Hijab Jilbab Tudung Remake

Faith or Fashion? You decide.

Let’s just stop for and a while and look around us. There’s a girl around sixteen looking so fashionable with a bright coloured shawl on her head. Under that shady tree, a woman is sitting and eating her lunch meal. She’s wearing an instant hijab. Meanwhile, there’s a group of religious women walking down the escalator and all of them are wearing purdah.

Yes, it is not weird seeing women wearing hijab or headscarves in this country. Malaysia is an Islamic country. The society has come a long way in accepting religious practices. It has become a norm.

But let us all ponder, why do we wear hijab? Is it because Islam has obligated us to cover our aurat or because of our fashion desires? How do we know whether we are wearing the hijab appropriately or not? Is the way we style our hijab following the real ethics of covering aurat?

Faith or Fashion?

So, are you for faith? Those who are wearing hijab appropriately will cover their chests. They choose only non-see-through headscarves to be worn. There are no extra fake buns attached to their head. They simply cover up their aurat.

What about fashion? We can obviously see nowadays, there’s like a battle between the ladies who wear hijab because of style. They do not bother about the commandment of covering the aurat. They wear hijabs just to show off their beauty. They are even inclined to waste a lot of money on hijabs, just barely to look stylish.

Why do we wear hijab at first? Johanna in Hlovate’s 5 Tahun 5 Bulan explains, “It’s my obligation because I’m a Muslim. In our religion it’s an order from God for the women to cover their bodies, including the hair.” One of the most common reasons why Malaysian women are wearing hijab is to ensure that they can fulfill the religious requirement to cover their hair including their ears. They are supposed to show only their face. However some extreme beliefs wanted them to cover their faces as well and leave only their eyes to be seen. These beliefs however are not embraced by most of the Muslim women in Malaysia. In fact, hijab has been receiving a lot of revolutions in terms of the fashion and also the trend here in Malaysia. In short, this scenario is one of the uniqueness of the Muslim community here in Malaysia. That’s a point for faith.

So, what do the Quran and Sunna say about hijab? There are two verses of the Quran that deal with hijab. These are Surah an-Nur verse 31 and Surah al-Ahzab verse 59. Let's look at what these verses say.

Surah an-Nur verse 31 says:

And say to the faithful women to lower their gazes, and to guard their private parts, and not to display their beauty except what is apparent of it, and to extend their head coverings (khimars) to cover their bosoms (jaybs), and not to display their beauty except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers, or their sons, or their husband's sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their womenfolk, or what their right hands rule (slaves), or the followers from the men who do not feel sexual desire, or the small children to whom the nakedness of women is not apparent, and not to strike their feet (on the ground) so as to make known what they hide of their adornments. And turn in repentance to Allah together, O you the faithful, in order that you are successful.

Surah al-Ahzab verse 59 says:

O Prophet! Say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the faithful to draw their outer garments (jilbabs) close around themselves; that is better that they will be recognized and not annoyed. And God is ever Forgiving, Gentle.

Hijab and Fashion

Hijab wearing has evolved from time to time. Back in the 50’s, they were lack of religious education. Our grannies during those days wear headscarves as the complement to their style in which they usually wear tight kebayas.

Let’s move on to the 90’s. Most women have started to wear hijab. The most famous type of hijab at that time is tudung bawal. They wore severe, dark colours and kept their hair and neck covered. Our mothers look so courteous, symbolizes the real way Eastern ladies should behave.

How about now? There a lot of hijab styles at the moment like shawl or pashmina for teenagers who love fashion, tudung Syria which is similar to instant tudung and preferred by those who do not like to waste their time fussing with scarves, tudung bawal which actually evolves from plain tudung where the tudung has been embroidered with curvy lines and the latest one, turban whom the singer Yuna, the same person who has introduced the use of shawl, has been wearing.

Today, many young women wear brightly colored scarves loosely wrapped around their heads or tied at the back. Some even dare to show a little neck. The latest trend is to style exposed hair at the top of the head, puffing it up in a fashion reminiscent of the 1960s. The look, frequently accompanied by heavy makeup, even has a name - "bad hijab", as given by the Iranian (atimes.com). Significantly, bad hijab is spreading.

Now, there is the fashion where you wrap the hijab behind your neck, so that your chest and front bit of the neck and chin are showing. They leave a bit of the ears showing so that earrings are on display. Then in a conversation with one of them they say ’Yes, I’m so proud to wear hijab’. There are actually two categories for someone wearing the hijab. One is the mohajaba who is covered with loose clothing with her hijab. Secondly there is the mohtasheema, the one who is wearing a hijab but wearing tight clothes, so she isn’t a mohajaba yet, but one step away from being one.

However, the type of clothing nowadays meets the basic requirements of Islamic dress; i.e. to cover everything except face, hands and feet and to be loose enough to conceal the figure. Nowhere in Islam does it say that we must dress head to toe in black sheets. For some reason, many people believe that anything other than this is unacceptable. What is wrong with looking neat, polished and presentable? What is wrong with wearing blues, greens and pinks? In fact a hadith in Sahih Al-Bukhari (Volume 7, Book 72, Hadith 715) mentions that a woman at the time of the Prophet (SAW) was wearing a green veil. Women in Malaysia wear brightly coloured clothes outside, as that is the norm for our society. If you wore black you would probably stick out more!

If we were followers of fashion, we would not be covering our bodies! We would be out in oh-so-trendy midi skirts and tightly belted dresses. We encourage women to wear and stick to hijab, without making them feel that the only option they have is a black burkha. What better way to advertise Islam and make it more accessible to non-Muslims than by looking neat, modern, modest and having the best of manners at the same time? Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty, though :)

And so, after reading this article, which category are you in: the ones who wear hijab and cover their aurat at the same time or the ones who only love to wear hijab in the name of fashion? You choose :)

Sources: muhajabah.com

hijabstyle.co.uk

atimes.com

fashiontudungcollection.blogspot.com

uniquemuslimah.wordpress.com

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This is for our Mag Inc Project. Hoping on nothing. Thanks for watching and reading.
XOXO,
ImagineNation ( Alia Afiqah, Asma' Fatimah, Nur Farah Azira, Nur Musfirah Izzati, Sharifah Syahirah )

Cast:
Nurul Asyhikin, Alia Afiqah, Sharifah Syahirah, Asma Fatimah

Writer, Director & Editor:
Nur Musfirah Izzati