Ep.28 The Politics of Hijab with Farhat Amin and Ustadh Iyad Hilal
The dress of Muslim women has been politicised by secular thinkers, left wing activists, conservatives, feminists and talk-show hosts that all believe their take on the subject will emancipate Muslim women. For centuries, an obsession with Muslim women’s dress has enabled an array of political projects. Last week we spoke to Eeman Abassi about how Muslim women should place themselves in this confusing world.
This week we speak to two guests, firstly Farhat Amin, who is working on a book project to address the twin challenges of Muslim confusion about their Islamic rights and feminism and then we discuss the long colonial history behind the politicisation of women's dress and how to view the hijab from the shari’ah rules with Ustadh Iyad Hilal, author and imam from the United States.
We at the Thinking Muslim project realise the challenges Muslim women face and our approach is to clarify a subject and stay away from trite judgements.
As Imam Ghazali was once asked, “tell me the hukm for the one that does not pray?” the questioner was trying to ascertain whether such a person was an unbeliever. Imam Ghazali responded, “the hukm is that you kindly take his hand and bring him to the Masjid.” His answer showed kindness but moved beyond petty labelling and to a practical remedy. Today where confusion is so widespread, we should be intelligently addressing the thoughts that have brought us here and not adding to the chorus of machismo grandstanding that is now associated with some Muslim social media interactions.