The Ongoing Debate

Among Muslim women, the debate about hijab takes many forms. Many believe that the veil is a way to secure personal liberty in a world that objectifies women. Several women have argued that hijab allows them freedom of movement and control of their bodies. Understood in such terms, hijab protects women from the male gaze and allows them to become autonomous subjects. Others have argued that the veil only provides the illusion of protection and serves to absolve men of the responsibility for controlling their behavior.

Both positions assert that Islam is not responsible for sexism. In fact, the Qur'an supports the notion of gender equality. As scholar Fatima Mernissi puts it "the existing inequality does not rest on an ideological or biological theory of women's inferiority, but the outcome of specific social institutions designed to restrain her power" (Beyond xvi).

Mernissi views the recent rise of women's repression in some Muslim countries as a rejection of colonial influence:

The fact that Western colonizers took over the paternalistic defense of the Muslim woman's lot characterized any changes in her condition as concessions to the colonizer. Since the external aspects of women's liberation, for example, the neglect of the veil for western dress, were often emulations of Western women, women's liberation was readily identified as succumbing to foreign influences (Ibid, vii).

Although written in the 70's, Mernissi's work sheds light on more recent events like the reinstitution of mandatory veiling by Afghanistan's Taliban regime.