hijab Is hijab actually a sign of oppression?

[Insiya Zaidi]

Is hijab actually a sign of oppression?
Hijab is a piece of cloth that covers your head followed by your neck and chest ( typically worn by Muslim women) 
In our modern world, we see people typically opposing hijab as they say that it is oppression itself!
We see thousands of controversial claims to ban hijab, stop wearing hijab and what not.
But before getting into hijab vs patriarchy we must  know why Muslim women wear hijab, is it true that male wants their wife, mother, daughters, sisters to wear it or is there any other reason?
To answer this, I would take an example from my phones cover! I bought my phone I got a screen guard on it I made it covered with a shockproof cover in order to protect it... Suddenly I realized I am being so protective for something, which I can easily buy again! But what about me? My safety?
I realized that being in this modern world made me so oppressed and so meek that I cannot even differentiate what is right for me and what is wrong...  It is actually protecting women from male's horrid behavior.
They make people fool claiming false allegations
#traditionally submissive a very popular hashtag firstly quoted by PM David Cameron saying that Muslim women in the UK, owing to their lack of knowledge and understanding of the English language, are not able to speak up against their oppressors and stand up to protect their rights.

But I can see thousands of girls from well off families well eduacated with pretty good communication skills, confident and smart wearing hijab... why they aren't considered?
A very popular concern about hijab is that is it a sign of patriarchy? and it a choice? I would say yes  it is a "choice" everything on earth is a choice their is no compulsion in islam as the verse from quran says 
Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood.1 So whoever renounces false gods and believes in Allah has certainly grasped the firmest, unfailing hand-hold. And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
Qur'an aayat 2:256
You can follow your rule book or not follow it,it's your choice, following the path which is called astrayed or the path of true success is your choice it is very simple if you will choice to wear hijab you will get benefited and if not the hell is all yours... tit for tat..  I would say going to heaven or hell is also a choice.

Patriarchy and Hijab
How can a rule be patriarchal even if it also for males? 
Say to the believing men that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts; that is purer for them; surely Allah is Aware of what they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their private parts; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their khimār over their breasts and not display their beauty except to their husband, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments.

— Quran 24:30
(The word khimar, in the context of this verse, is commonly translated as "head coverings". Such head coverings were worn by women in Arabia at the advent of Islam. )
The verse clears the doubt that their is nothing patriarchal in islam! 
The western society gives bait to women giving lustrous life full of freedom... Is it actually freedom?
The literal meaning of freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. but noone give you this type of freedom, do they? Okay lets take an example if I go to their functions wearing modest clothes with hijab what will happen? Nothing but they'll start judging me. I ask, but why if you are giving freedom then why it's incomplete it's my matter I should have my own freedom! why it is static? why dont they offer freedom to those who willing wants to wear hijab?
I hope asking these questions to yourself made you pretty confident about the fact that they actually offer static freedom!
Now if you are clear that freedom isnt complete.. you can evaluate that in almost all religions when women goes for worship they wear the same hijab giving it different word...( In hinduaism, In christianity, In sikhism, In jewism in all religions) but why they go such attire? Because The supreme and The devine power likes you dressing modestly!  it is now clear that we don't have complete freedom and therefore have to submit oneself to someone.. why dont you submit yourselfs on the devine the supreme power?

I would love if people start deeply studying with clear mind and then give their opinions! I hope I made certain things clear in this aticle and expect if people start thinking on the above questions and start introspecting! 
                        think and study before you say something! your words cost lifes!!!

[Hameedeh]

2 hours ago, Insiya Zaidi said:

Say to the believing men that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts; that is purer for them; surely Allah is Aware of what they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their private parts; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their khimār over their breasts and not display their beauty except to their husband, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments.

— Quran 24:30

Thank you. The quote mentioned is ayah 30 and part of 31, except the last sentence which mentions males and females (all Believers).  

[AbdusSibtayn]

Hijab is not oppression. Rather the anti-hijab propaganda is cultural erasure, soft-imperialism, voyeurs' and perverts' dream come true, and a concerted effort to brainwash Muslim women and push them en-masse into the meat-market to cater to gawking eyes. 

A Muslim woman wearing the hijab asserts her presence, her identity and her values in the hostile public sphere of post-colonial modernity which is opposed to all of her beliefs. She snatches back her agency, her dignity and her autonomy from the male gaze. She wishes to be known by the strength of her personality, and not by how she decorates herself to blend in with slovenly sartorial aesthetics. Each time she puts on her abaya and headscarf, she slaps an entire hostile world- view and its agents, hard and smack in the face. Each time she puts on her abaya and headscarf, she is a victor. 

The informed, conscientious, God-wary Muslimah wearing her hijab is not 'oppressed'; the uncouth libertines of all shades jeering at her, who are shackled by the modernist menace and its hydra-heads of secularism, liberalism and feminism are the ones who are really oppressed. 

[kadhim]

It doesn’t inherently have to be oppressive in theory. But sometimes in practice it can be. Often it can be. 

As a chosen, private expression of one’s personal interpretation of Islamic concepts of modesty that women themselves take care of and take personal responsibility and ownership of as individuals for themselves alone, then it’s a perfectly reasonable thing. There’s nothing oppressive about that at all. 

But when it becomes the rule, the norm, something that is promoted as the answer for modest Islamic women’s dress, as the minimal standard of public decency; when it becomes legislated and enforced as the law of the land; when men promote it and talk about it more than women do, and use it to call out women who don’t follow the mold; when women dress generally modestly but don’t wear a scarf get called out as if they are walking around naked; when it becomes politicized into some sort of symbol that an individual woman is either with us or against us, then it crosses over into something that is used to control women. 

And I can’t help notice that in practice it’s way more of the second than it is the first.

Listen. Don’t misunderstand here. There is a general broad Islamic concept of modesty. Let’s defend and teach that as a broad concept for men and women. And if an individual lady sincerely of herself wants to cover her head as her own expression of that, good for her, and I don’t think anyone should try to take that away from her. But at the same time, let’s be reasonable and accept that there’s legitimate room for others to interpret this concept differently, and leave alone those women who do read it differently. And let’s get away from this approach that sucks the life out the concept by trying to push or enforce the strictest interpretations of it. 

[Ashvazdanghe]

Salam @kadhim you have a point wich I agree about choosing Hijab by women but on the other hand your post is an example of liberal thinking which calls rules of enforcing  Hijab in muslim countries as oppression  of women which anti hijab people  which all of them are so called opposition  of Iran regim who actually  are receiving  orders & financial  support from CIA & Mossad their main target are Iranian  women to promote removing hijab under guise of these type of liberal ideas & wrong interpretation  of  Hijab through social media platforms but on the other hand when an Iranan  woman chooses to keep her Hijab in non muslim countries likewise America  & Canada which are main headquarters  of so called opposition  of Iran regim then this pseudo liberal people  are removing  hijab by force & beating them which also ironically  muslimah women in India  are fighting  for having hijab in India because Indian government  & it's officials have banned  hijab   but on the other hand again women in Afghanistan  are opposing forcing Burqa on women by  Taliban  which in all of these three examples we see intervention of westerners in these countries  under guise of this liberal interpretation which  it shows fallacy of your idealistic liberal  idea .

[root]

I'm confused......

[kadhim]

7 hours ago, Ashvazdanghe said:

Salam @kadhim you have a point wich I agree about choosing Hijab by women but on the other hand your post is an example of liberal thinking which calls rules of enforcing  Hijab in muslim countries as oppression  of women which anti hijab people  which all of them are so called opposition  of Iran regim who actually  are receiving  orders & financial  support from CIA & Mossad their main target are Iranian  women to promote removing hijab under guise of these type of liberal ideas & wrong interpretation  of  Hijab through social media platforms but on the other hand when an Iranan  woman chooses to keep her Hijab in non muslim countries likewise America  & Canada which are main headquarters  of so called opposition  of Iran regim then this pseudo liberal people  are removing  hijab by force & beating them which also ironically  muslimah women in India  are fighting  for having hijab in India because Indian government  & it's officials have banned  hijab   but on the other hand again women in Afghanistan  are opposing forcing Burqa on women by  Taliban  which in all of these three examples we see intervention of westerners in these countries  under guise of this liberal interpretation which  it shows fallacy of your idealistic liberal  idea .

Punctuation is your friend, akhi.

[Ibn-e-Muhammad]

On 4/27/2022 at 11:01 AM, Insiya Zaidi said:

 

No, I don't find it to be inherently oppressive, and the women involved don't generally see it that way either.

Having said that, in certain conservative discourse, unfortunately the hijāb is often misrepresented as a piece of cloth and a piece of cloth only. It is also frequently misused by a certain group of people as an idea or as an axis on which they can marginalize and silence women. Certainly many of us talk about how hijāb is a philosophy of behavior and applies to both men and women and society at large, but when push comes to shove, 99% of the focus is still about the piece of cloth. The discourse, as well as our implementation of it, needs to improve.