Why Muslim Women Wear Hijab free essay sample

In this contemporary age, there has been growing public concern about whether Muslim women should wear hijab in the Western world. Naheed Mustafa, who wrote My Body is My Own Business, asserts that wearing the hijab offers her freedom. On the other hand, Catherine Meckes, the author of Wearing a Uniform of Oppression, objects that wearing the hijab is like [be] an animal in a cage (Catherine Meckes 91). Personally, I am in favor of the former view. There are two reasons to support my opinion: earing the hijab represents Muslim womens sense of identity and rights. Convincing arguments can be made that Muslim women express their sense of identity by wearing the hijab. First of all, wearing the hijab stands for their own identity. Muslim women have been unrealistically stereotyped as victims who groan under the sexual oppression, even Catherine Meckes said that The result of such sexual tampering was severe punishment for the perpetrator-and also for women, having lost her value with her virtue, was cast out or killed, regardless of her innocence (Catherine Meckes 91), but they still stick to their style of dress. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Muslim Women Wear Hijab or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It is hijab that can represent themselves who trust in God and are able to control their bodies. Consequently, Muslim women acknowledge themselves as respectable women but not violable by wearing the hijab. Moreover, Muslim womens sense of identification with their ethnic culture also can be revealed by wearing the hijab. Those women believe in God and obey the Korans instructions. The Koran expects Muslims, including men and women, to dress modestly, and has made it an obligation in Muslims minds. Obviously, the term hijab encompasses not only a head cover for Muslim women but also a symbol of piety of their ethnic culture. Therefore, wearing the hijab represents their sense of approval of Muslim culture as well. Lastly, there is no doubt that Muslim womens attitude on insisting wearing the hijab is not merely due to their esteem of their own traditional culture, but also reflects their lack of sense of identification with the Western worlds mainstream culture. Nevertheless they live there. Nowadays in the Western world, there has been a tacit rule that peoples worth should be proportional to their attractiveness, women have to feel compelled to pursue abstract notions of beauty, (Naheed Mustafa 125). Evidently under such a background, Muslim women would rather choose to wear hijab soundlessly than be subject to and dependent on Western main-stream culture. In other words, those womens silent opposition accurately demonstrates their confrontational stances towards western main-stream culture which objectifies women. However, it is unmistakable that Muslim womens sense of identity plays a pivotal role in wearing the hijab. Another reason why Muslim women should wear hijab is that those women have undisputed rights to determine what they wear or what they follow. To begin with, it is apparent that Muslim women prefer to cover their heads, necks and throats while numerous women these days expose their bodies or act out in order to attract public attention. However, oddly enough, Western society constantly describes women who dress modestly, wear the hijab, as to be oppressed, backward, submissive, degraded, but it constantly is generous and lays on the praise with a trowel when women who models media stars or magazines Cover girls latest style of dressing. In other words, we can find a fact that Whether its women who refuse to wear makeup or to shave their legs or to expose their bodies, society, both men and women, have trouble dealing with them (Naheed Mustafa 125). No wonder that a double standard is not hard to be figured out in those western countries. However, Western is not qualified enough to make the beauty standard exclusively and determine what Muslim women should wear. Therefore, Muslim women are also capable of defining their own beauty and then having every right to decide what they wear. Furthermore, the West has no right to prevent Muslim women from following what they want as well as wearing what they want. Specifically, according to the news, hijab has been banned in France or the other European countries shared places and schools. It is Muslim women who faithfully have the right to follow Muslim culture and the Korans instruction regarding appearance by wearing hijab, especially in cases where Western society allows people have rights to follow Western culture and media or magazines instructions of appearance. Consequently, wearing the hijab represents Muslim womens rights that permit them to decide on what they wear as well as what they follow.