Hijab is cultural and political, not religious

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Feb 23

RE: Hijab stands for a belief in a way of life.  Op-ed by Farah Ahmad.  The Hamilton Spectator 1 Feb 23.  Ahmad works in the communications department in the Ahmadiyya Muslim community of Hamilton.

It’s kind of weird being asked to celebrate National Hijab Day, especially when a hijab is a cultural thing not a religious thing, as writer Farah Ahmad admits.  Nothing in Islam speaks of a woman’s obligation to wear a hijab, for otherwise those wearing a niqab would be in the wrong.  Islam speaks of a woman’s need to be modest, and a woman’s hair being visible is not deemed immodest in the West, or in East Asia, sub-Sahara Africa, among Australia’s aborigines, or aboriginals of North America.  A hijab is a cultural thing, not a religious obligation.  And it has come to stand for a belief in the way of life, that life being Islamic, and specifically Shari compliant.

So, why am I celebrating a symbol of Islamic compliance?  Nobody celebrates the pope’s mitre, and there is no National Scottish Kilt Day, though perhaps there ought to be.

The reason is that the hijab has become the symbol of political Islam, as distinct from religious Islam.  The hijab has become a symbol of compliance with Sharia, a distinctly political thing.

Quebec’s Bill 21 is the target of hijabbery.  Quebec has taken the stand that laicité, the policy of French secularism, shall prevail in Quebec.  The hijab being a symbol of a political religiosity, the wearing of it by representatives of the Quebec state was forbidden.  Simple.

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