hijab is what protects the woman from being easily accessible. A hijab makes a woman valuable. Remember the social experiment on the streets of New York. When a woman walking down the street was not covered, she was subjected to stares of dozens of people. She faced disgusting looks. But when she walked around with the hijab on, she showed who the actual owner of her body was. She gave the message that she's not just made of flesh, but it's actually her soul that makes her valuable. Remember, we said at the beginning that there are two different coverings. One for women and one for men. When both sides do not follow this rule, they attract each other like the two sides of a magnet.
And the order in the world begins to turn upside down. Sexual desires turn into actions, into illegitimate relationships, into perversions, and then even into crimes. Men and women both have a responsibility here. And when both of them don't observe the rulings, the blame goes to both of them. No one can deny that when both sides fail to protect themselves, the real value of women is forgotten and ignored. And unfortunately, women start to be seen only as sexual objects. Here, I'm not saying only this group is guilty. Both sides are disobeying the rulings about covering. Women and men, both triggering each other, and terrible results come out.
But unfortunately, it's the women who have to bear the consequences the most. Let's look at this reality with other data. According to a study conducted by the CDC, in 2020, nearly 500,000 abortions were performed in the USA, and 86% of these pregnancies were outside of marriage. because of illegitimate relationships. Of course, this is a very difficult decision for a woman. That's why most of the time the birth takes place. According to a study by the same organization in 2021, from illegitimate relationships that have been 1.4 million births in the United States of America alone. The mother alone carries the child, takes care of him, and tries to raise him for years.
And in this process, there is no support the father by her side. Imagine the mental state of the mother in that situation and imagine the mental state of a child growing up without a father. And the prevention of this again depends on the two commandments of the Qur'an that we have mentioned. When Prophet Muhammad (saw) talks about the end times, the signs of the apocalypse, he gives a sign like this, there will be 40 women for every man. Of course, there's an analogy here. The meaning of this hadith has been explained, but there is another meaning that is happening right before our eyes. When both parties do not follow the rulings about covering, the demand for marriage decreases.
When a man looks at hundreds of different women, he corrupts his nature, and when a woman is exposed to many eyes over time, she damages her soul. This is actually the consequence of the three things we mentioned before. Let's think of it this way: Men whose morals have been corrupted by not protecting themselves, don't want to commit themselves to one woman. They see it as a limitation. And because this perception of beauty has been distorted, he cannot find what he wants in one woman. So he does not want to commit himself to anyone. Also because he cannot trust people, he doesn't want to have a serious relationship. He spends time with different women all the time.
We hear a lot about people who flirt with several people at the same time, don't we? Think about how many girls this person would have relationship with in his lifetime. But the woman's soul is looking for If she doesn't look for that man within the boundaries set by Allah, she always comes across such men. Now, if you connect these two realities, doesn't the current situation fit with the expression 40 women for one man? A man thinks living like this will make him happy, but he doesn't realize that he is dirtying and hurting his heart by distancing himself from the halal circle that Allah gave him.
And these wounds in his heart might even prevent him from being fully happy in his marriage in the future. Neither the man who looks at these 40 women nor the person who is one of these 40 women can find complete peace. And it is again, the woman who suffered the most. So Islam promises to prevent many disasters just with its two commandments. Like these four points, many more things can be counted, but all of them shows us this: Hijab is not just an ordinary commandment. It's both inherent in the nature of men and women. It's something that we are naturally inclined to do. It's a wise, logical and beneficial commandment of Allah, who created the heavens and the earth from nothing.
Who created human beings and all the features of their bodies. The one who creates a thing knows it best, and the one who has the best say about it is the one who knows it. When Allah (swa), the one who created us, has given us commandments about covering and protection in the Qur'an, could it be that he did this so that we become unhappy? Or He did so for the peace and happiness that we have been seeking for years but couldn't find? Once again, we understand that if humanity does not value the commandments of Islam, let alone treat the cause of their unhappiness, they will not even be able to diagnose it.
As for the country that started all these discussions, whether you are France or any other country, you cannot stand against the fitra by banning the hijab. When it comes to talking, you emphasize the importance of freedoms, but in reality you restrict people's freedoms. So you don't really want freedom. But only the freedom of your own ideas. No matter what you do, you will not be able to stand against Islam.
It's an innate inclination of women. Today, we are going to prove this very clearly in 4 parts… At the most basic level, hijab means, as commanded by Allah, covering certain parts of the body. It should also prevent the body curves from being exposed. The main issue we're going to discuss is not whether it's difficult for someone or not, but whether the fitter So if you have a prejudice in your mind, I ask you to put it aside for a while. I want you to see the logic, the purpose of Islam's perspective. According to 2020 statistics, $16.7 billion was spent on cosmetic procedures in the US.
I don't know what this statistic means to you, but what it means to me is that there are countless women out there who don't think they are beautiful enough. Social media or modern culture has presented us with a perception of beauty that says you are beautiful as long as you fit the criteria, I said.” But in reality, very few women look like the ones in photos or on TV with those heavy makeup. This perception of beauty is far from reality. Therefore, when a woman is exposed to this, she starts to feel ugly and insufficient. Imagine a girl growing up with a toy like a Barbie doll with an exaggerated physique. A perception of beauty far from reality was formed in her mind.
Then, she starts to think that this false beauty perception was real while watching those movies and TV series. Then she grows up and starts using social media. There, she also sees people who do not look the way they really are. Over the years, she forms a standard of "beauty" in her mind, and when she compares herself to it, she thinks she is ugly. In this case, she has two choices. 1- She will think that everyone who looks at her thinks she is ugly and she will be affected psychologically. And many people get into depression in this way. 2- To avoid being considered ugly, she will uncover herself as much as possible; she will start dressing up in a revealing way.
She will start to corrupt her fitra for the looks and opinions of others and sacrifice her values. She will make long preparations before leaving the house. She might also begin to change some parts of her body through surgery if she has the opportunity. There are many examples of both cases. So which one would she choose? She doesn't have to choose one or the other. There are perceptions and she shouldn't feel bad about them and be a slave to those people's desires and wishes. By falling into this trap, they put themselves in danger of being state that and exposed to the dirty looks of men. We will discuss this in more detail later.
In conclusion, the lack of a concept like hijab plays a big part in this. At this point, Islam says to women: "You are superior and above anyone's judgment of whether you are beautiful or not. Allah created you in a special, unique beauty." If a woman wears the hijab, in a way she declares that “I don't have to fit into the standards of others; only one person, my life partner, my husband, should love me and find me beautiful.” She will live her life not for the opinions of others, but for Allah. There are three things that family councilors and marriage therapists say are essential for a marriage: Trust, Love, and Respect.
A woman's nature is to seek a man with whom she feels peaceful, happy and secure. Likewise, a man wants to trust his wife, build a loving relationship, and be happy. To maintain the happiness of the family, this bond must not get damaged. Family counselors also emphasize this: There must be mutual loyalty and trust to prevent any harm to the marriage. This is where Islam offers the solution of covering for both parties. In the 30th ayah of Surah Nur, Allah says: In other words, the first covering is the eyelids of men, and in the next area women are commanded to cover themselves. It's a double protection.
Allah is taking a measure to protect the institution of family and the happiness within it. Today, there is a battle going on behind the scenes against these two types of coverings. So what happens when these are removed from the family? The trust and loyalty that we are talking about starts to get damaged over time. They begin to corrupt from the inside without anyone noticing. In the nature of every woman, there's a tendency And if a woman with this tendency goes out without a hijab, the desire to be praised for her beauty will come into play. And this can make her live her entire life just to be praised and admired.
So she will spend her days outside with clothes that reveal her beauty, with her hair done, her makeup and her accessories. What percentage of men do you think says, Let a social experiment from a few years ago give us the answer for this. A woman walked in the streets of New York City, in a revealing outfit for 5 hours. As a result of the experiment, she was verbally harassed There were also many people looking at her with openly bad intentions. But there's something very interesting about the rest of the experiment: The same woman walks around the same city, but now in hijab for 5 hours. What is the result? Nobody looks at her the way she was looked at in the first case.
Yes, this is a reality that corrupts the family. And whether the spouses realize it or not, it's slowly damaging the loyalty and trust between them from the inside. With jealousy and broken trust, loyalty and peace are corrupted internally. A husband will never accept that someone should stare at his wife, verbally harass her, hurt her, break her heart or upset her. He's jealous and possessive. It's in his nature. For a woman, it's in her nature to want her husband to only be interested in her and not look at other women in a desiring way. These two feelings of jealousy and protecting each other from others can be satisfied if only both of them follow the commandments of the hijab.
But let's now imagine the other way around. If both spouses were careful with their protection, what would be the difference? The social experiment tells us that a woman should save her beauty for her husband and her husband alone, as a true sign of loyalty. Her husband will not worry if others are looking at her. In the same way, If a man pays attention to his eyes, he will be showing his loyalty to his wife in a certain way. It will leave no doubt in her mind like, "Is he looking at someone else, is there someone else in his life?” She will not feel uncomfortable thinking about this. She will not have any uncomfortable thoughts like this.
So the absence of this faithfulness and trust means that the eyes are now turned outward. It means that the ground is being set for the breakdown of the family. There's some very serious data that we came across while researching this subject. I will also mention them later as well. There's a research by the famous organization General Social Survey (GSS), a research on the rates of cheating between 2010 and 2016... and the results are horrible. Among the married couples that are surveyed; 20% of men and 13% of women were found to be cheating. In other words, there's infidelity in almost one out of every four families.
Again, the same study says that 40% of these cheating couples got divorced afterwards. Isn't a 6-year study and these results are scary enough? This shows that not paying attention to covering for both parties hurts the family. Also, the psychology of cheating is very different. Not everyone who does it can hide it. I'm not talking about getting caught. Health testing centers conducted a survey of 441 subjects in 2021 and 47.7% of those who cheated on their spouses confessed it in a week. Also, 26.6% waited a month. In other words, out of regret, it cannot be hidden. It comes out somehow and then it leads to divorce or to wounds that cannot be healed. Would this result really have occurred?
If an entire country had paid attention to both type of coverings and kept their bodies and eyes away from anyone other than their spouses? I leave the judgment to you. The famous boxer Mohammed Ali, explaining the hijab to his daughter, said: Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground, covered and protected? Where do we find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You've got to work hard to get to them. Your body's sacred. You're far from precious than diamonds and pearls. That's why you should be covered too.
A hijab is what protects the woman from being easily accessible. A hijab makes a woman valuable. Remember the social experiment on the streets of New York. When a woman walking down the street was not covered, she was subjected to stares of dozens of people. She faced disgusting looks. But when she walked around with the hijab on, she showed who the actual owner of her body was. She gave the message that she's not just made of flesh, but it's actually her soul that makes her valuable. Remember, we said at the beginning that there are two different coverings. One for women and one for men. When both sides do not follow this rule, they attract each other like the two sides of a magnet.
And the order in the world begins to turn upside down. Sexual desires turn into actions, into illegitimate relationships, into perversions, and then even into crimes. Men and women both have a responsibility here. And when both of them don't observe the rulings, the blame goes to both of them. No one can deny that when both sides fail to protect themselves, the real value of women is forgotten and ignored. And unfortunately, women start to be seen only as sexual objects. Here, I'm not saying only this group is guilty. Both sides are disobeying the rulings about covering. Women and men, both triggering each other, and terrible results come out.
But unfortunately, it's the women who have to bear the consequences the most. Let's look at this reality with other data. According to a study conducted by the CDC, in 2020, nearly 500,000 abortions were performed in the USA, and 86% of these pregnancies were outside of marriage. because of illegitimate relationships. Of course, this is a very difficult decision for a woman. That's why most of the time the birth takes place. According to a study by the same organization in 2021, from illegitimate relationships that have been 1.4 million births in the United States of America alone. The mother alone carries the child, takes care of him, and tries to raise him for years.
And in this process, there is no support the father by her side. Imagine the mental state of the mother in that situation and imagine the mental state of a child growing up without a father. And the prevention of this again depends on the two commandments of the Qur'an that we have mentioned. When Prophet Muhammad (saw) talks about the end times, the signs of the apocalypse, he gives a sign like this, there will be 40 women for every man. Of course, there's an analogy here. The meaning of this hadith has been explained, but there is another meaning that is happening right before our eyes. When both parties do not follow the rulings about covering, the demand for marriage decreases.
When a man looks at hundreds of different women, he corrupts his nature, and when a woman is exposed to many eyes over time, she damages her soul. This is actually the consequence of the three things we mentioned before. Let's think of it this way: Men whose morals have been corrupted by not protecting themselves, don't want to commit themselves to one woman. They see it as a limitation. And because this perception of beauty has been distorted, he cannot find what he wants in one woman. So he does not want to commit himself to anyone. Also because he cannot trust people, he doesn't want to have a serious relationship. He spends time with different women all the time.
We hear a lot about people who flirt with several people at the same time, don't we? Think about how many girls this person would have relationship with in his lifetime. But the woman's soul is looking for If she doesn't look for that man within the boundaries set by Allah, she always comes across such men. Now, if you connect these two realities, doesn't the current situation fit with the expression 40 women for one man? A man thinks living like this will make him happy, but he doesn't realize that he is dirtying and hurting his heart by distancing himself from the halal circle that Allah gave him.
And these wounds in his heart might even prevent him from being fully happy in his marriage in the future. Neither the man who looks at these 40 women nor the person who is one of these 40 women can find complete peace. And it is again, the woman who suffered the most. So Islam promises to prevent many disasters just with its two commandments. Like these four points, many more things can be counted, but all of them shows us this: Hijab is not just an ordinary commandment. It's both inherent in the nature of men and women. It's something that we are naturally inclined to do. It's a wise, logical and beneficial commandment of Allah, who created the heavens and the earth from nothing.
Who created human beings and all the features of their bodies. The one who creates a thing knows it best, and the one who has the best say about it is the one who knows it. When Allah (swa), the one who created us, has given us commandments about covering and protection in the Qur'an, could it be that he did this so that we become unhappy? Or He did so for the peace and happiness that we have been seeking for years but couldn't find? Once again, we understand that if humanity does not value the commandments of Islam, let alone treat the cause of their unhappiness, they will not even be able to diagnose it.
As for the country that started all these discussions, whether you are France or any other country, you cannot stand against the fitra by banning the hijab. When it comes to talking, you emphasize the importance of freedoms, but in reality you restrict people's freedoms. So you don't really want freedom. But only the freedom of your own ideas. No matter what you do, you will not be able to stand against Islam.