Why does the traditional female muslim headscarf differ in different countries?
May 28, 2010 by
Filed under Arab
Just curious – Iranian women wear their headscarfs back further so you can see the tops of their hair, while others cover themselves completely. Is it different in different places or is it more a family tradition? Also, why doesn’t the queen of Jordan wear a headscarf, or the Arab female news anchor on Dubai TV?
Please, no offensive/racist comments I’m really just trying to find something out.
It comes down to local custom. Different tribes wore different things, and they have evolved over time.
Different strokes, different folks.
It a cultural things, but the meaning behind the veil is the same.
Whether forward or back a bit, it’s the symbol of covering that only matters.
Bless the women for obedience.
even I was looking for this answer
I am an iranian girl and yes many females here wear their headscarves back a bit because they want to appear beautiful.
there is wide disagreement on the degree of hejab between muslims from no hejab at all to light hejab or severe one.
The headscarf isnt Islamic, and there is no mention of it in the Quran. The women who think it is a must wear it the ‘proper’ way, while the others who reveal their hair or wear skin tight clothes with it are the ones who are being forced into it(not at the risk of head chopping, only because its the law). Bangladesh, Pakistan, are major muslim countries, but very few women wear the hijab there.
The purpose of the female Muslim headscarf, in every country, is the same (to cover the entire head).
In every country, however, there are those who will abide by this, those who will follow a slightly different perspective and as you said “cover themselves completely”, those who will wear “half-hijabs” due poor religious values and cultural tendencies, and those who will completely neglect the headscarf (such as the queen of Jordan and female news anchors).
By the way, Dubai TV is a secular station…and just because it’s Arab doesn’t mean it’s Islamic. Not all Arabs are Muslims; many are Christians and Atheists. I’m not even sure that the queen of Jordan is Muslim…
Hope that helps.
there is no direct commandment about wearing a head scarf. Because Islamic religion is formulated by scholars, they have concluded that women must wear head scarves based on
- a commandment to cover their bosoms and their natural charms
- a commandment specifically to the Prophet’s wives to cover themselves completely from head to toe.
some scholars take women’s hair to be a “natural charm”, some say what is good for the goose (prophets wives) is good for the gander (all moslem women) and so on and so forth.
IRANIAN women probably do not want to wear head scarves because they were a very liberal western style promiscuous society before the Shia Mullahs came to power on the back of the public outcry against the horrible abuses of the then modern Shah regime of the 1970s. Shiaism being a very conservative sect of Islam, those who are religious , therefore dress very conservatively and those who are irreligious and feel Shiaism is being forced down on society by the mullah regime, try to move the hijab back as much as possible so they can show off as much as possible.
DUBAI is not an Islamic country, 70% of its inhabitants are non-Arab immigrant workers and it is trying to become a “modern international resort” city, so traditional islamic bans on alcohol, porn, semi-nudity, gambling have to be relaxed in order to attract investors and holiday makers. and prostitutes.
In PAKISTAN for example, middle class conservative muslim girls do not wear hijabs or any form of head scarves.
In general if you are part of an Islamic group or movement as a woman, you wear the head scarf, because scholars of Islam all say it is part of the religion. If you live in the Muslim World, society at large is not religious, but secular, so if you are not purposefully part of an Islamic circle, then you can move around without any head scarf. There are some exceptions of course, like Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia and Iran where society at large is not secular.