Q: Since fashion and the newest styles have become a controversial issue, what is the standard legitimate outfit that can be authorized?

A: Islam doesn’t complicate things; for styles are subjected to the social attitudes people are usually living. It was believed that Muslims were required to wear a special costume so as to be identified and distinguished from the infidels who were dominating during that time, In this sense, when Imam Ali (a.s.) was asked to explain the Prophet’s saying “dye your gray hair and don’t look like the Jews” whether it means that we have to dye our hair, he replied that this command was called for when Muslims were few but when they increased in number, there was no need for making them physically different from the others. In addition, some jurists may have noticed that the Prophet’s saying “Shave your moustaches, avoid your beards, and don’t appear like the Jews” is not a constant and permanent instruction. It was legislated when there was a need, but since Muslims are increasing in number, this need has swept over. The matter of wearing a standard legitimate uniform is of people’s choice, taste, and their way of living.

Q: Some people are not convinced of the veil some women are wearing, and see the necessity of wearing a long gown (abaya), what is your opinion?

A: The veil includes two meanings: a covered body in the presence of any stranger, and avoidance to all kinds of make-up or to any means which might arouse temptations. Women are allowed to wear any kind of clothes provided that these clothes protect them from being exposed to licentious looks. Therefore, we say that the long gown is not necessary as the only Muslim’s costume, since there is no evidence of its absolute exclusivity. Gowns were worn in certain periods of time due to certain social, religious, and political circumstances. Any decent uniform that portrays women as humans and not as females is indeed a legitimate dress.

Q: What do you say of some veiled women who attempt at harmonizing between their veil and new fashions?

A: I think that this kind of veil, instead of being a means of chastity, has become a means of arousing temptations, and such fashion seeking veiled women are more interested in attracting men than in being pious. Consequently, the concept of veil has been diverted from its sacred meaning to its opposite one.

Weird clothes

Q: What is meant by weird clothes and why aren’t they legitimate?

A: Weird clothes are those socially regarded as unfamiliar ones especially when both men and woman wear the clothes of the opposite sex. We all know that pants have become socially familiar to both sexes; however, there are certain private clothes restricted to women, and once they are worn by men they become unacceptable since they lead to the disturbance of the social balance and to the distortion of the psychic and mental state of the individual. Needless to remind you of the saying: “Just as men are not allowed to wear women’s clothes so are women.”

The Islamic characteristics of the veil

Q: What are the Islamic characteristics of the woman’s veil?

A: The veil can be defined with respect to the following terms:

First; the veil means a whole cover to the body except the hands and the face, both of which some other jurists see the necessity of an obligatory precaution in covering them. But some other jurists and I believe that it is allowed to reveal them in accordance with His saying: “Say to the believing women to turn their eyes away (from temptation) and to preserve their chastity, to cover their adornments except such as are normally displayed.”(The Light (Nour); 31). Thus, women are obliged to cover their bodies and to avoid what ever is transparent and thin.

Secondly; the veil means a rejection to adornment, God says “Stay in your homes and do not display your finery as women used to do in the former days of Jahiliyya *.” (The Confederate Tribes (Al-Ahzab); 33), for the veiled woman is not allowed to appear in make- up or any other adornments which adorn her body. Besides, she should not also wear her clothes in a way that shows her feminine beauty instead of showing her natural humanity. Indeed, the general convention of adornment is the unusual appearance which a woman intends on revealing to others. The real meaning of the veil is urging woman to appear decent, and consequently respected as a person in her society. Islam calls upon women to avoid being a center of display, finery, and temptation; they are humans above all.

Furthermore, the veil of sound is regarded as another type of veil for women. As a matter of fact, Islam does not prevent women from speaking with men, from delivering speeches in front of them, from cheering in the general political and social occasions which call for openness, or from shouting in situations which urge women to shout. But Islam does not accept that women soften and tender their voices in a way that arouses temptations. God says: “Wives of the Prophet, you are not like other women, If you fear Allah, do not be too complaisant in your speech, lest the lecherous-hearted should be moved with desire” (Al-Ahzab; 32). As it seems, inclining in speech is an additional aspect of seduction. Therefore, the jurists confirm that both tendering and softening voices that lead to seduction are not legitimate.

The social veil

The social veil is another essential type of the Islamic veil, which should be seriously considered. Islam does not approve of a man’s and a woman’s solitude, due to its dangerous and negative consequences. Doubtlessly, such isolation might tempt both the man and the woman to immoral deeds, and thus exposes woman’s chastity to compromise. As a matter of fact, Islam abhors and detests such isolation, but at the same time does not prohibit social relations between sexes on condition that these relations lead to a positive result rather than to sinful deeds. We infer that a woman is to veil herself from the inside. She, herself, should know her moral and legal limits which elevate her as a human and not as just a female object.

The sinner’s mentality.

The sinner’s mentality means a mental adultery in which a person virtually lives the situation of the sinner in his sight, in his hearing, and in his touches as well, without actually being involved in a real sexual intercourse. Islam abhors this situation because such person not only possesses the spirit of the sinner but also becomes alert to any exceptional circumstances to let his desires off.

The mental veil (barrier)

Indeed, both the man and the woman are in need of a mental veil through which they could be secure against any deviation. Therefore, the kind of films, movies and stories that work on arousing sexual temptations should be prohibited, for Islam abhors such means which lead to the destruction of the internal immunity. Needless to say that once the internal immunity is shaken, deviation becomes inevitable.

Changes in the meaning of the veil

The veiled woman shouldn’t allow herself to behave and to wear something which contradicts with the spiritual meaning of the veil. For example, the veiled woman of today is attempting at revealing, via the moving clothes and colors she wears, all her feminist beauty, just as any other unveiled woman. As a matter of fact, Islam does not deny woman’s right to live the feelings of her femininity but aims at elevating her. Islam drives woman to live according to her moral and societal values.

Q: The West accused Islam of its excessiveness towards the conception of the veil because a veiled woman without a full- makeup is also tempting to man?

A: This saying is, in fact, inaccurate and illogical simply because if a woman, away from her moving and colorful clothes, is viewed as a sex object to man, so is man to woman. However, on the biological level, the nature of a flaming instinct makes man instinctively desire a woman; that is why we observe that when a man is sexually satisfied, his enthusiasm toward any other concern is reduced. Since both woman’s and man’s nature of femininity and masculinity gives them a natural beauty and excitation, the debate about the veiled and the unveiled woman is inaccurate. Nevertheless, we all agree that the beauty of both the hair and the legs gives the unveiled woman a more attractive and seductive shape, for this reason all kinds of media focus on these two body organs.

On the other hand, the West is different in its beliefs and concepts. In the West, there is a belief in the absolute freedom of women and in the notion that both men and women are free with their bodies. Thus, nakedness has become a natural phenomenon that meets with the philosophical and mental ideology of the concept of freedom.

Starting from virtuousness:

Both Muslim men and women are required to be virtuous, since virtuousness sustains them with a self- discipline against any deviation or any immoral sexual temptation. However, an attempt to examine the values of the East and that of the West leads us to realize that the freedom of the sexes is more observed in the West; both are free with their bodies. In this sense, we have to distinguish between the path of chastity and the path of deviation as well. This realization confuses so many people who are very conservative and deep- rooted in eastern opinions and beliefs and at the same time tend to follow the traditions of the West, thinking that they are more civilized. Consequently, they will be leading a duality in their lives which takes them to deviation and then to destruction… Such situation is similar to when you ask someone, who is thrown in a well full of water, to remain dry.

Q: Don’t you think that the veil might create a state of depression to man since any single gesture may excite him?

A: Indeed, the veil can never ever be considered a cause of man’s depression; however, there are many internal and external reasons that lead to this state. For instance, if a man is not sexually satisfied due to certain social and personal motivations, he might get depressed. Moreover, if a man doesn’t find himself in the social and political life, he might also get depressed. Accordingly, every civilized society should adopt certain moral obligations, not necessarily identical to those of the social and economic values that the contemporary society adopts, for we all know how depressed a person becomes if he is socially neglected. Needless to say, that the morals of sex are not related to what both men and women wear.

Nevertheless, if we want to consider the Islamic veil as a reason for depression, then what about the unveiling and nakedness of the body? Isn’t it exciting and tempting? Don’t men desire looking at all the body organs of the woman in the same way the women does to man? Talking about nakedness means putting off all the clothes which cover and protect the woman’s body. Yet the veil does not cause depression. Depression is depression with or without the veil.

*Jahiliyya : pre-Islamic traditions.