Does Hijab Mean Hiding Oneself?

Hijab hides the body alone; it is not meant to and was never meant to hide the personality of a woman.

"Shhh… quiet! Cover yourself up, do not go outside, do not show up in front of guests, do not speak loudly, keep your voices low, keep your eyes low…". These are the bits of advice many girls hear growing up. As they step into youth, they are constantly reminded of that piece of cloth required to cover them, whether it's a dupatta for Indo-Pak girls or chador or shehla for Middle Eastern or Arab girls.

This ideal modest or ba-haya girl can be imagined as a pretty thing robed in clothes of different kinds, having her eyes fixed on the ground or elsewhere, a beautiful but low and accepting voice, a bowed head and almost stooping shoulders. She seems to want to curl in on herself and hide whatever part of her being is still visible. This girl is an image of submission. She is someone no one expects rebellion from. Someone no one expects to speak her mind boldly. But is this girl a representative of the hijab?

Does hijab mean hiding one's "being", as some women have assumed? Why do we think we need to hide our daughters in a hijab? Why do we equate haya with submission and invisibility? When the truth is the opposite: Hijab is done not to become invisible but to be seen. To be seen for who we are. It does not mean hiding oneself but rather exposing one's true self and being. The hijab covers the body alone; it is not meant to and was never meant to cover the personality of a woman. It wasn't a chain meant to restrain the ideas, speech, expression and courage of a woman. On the contrary, it was the weapon to showcase these things in a woman, to make these qualities stand out.

People are often distracted by glitter, and intellect is often deceived by looks. The most common example of this is seen in advertisements and commercials. A staggering amount of ads use women to promote their products. My question is simple: Are these women exposing themselves or hiding? They are indeed exposing their bodies, but they are actually hiding their very selves in doing so. It is like they have pushed their true selves under their skin. Let not our hijab be like the skin of these women whereby we push our true selves under it, simply because the point of hijab is exactly the opposite – hijab hides the body so that all other aspects and qualities of the self can become visible.

She's being asked to make herself known by her actions and words. Therefore her actions and words must speak loud. 

I urge all women of my culture and society to stop equating modesty with cowardliness, unreasonable shyness, or voicelessness. This kind of portrayal of haya has hurt women's identity, ceasing their personalities from developing and having any meaningful impact on society. I speak with utmost confidence that this imagery of a 'ba-haya woman' is flawed practically and Islamically. Islam does not ask us to lose our existences and make ourselves disappear in the name of hijab. Instead, it emphasizes hiding our physical attractiveness alone.

If you have any basic know-how of marketing tactics, you would know that a product's packaging is one very powerful marketing ploy. Oftentimes businesses work on the product's packaging more than they work on the stuff that's in it. Attractive packaging boosts sales, but it is often deceptive, and consumers later regret and complain. Today, most people rely on review sites to find out the actual pros and cons of a product because that is their real concern. So even though firms spend millions on packaging and publishing, the customer would prefer not to see the packaging and be deceived by it, but instead, find out the product's true worth by other means. 

Sometimes, a product of very cheap quality sells great only because the packaging is expensive and attractive. Thus one can say this is the easiest, albeit dishonest, way to sell a product in large quantities. If a regulatory body ever bans unnecessarily expensive or decorative packaging and strictly emphasizes the quality of the product, then that would be consumers' heaven.

By imposing hijab, Islam makes a similar demand. By asking us not to display our decor and feminine attractiveness, it bans the easiest way to attract, thus indirectly asking us to focus on our true qualities – which is harder but supreme. 

Islam says, "Go ahead, show us who you really are! And become someone more than a symbol of physical charm."

This is why the image of hijab should never be weak and voiceless—portraying submission to the norms of society. The image of hijab, as I want to present to my daughter, is empowering. Tell your daughter when she starts hijab to raise her head high and walk with sublime courage, for she is being given a tough challenge – she's being asked not to rely on glitter but to focus on becoming gold. She's being asked to make herself known by her actions and words. Therefore her actions and words must speak loud. 

She's covering her head so that she can be known for the ideas she holds, not for the silkiness of her hair. Let people talk about her good deeds and acts of kindness, not the smoothness of her skin.

The fact that she is ba-haya does not mean she is cowardly. She will speak for her rights and the rights of others, too. She is ba-haya when she submits to God; submitting to society is not part of haya. 

She must take pride in being a contributing and active member of society, a strong pillar of the household. She does not have to be passive to be ba-haya. She does not have to be voiceless or opinionless. She does not have to avoid audience or public presence. When she is in hijab, she has the freedom to excel in every field and shine not on the basis of outer appearance but on the basis of inner excellence, and this is exactly how hijab empowers her and credits her with true merits and self-worth.