Hijab: an exercise of rights or options?

What is it about seeing a veiled woman that can polarize a discussion?

The idea of a head scarf is not unique to women, nor is it exclusive to Islam. Jewish women cover their head when praying, and men in the middle east wear veils to deflect the heat of an arid climate. These scenarios do not provoke dialogue about religious oppression, hostility or even 'backwardness'; yet, a muslim woman wearing a veil does.

The role of colonialism, politics, and media have influenced the meaning of an islamic woman who wears a veil, hijab. She is seen as oppressed and subordinate to the patriarchal model of her religion and culture. This interpretation is not complete nor is it accurate.

Many muslim women say that taking on the hijab was liberating to her femininity and personhood. Wearing the hijab was a way to excerise her rights as a woman, and can provide access to social and economical resources that were previously unavailable. Does this rebuke suffice? Perhaps, but again, it remains incomplete.

Observers of and those that wear the hijab provide convenient interpretations regarding the function of the hijab to his or her agenda.

Homa Hoodfar, a muslim scholar, provides snapshots of women from lower- middle- and upper- class socioeconomic brackets across Egypt that wear the hijab in order to deflect the notion of having become too 'western'. In this instance, adopting the hijab has become a vehicle to assure the larger Egyptian community that she has progressed as a woman but is not a product of the western influence. These woman say that after wearing the hijab the muslim community no longer challenge their 'progressive' ways in life (ie. working while married, travelling the bus late at night) as signs of cultural and/or religious revolt. Rather they support, even empathize, with her circumstance.

Could the hijab be a way of averting social stigmas, or are they using the hijab to communicate their closeness to their faith? Concensus is not clear, and neither should be the opinion on the function of the hijab in muslim nations.