Why do Muslim Women Wear a Veil or a Hijab?

I've worn the hijab, or veil, over my head and across my shoulders for as long as I can remember. My parents encouraged me to feel comfortable with it ever since I was two years old and wanting to mimic my mother, even though it isn't mandatory for girls to wear the hijab until they reach puberty. I didn't wear it all the time when I was small, but as I grew older-as I learned to fold, tuck, and pin it myself-it became natural to me.

As a young African American Muslim, I was raised with many other young Muslims from all races, colors and cultural backgrounds in a close-knit Islamic community. I learned that wearing hijab was right, was normal, was what God wants. I remained content with what my parents and community taught me throughout elementary. By the time I entered high school, I had come to understand by watching the non-Muslim American society, especially the workings of its male-female interactions, that wearing the hijab is the best choice for any woman, for several compelling reasons.

Man is not reminded of God when he looks at Woman's body. He is reminded of his sexual instinct as a man, no matter what he says, or thinks he feels. The same is true for women at the sight of men. Since Man does not always understand the nature of Woman, has always dominated society, and has never been forced to consider Woman as genuine competition on any level, he has now begun to work with women toward his own ends, and convinces her that her compliance with his rules are the rights she has been fighting for. The new "rights" force Woman to play every role she takes on by Man's rules. In some cases this denies her the needs, personal goals and pleasures that only women can understand. When she protests, Man tells her that being fleeced of her femininity is to her advantage or to the society's advantage, depending on which rationale appeals to her.

It is to a Woman's advantage to protect herself from men who will ordinarily take advantage of her, often without even realizing it. Woman has always followed Man's lead, from the old wedding vows to the newest fashions to the glaring social inequality we see around us every day. The wedding vows meant that Woman was at the mercy of Man, because Man tends to deny the rights of anything that cannot physically assert them. The leading fashion designers for women's clothing are male-dominated, because Man knows what it would gratify him to see Woman wear. Women juggle countless immense responsibilities on their own for much of their lives, because certain things, no matter how politically correct we are, do go under "women's work", but everything that had been considered "men's work" has become unisex over the past 50 years. For example, Man has not yet volunteered to carry a baby to term, let alone deliver it and become its mother. And Woman still doesn't make as much money for doing the same work for the same eight hours as Man does.

It has never occurred to me to cast away my hijab. I wear it in order to remove myself from the chessboard, and to force Man to recognize me as a human being who is different from him, but who refuses to distract him or be distracted by him from life's purpose, which is to please God. I become a special person who makes her own rules of social interaction. Any male who wants to deal with me on any level must learn my rules.

Amazingly, Man recognizes and respects my rules, even without any verbal cues. He is careful and deferential, and I do not put him at ease. I want to keep him at a distance so that our public social relationship, whatever it be-student-teacher, supervisor-employee, or colleague-colleague-remains undamaged by the inevitably personal scale that a male-female relationship becomes if we are attuned to each other on more than one level. Revealing clothes immediately describe the less important part of Woman, and the same is true Man. And so I don the simple fabric of hijab before I go out in public with the same sense of protection that plated armor would give me. Yet the ease with which I conduct my business and deal with male society, whether Muslim or not, makes me feel as if it may well be my crown, cloak and scepter.

A man who looks at a Muslim woman is reminded of God if he is spiritually alive, because by deliberately downplaying her appearance, she is making a stage on which her soul can freely perform. A Muslim woman who is keenly aware of God will behave as if she does, and thereby remind others of God as well.

Anyone who meets me treats me with respect just because I'm different, and people who are different and yet not dysfunctional are admired. Muslims and non-Muslims, men and women, covered and uncovered alike show this respect. I have the same respect and love for all Muslim women who cover. Because I'm dressed the way I am, everyone is forced to wait and see how I behave before they can determine who I am, instead of forming opinions about me by my hemline and hairstyle.

Unfortunately, the hijab has been perceived as either "The Arabian Nights" or "Not Without My Daughter" ever since the western, non-Muslim masters of the media and printed word settled among Muslim societies around the globe. The early reason for the perpetuation of these lies was the wish to convert Muslims to Christianity. Also, western society has always forced women to fight for human rights. Upon encountering an Islamic society wherein Muslim women are automatically given the rights to work, divorce, vote, and own property alongside men, non-Muslim men may have been disturbed at the thought that the women of their society might begin to demand their right to be women, and human, and respected as such.

But many indigenous Muslim societies today have only a blind cultural affiliation to Islamic practices such as the hijab, and many women are uneducated about much of anything except the standards of the West. These customs often contrast sharply with Islamic practices, and their lack of education often drives Muslim women to seek fulfillment through the methods displayed by non-Muslim societies. A discontented Woman is the best way to ruin a family, and the rotten family unit rapidly destroys an entire society.

And yet the main reason I wear hijab is also the most persuasive, for me. God wishes the best for all His servants, and so He sets down rules to govern our behavior. In order for humans to live in harmony, God needs to be pleased with our actions. Since He created us, He knows what our functions are, and so tells us how we will best function. This way we will be content, and God will be pleased as well. So Muslims pray, respect our parents and elders, and give charity to the needy-not because we hope to get rich and famous or gain anything from them, but because we want God to be pleased with us so that we might gain His reward.

God's rules are completely in opposition to many "-isms" that rule the societal mindset today. Instead Muslims try to commit ourselves to actions that will make God pleased with us. With this knowledge, and with pure intentions, we will not clash in a violent "rat race" or a "dog-eat-dog" world. We will all move in the same direction, seeking the same God's pleasure and thereby the same goal: to meet God and receive His Mercy and Reward. Wearing the hijab is a tiny microcosm of contentment with God's wishes, and gives Woman a tiny piece of the pleasure she gains from God's pleasure with her actions. Combined with pure intentions, Muslims can reach their goal.