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Sometime ago I read one cringe inducing and nauseating article titled “Boko Haram: Another look at the Hijab”. The author purportedly suggests that once the government bans the wearing of hijab in public places, Boko Haram will be brought to its knees. According to the article; “countries with similar suicide bombing experience by hijab/burka-wearing suicide attackers such as Cameroun, Chad, Egypt, Congo, and more recently, Senegal have all banned the use of hijab in public places”. This is a blatant and deliberate lie! None of these countries has ever banned the use of hijab. To put the record straight, Chad only banned the use of full-face veil; not the hijab. The author of the article needs to be tutored to know the difference between hijab and the full-face veil.
Plus, the argument that temporary ban on the use of hijab in the public place will put a stop to the terroristic acts of Boko Haram is just too preposterous. Even a fool would have a second thought before expressing such opinion. Can the author explain why the ban of motor cycles fails to mitigate the series of attacks in the north eastern states of Nigeria? Boko Haram has also been using cars in their operations; is it not logical to temporarily ban the use of cars in the public? So that we can revert to the use of camels and donkeys for transportation? Nigerian soldiers—going by this insipid opinion—would also need to be banned from the use of guns, armor tanks, and other sophisticated weapons because the terrorists/bandits use similar weapons.
The author should also establish that the ban on hijab has helped solve the problem of terrorism in any country in the world. Or is he saying that the November 2015 attack in Paris (France capital) was also carried out by terrorists under the cover of hijab? It is high time that people learnt how to be rational when they express their opinions especially those that bear on religion. Wearing hijab is not the culture here in northern Nigeria, nor is it the culture of any ethnic groups or regions in the world; it is rather a symbolic identity of every female Muslim.
If anyone has a grudge to settle with Islam and the Muslims, he or she should not use Boko Haram as camouflage. They should be bold enough to come forward and express their hatred without resorting to subterfuge.
Hijab worn by Muslim women is a divinely legislated outward expression of modesty. But since the world materialists are frantically and fanatically making a quantum jump into the abyss of immorality, irreligiousness, and immodesty; it is not surprising that they unchastely attack any manifestations of modesty which the hijab epitomizes. This is not to say all female Muslims who wear the hijab are modest, it is to emphasize that the hijab symbolizes modesty.
Hijab haters seize every opportunity to strike. Take for instance the 2019 terrible attacks by some mentally deranged so called Muslim terrorists in Sri Lanka that resulted in the loss of many souls. This immediately brings the hatred of hijab to the fore. No sooner had the gruesome attack occurred than the authority banned the use of niqab—a face veil worn by the Muslims. It beats one’s imagination, of course, to understand the linkage between the attack and the ban on niqab. No homo-sapiens on earth can establish the nexus between the attack and the irrational ban on niqab. The attackers did not veil their faces in the course of the attack. There is no single female Muslim among them. The whys and the wherefores of this ban can only be explained from the perspective of the pathological hatred for Islam and the Muslims. This hatred was veiled under the ban on the veil. In other words, the ban is an expression of Islamophobia. Sri Lanka is not alone, Austria banned it. Denmark and France followed suit. Belgium, Bulgaria, China, are other examples.
It is to be noted that bans on niqab have always been rationalized and anchored on security challenges and threats to security. If for the sake of argument, it is agreed as claimed, what threat has the use of hijab posed to our entire existence? If niqab masks the identity of its wearers and some criminals (including men) are mischievously using it for some nefarious acts, does the hijab also masks identities? It is not lost on us that there are several attempts by some agents of darkness in Nigeria and elsewhere to unclad our female Muslims—to strip their libaasut-taqwa (garment of piety).
The storied case of Firdaus Amasa—the budding legal luminary—is still fresh in our memory. The legal battles between the Muslims and some unrepentant religious bigots in Lagos, Osun—and now in Kwara—concerning the use of hijab by female Muslims are just too known. Several discriminations (reported and unreported) against female Muslims in hijab in their places of works, in schools, in hospitals, at market places, and other avenues of social interactions do not go unnoticed. If these cases were to be written for record keeping, they will make a whole volume. As if these bigots were not tired of their several failed attempts to stamp Islam out of existence, especially in Nigerian south west; a student in Lagos State was almost denied writing 2019 JAMB exam before the authority intervened.
Furthermore, haters of hijab should understand that they are, by default, haters of Islam and the Muslims. There is no gain saying the fact that discrimination against the ‘hijabites’ anywhere in the world is discrimination against the Muslims all over the world. While we strongly condemn this discrimination, we shall definitely not resort to violence nor shall we take laws into our hands to resist discrimination. Islam is the religion of peace. Thus, we shall not relent effort to resort to all available legal means to ensure that our right to practice and manifest symbols of our religion (one of which is to don the hijab) is not infringed upon. It is a fundamental right that is unambiguously enshrined in the Chapter 4, Section 38 (1) of the 1999 Constitution. The provision says: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to MANIFEST and PROPAGATE his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice, and observance.”
The campaign against the hijab, under whatever guise, is not strange to us. It is categorically stated in the Quran that “They (enemies) want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it (Q9:32; 61:8; and Q3:118-120). What is strange to us is their weird orchestrated plot to link terrorism to hijab and vice versa; and also to hypocritically feign ignorance of the fact that the Nigeria’s Constitution actually grants freedom to manifest one’s religion privately and publicly.
In conclusion, donning the hijab in Islam is not optional, it is a religious obligation upon every female Muslim to wear it while in the public. It is not meant to be worn occasionally at will, it is meant to be worn just like cloths are worn. A female Muslim in the public without hijab is considered to be half naked. May Allah make us good Muslims and help us against enemies of hijab. He should guide them to see the virtues in hijab as a symbol of modesty. Next week, God willing, I shall turn to the unnecessary issue over the use of hijab in some schools in Kwara State.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen writes from Gashua
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
