Why hijab must be enforced

Mohammad M Rahman
The dress code is human culture and social rule. There are many dress codes across societies
many of which are enforced. Islamic hijab is also a dress code and one which must also be
enforced by the authority. Hijab can be explained as the proper covering of the human body
and a state of mind and lifestyle depending on sex and gender. It is a proper covering of the
body to cover one’s shame properly, prevent oneself from being a distraction and temptation,
protect the feminine body from sun damage and being a responsible social citizen. However,
the lack of proper Hijab policy is also due to men’s lust. Men, who are in control of major policy
making, love to indulge themselves in feminine beauty and this is one reason why nudity has
been able to spread unhindered. In other words patriarchy has decided to expose feminine
beauty for its pleasure while women, for quick path to fame and wealth have accepted nudity
and their physical exposure

Let me first address the issue of self-control. Naïve people very ignorantly put all the
responsibilities on men while not addressing the fact of biology and evolutionary traits. There is
evidence that men have lower thresholds than women for inferring sexual intent. When a
woman smiles at a man, male observers are more likely than female observers to infer that the
woman is sexually interested (Abbey, 1982; Perilloux, Easton, & Buss, 2012). Also research
conducted in Japan, Great Britain, and the United States showed that men have roughly twice
as many sexual fantasies as women. In every nation, from Thailand to Croatia to Trinidad, men
reported having a higher sex drive than did women a finding that contradicts the notion that
these sex differences are caused by economic gender inequality. The difference between men
and women in the desire for sexual variety is one of the largest, most replicable, and most
cross-culturally robust psychological sex differences ever documented (Sugiyama, 2005; Dixon,
Grimshaw, Linklater, & Dixon, 2010; Singh, 1993; Ellis & Symons, 1990; Wilson, 1987; Lippa,
2009, Petersen & Hyde, 2010; Schmitt et al., 2003; Petersen & Hyde, 2010). Women’s sexuality
is dependent on context and environment and layered on emotions, unlike male sexuality,
which is direct, vivid, and aggressive. Men interpret simple friendliness and mere smiling by
women as indicating more sexual interest than do women viewing exactly the same events
(Sine 2009; Abbey, 1982; Lindgren, George, & Shoda, 2007; DeSouza, Pierce, Zanelli, & Hutz,
1992; Browne, 2006). Worldwide, about 99% of rapes and about 90% of robberies, assaults, and
murders are committed by men (Graham & Wells, 2001). And lastly presence of attractive
women increases men’s testosterone levels (Ronay and Von hippel 2010). So, it is obvious the
proposal of self -control by men is ridiculous and irrational in the face of accepted feminine
nudity.

The real question is why cannot women control their artificial desire of “as you wish” clothing
but men have to control their intrinsic natural “hard to control” psychological and biological
desire? As I established that genetics and environment play a major role in male sexual desire
and the most important aspect of this environment is the female sex. In another perspective
why cannot we legalize drugs and weapons and then leave it to the self-control of the society
even though these do not have an intrinsic appeal like sex or hunger? Liberals are short sighted!

The physical properness is established by divine law of God i.e., Shariah law. Note that I said
proper hijab to contrast it with antithetical “fashion hijab” Muslim women have started
wearing, to misguidedly and self deceivingly, feel themselves free and emancipated like liberal
women. Misguidedly and self deceivingly because
they think they can do anything like liberal
women as long as they wear hijab. Often thus one
will find Muslim women, whose conscience is
liberal but wearing the fashion hijab, reject
Quranic social construct of patriarchy or other
Islamic conservative (preservative) ontologies.

When it comes to system of conscience and

lifestyle then it means shame, chastity and purity
of thought from sexual perversions and purity of
actions from sexualization such as dancing, catwalk etc. that is sexualization of women is
prohibited. A Muslim woman’s innocent character, simplicity, virginity and chastity are the
results of her religious values which are: shame, self-respect with Islamic character and true
Islamic hijab, conservative in her public communication as not to be a cause of sexual
distraction for others and for herself from other men. Also, it means woman must differ in
clothing from man and the two of them must not look similar, that is cloth and attitude of
femininity and cloth and attitude of masculinity.

Proper appreciation of hijab is

attained not only simply by
wearing it properly but also by
learning about the gender role
in society and family, and sense
of shame through education
and socialization. Only then can
a woman develop attachment
to and importance of hijab. The
relationship of shame with hijab
arises from the relationship of
human clothing with shame. A cloth can be bare minimum or fully covering. The range of
human bodily shame lies between these two limits.

The importance of hijab is seen in both the individual and the social existence. When it comes
to the individual existence hijab can become a symbol of shame, prevention of distraction and
sexual tension and also a protection for women from the harmful light of the sun.

What is shame? It can be defined as a feeling of mental discomfort responded through

withdrawal and hiding. The lesser the shame the greater the probability of engaging in social
deviance as people lose the sense of guilt or discomfort in them. For a woman if she is not
concerned about her shame to the point of wearing proper hijab, she is a candidate of sexual
openness and flirting which means either she will be reluctant to marry or in marriage she will
be highly open to sex out of wedlock or other morally negative attributes surrounding her
gender.

Hijab acts as a prevention of

distraction. Such distraction may
harm matrimonial life, study and
any activity of importance in a
man’s or even a woman’s life.
Matrimonial relationship may
decay as husband fails to see the
physical beauty in his wife which
he admired in a woman without
hijab. For example, porn is such a
trigger of matrimonial disaster
ending in divorce or cheating
couples. Porn addiction can be
referred to as a person becoming
emotionally dependent on the nudity and the sexual acts of women to the point that it
interferes with their daily life, relationships, and ability to function. Irrespective of whether it is
a medical condition or addiction it can be clearly stated that porn addiction is an intense desire
to nude women who tempt you either by their sexual acts or by their sexual display. Lack of
proper hijab is the first causal mechanism of pornography. What kind of a pornstar would that
be who wore proper hijab in the set?

Apart from pornography, women without hijab, and over that sexually revealing cloths, may
become also distraction or a trigger mechanism towards pornography and/or sexual
perversions or acts. Men with normal sexual health will often fall victim to these women, either
immediately on observance or recalling their image at some point later on. Such may create
psychological and sexual tensions in men leading them being less productive and less functional
until they satisfy their sexual urges. This growing intense sexual urges propelled by hijabless
women may result in adultery, rape or other sexually immoral acts. This harms spiritual,
intellectual and functional aptitudes of men either becoming chronic or temporary.

Hijab also acts as a delicate skin protection for women.

Gulf women due to their burqa hijab have been known
to have shiny, lustrous skin texture while those who
openly remain without hijab under sun find their skin
often reddened, burnt and scaly. This adds also to the
psychological and financial burden of women as these
women seek to preserve and even enhance their beauty and sun damaged skin with expensive
cosmetics and cosmetic procedures.

From the social perspective hijab acts a preventive means to rape and social productivity. Today
we have a culture of increasing perversion with an increasing carnality including rape and it is
fair to say culture of nudity has increased rape and sexual violence. When the magazine Playboy
came out it was really controversial and debated but now it is considered tame compared to
what else is available online and offline. There is a correlation between increasing nudity since
the 1950s and increasing rape culture and we see that research indicates that up to one-third of
U.S. women will experience a rape or sexual assault, including attempts, at least once in their
lives. The researchers, Melanie Randall and Lori Haskell (1995, p. 22), concluded that “it is more
common than not for a woman to have an experience of sexual assault during their lifetime.

Society must adopt the rule of Hijab or feminine Islamic clothing and segregated system. This
arises from sex differences between man and woman. While sexual desire of women is
extremely sensitive to environment, social and cultural factors and is more contextual, more
subjective, more layered on a lattice of emotion men’s sexuality is stronger and direct because
men think of sex more, vividly and men are visual1. This means as soon as the feminine lust-
inspiring image registers in their brain, they become turned-on, not only physically but
psychologically, too. Psychologically the sexual triggers for men are depiction of women (in stills
or, even better, in videos) gasping, moaning, screaming, and swooning. Also, men’s brains are
designed to objectify females2. Considering these sex differences in sexual desire Islamic hijab is
a filter and preventive mechanism so that men can control themselves thereby facilitating
efficiency and effectiveness of spiritual, functional and intellectual aptitudes. The Islamic
protocols will also reduce and even prevent sexual crimes and sexual perversions by controlling
sexual desires of both sexes.

As men seek sex more avidly so they

want more sex partners in their
lifetime and are more interested in
casual sex. Baumeister concludes
after reviewing several surveys of
men and women. Prostitution is still
mostly a phenomenon of men
seeking sex with women, rather than
the other way around. Nuns do a better job of fulfilling their vows of chastity than priests.
Baumeister cites a survey of several hundred clergy in which 62% of priests admitted to sexual
activity, compared to 49% of nuns.

The psychology of male raping female is due to the sexual differences between the two
genders. Men are different in their overtly direct sexual approach to women, which sometimes,

1
Sine, R. (2009). Sex Drive: How Do Men and Women Compare? [online] WebMD. Available at:
https://www.webmd.com/sex/features/sex-drive-how-do-men-women-compare.

2
Ogas, O., & Gaddam, S. (2011). A billion wicked thoughts: What the world's largest experiment reveals about
human desire. Dutton/Penguin Books.
they can full fill even by aggressive means, it is fair to say that both men and women have
responsibility to God and society to not harass each other mentally and physically. Hijab along
with prevention of free gender mixing is a perfect measure and a preventive reducing mean
against sexually related crimes and men being able to control themselves better. For example
Strategies women use to avoid rape: a) avoiding appearing sexually receptive (e.g., not wearing
revealing clothing) b) avoiding being alone (e.g., staying in close proximity to others when going
out) (McKibbin, Shackelford, Miner, Bates, & Liddle, 2010).

Rationally thus hijab must be enforced for the betterment of the individual, the family and the
wider society. It is not only an Islamic jurisdictional duty to enforce hijab but also a secular duty.
Islamic republic of Iran has embraced the law of hijab for every woman, Muslim or not.

The legal rules of feminine hijab are: a) It must cover all body and head except face and wrists
which are optional to cover b) the hijab itself must not be provocative or tempting c) the hijab
must not be tight as to reveal the shape of the feminine body specially arms, breasts, thighs and
buttocks d) the hijab must not be transparent as to reveal the color of the skin e) should not
have fragrance f) should not resemble religious cloths of other religions, men or cloths
associated with sins and transgressions.

Further Reading

Mohammad Mushfequr Rahman. “THE RELIGION of ISLAM: Everything You Need to Know!”
ResearchGate, 22 Apr. 2021,
www.researchgate.net/publication/351047760_THE_RELIGION_OF_ISLAM_Everything_
You_Need_to_Know Accessed 2021.
---. “Why Society Needs Patriarchy? A Scientific and Social Justification.” ResearchGate, 28 Apr.
2021,
www.researchgate.net/publication/351122477_Why_Society_Needs_Patriarchy_A_Scie
ntific_and_Social_Justification Accessed 2021
---. “The Islamic Society: The Sociological Perspective.” ResearchGate, 2021,
www.researchgate.net/publication/347424572_The_Islamic_Society_The_Sociological_
Perspective_4th_Ed Accessed 2021.