Why Hijab Must be Enforced

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 lustinspiring 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.