According to the Hebrew Bible, a woman’s hair is her “crowning glory,” a symbol of femininity, physical attraction, and seduction. As a result, the patriarchal monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam associate covering hair with propriety and modesty. By contrast, the pagan women of Ancient Greece and Rome expressed high status by flaunting elaborate hairstyles. We can view these “status symbols” today in the sculpture and murals of classical museum galleries.
The Apostle Paul spoke favorably about covering women’s hair (1 Corinthians, 11), especially for prayer, and this tradition continues in most churches. Contemporary Apostolic Pentecostals forbid cutting hair but hide it away. Some orders of Catholic Nuns were often shaven as a symbol of modesty and purity. By tradition, Postulants who became Nuns had their hair cut short by Nuns as a symbol of giving themselves to God, giving up personal vanity and the pursuit of a husband.
The rabbis who authored the Talmud viewed women’s hair as sexually erotic, and all Jewish women in Arab lands wore a veil. Among Ashkenazi Jews in Europe, covering their hair was only practiced by married women. Contemporary Orthodox Jewish women adopt a variety of coverings—hats, wigs, and scarves—according to sect.
For most Christians and Jews, there is no specific biblical legal requirement to cover the hair, so it is a matter of custom and social norms. In the modern process of secularization in the West, cutting or “bobbing” their hair was regarded as a symbol of female emancipation. Many feminists viewed cutting their hair as socially and psychologically empowering and liberating. That battle has been won in the West, and outside of very religious circles women’s coiffure is no longer a societal issue.
The situation in Muslim countries and among Muslims in the West is very different. Patriarchal attitudes toward female subordination to religious norms remain dominant. The extreme fundamentalist Taliban and ISIS require complete female body coverings—burkas, niqab, chador—supposedly to curb male desire and as a constant reminder of submission to Allah. Islam means submission to Allah. Nevertheless, there is no Qur’anic injunction requiring even veils (hijab); it is solely an interpretation by religious scholars. Nevertheless, the hijab is regarded by most Muslim societies as desirable from puberty as a protection against evil, immorality, and “human wolves” looking for easy prey.
It is not only Westerners who regard the hijab as a symbol of female oppression. In Turkey in the 1930s, as part of his secularist policy of encouraging female participation in public life Kemal Attaturk banned the veil in all government offices and educational establishments. This policy was reversed by the current Islamist Turkish President Recip Erdogan. European states such as France have also banned headscarves in schools. In response, Muslim critics in the West have defended the hijab as a signal of pride, ethnic minority identity, and even “liberation.”
Two important Muslim countries, Saudi Arabia and Iran, enforce wearing the hijab in public spaces by means of male Morality Police. They patrol the streets tasked with enforcing the countries’ strict Islamic codes for clothing and behavior and looking to suppress “immorality” among women. Newly elected Iranian President Raisi, a conservative cleric, made enforcing the mandatory hijab laws a priority. He made them stricter, leading to increased arrests. Opposition to intensified female subjection is now growing in Iran. In recent weeks, protests led by angered women have erupted against the Morality Police, an unpopular vestige of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The death in custody of the young woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for a clothing offense, precipitated riots that have seen women burning the hijab and cutting their hair. “Woman, life, freedom” is a familiar chant. The Islamic Republic government’s response has been violent with many deaths and injuries, as well as thousands of arrests and a shutdown of the internet.
We can only hope that Iranian women throw off the shackles of the Islamists and achieve their human rights and regain their dignity. Western secularists have a duty to support them in their struggle for freedoms of dress and conscience and not allow themselves to be intimidated by ridiculous accusations of Islamophobia.
According to the Hebrew Bible, a woman’s hair is her “crowning glory,” a symbol of femininity, physical attraction, and seduction. As a result, the patriarchal monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam associate covering hair with propriety and modesty. By contrast, the pagan women of Ancient Greece and Rome expressed high status by flaunting elaborate …