Afghan Women’s only choice; Burqa or Niqab The disputed Taliban decree on hijab for Afghan women
June 6th 2022
The Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, approved on the 7th of May 2022 the decree which makes a head-to-toe veil compulsory for Afghan women. The decree ordered all women to cover their faces in public. It suggests that women should not leave their homes at all unless wearing hijab (burqa or niqab), saying that “the best option to observe the sharia is burqa”. This group believes “women must be at home or in grave”.
Off course this decree is highly controversial and shocking for the young generation, especially to educated girls and women in Afghanistan. They contest de decree. A woman told the media: “”A headscarf as Hijab is recommended by the Islam but it is not necessary to cover the face and hands. They (Taliban) want to erase us from the social life, but we will resist and fight against this decree”. Another woman told media: “my face is my identity. I am proud of my identity. Why should I cover it? The Taliban knew how sensitive this issue is. They organized a press conference in Kabul on the day they publicized this decree. Shir Mohammad, an official from the vice and virtue ministry, told to AP reporter: “For all dignified Afghan women wearing hijab is necessary and the best hijab is chadari [the burqa], which is part of our tradition and is respectful,” Shir Mohammad added “Those women who are young and not too old, must cover their face, except the eyes.”Violation of this decree is punishable. In addition to the relevant text in decree, officials of the ministry of vice and virtue and Taliban religious figures present in the press conference, dictated a series of escalating punishments:”women working for the government who do not observe the terms of decree should be fired… imprisonment of male family heads who’s wife or daughter repeatedly disregards warnings from the government officials. Some other dictator Islamic regimes such as the Islamic Republic of Iran also punish violation of compulsory hijab (article 638 of the criminal code of Iran). Criminalizing the choice of personal clothes, violates the basic human rights of women.
First and foremost issue in this decree is relating wearing hijab to being “dignified women”. This is an old-fashioned way of thinking. Around 3400 years ago, an Assyrian law text ordered women of upper classes to use veil in order to be recognized as such. Certain religious texts in Judaism and Christianity include preference for veil. In the middle ages in Europe, many women covered their heads with some kind of garment. But in last centuries this idea lost its weight gradually. Today, from more then 3 billion and 905 million dignified women in the world, 800 million of them are Muslim. Only approximately 200 million women; mostly Muslim, use headscarf. But the other 3 billion and 705 million women don’t use headscarf, still they are very dignified. The headscarf-wearing women wither Muslim or non-Muslim follow their religious believes or seek a sense of security by using a piece of garment to cover their heads. In Europe, some Muslim women cover their heads as a protest to the pressure of right wing extremist politicians who try to forbid hijab. Observing hijab, in current World has nothing to do with the definition of “dignified women”. All women are dignified, unless the opposite is proved in a fair trial.
The Taliban decree orders Afghan women to use the all-enveloping burqa, which allows women to see only through a grille with very tiny small holes. The only possible alternative for burqa under this decree is niqab, which covers the whole body and face but not the eyes. Is burqa a respectful kind of clothes for women as the vice and virtue of Taliban claim? Not at all. If Mr. Shir Mohammad use himself a burqa outside of his house just for a week, he will see how disrespectful it is to place a human being inside a cotton pocket with only a grill before his eyes! Because of wearing headscarf and Niqab, Muslim women in the West become subject of disrespect. In January 2022, Philip Normal, a member of Labor party who represents Oval Ward and was formerly the mayor of Lambeth(UK), compared Muslim women to penguins. Off Corse the UK Muslims protested and Mr. Lambeth was forced to resign. But this example shows, how vulnerable become Muslim women in the eyes of the World, if they wear burqa and Niqab.
Burqa and Niqab are not part of tradition of Afghan women:
Contrary to the justifying words of Mr. Shir Mohammad who claimed that burqa is a part of Afghan tradition, burqa is a foreign item exported to Afghanistan by merchants of British India in the second half of 19th century. Its use as hijab in Afghanistan took place gradually by a very few number of women belonging to conservative urban and rural families who had close ties with the British. The rest of the Afghan women continued to wear their traditional headscarf (chadar). During the 20 years presence of the West in Afghanistan, Afghan women continued wearing headscarf (as hijab). New York Times article of 7 May 2022 used the term of garment: “The history of the garment dates back generations in Afghanistan, and is a product of conservative Afghan culture”. We don’t know what New York times mean by the term garment; headscarf or burqa? Headscarf has been part of Afghan culture at least after they converted to Islam. If the writer of article means burqa may be the writer has no access to correct historical information on this subject. Niqab is a strange and alien cloth in Afghanistan. The number of women who wear since 1992 Niqab in Afghanistan does not exceed few hundreds.
Hijab in Afghanistan is traditionally a headscarf outside home. The women in the cities cover with headscarf only their hair and neck. For modesty of their appearance, these women wear a coat in the cities when they leave their homes. See the following picture:
In the Afghan villages, a large headscarf has been used as Islamic hijab. If you travel through the villages of all 34 provinces of Afghanistan, you will see that the majority of women wear a large headscarf which covers hair, shoulders and the chest.
In the Afghan villages, the large headscarf (chadar /sadar) has been worn and even it is now being worn by the majority of women.
Every part of Afghanistan has its own traditional cloths for women. A headscarf is part of the traditional clothes of all provinces in Afghanistan, not a burqa or niqab. This proves that burqa has nothing to do with the tradition or culture of the people of Afghanistan. Face and hands do not have to be covered, according to the holly book Quran and the Islamic Imams (Abu Hanifa for Sunni’s and Jafar for Shia’s).
Background of veil and Burqa
Wearing a veil has not been initiated by the Islamic religion. The earliest evidence for veiling is an Assyrian legal text dating from the thirteenth century before Christ requiring women with clearly defined social status to wear veils. Veil has been also mentioned as directory by some apostles of Christ and seen in historical statues of Jewish and Christian religions. If we just think of a fifteenth-century fresco, the depictions of the Virgin Mary or read the medieval novels about courtly love, we will realize that the custom of veiling the body is not the prerogative of Muslim culture.
Islam, as continuation of other believes and civilizations, has recommended in some occasions believer women to modesty, covering their bosoms with their veils. The holly Quran has also a verse recommending covering the head. Verse 31 of Sura 24 states:” And tell the faithful women to lower their gaze and be modest, and not to show off their adornment except that which is apparent, and to draw their veils down to their bosoms and not to reveal their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband’s fathers, their sons…, oh believers, so that you may prosper “This verse of Quran while orders women to cover their adornment, exempts face [except that which is apparent] and does not mention veil on head. In another occasion, after the migration of prophet and his followers to Medina, Muslim women complained to Mohammad of sexual harassment by that local men, the following verse was revealed to him: “Oh Prophet! Tell the wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested”. The conservative clergy read the mentioned verses altogether. Still the following points are obvious from the text of verses:
- There is no word on covering face in both verses.
- The wordings of both verses are in the form of recommendation, not obligation.
- There is not a single word on punishment of those who do not observe the recommendation.
- By wearing a headscarf long enough to cover the chest outside house, is Islamic hijab completely observed. There is no need to cover face or hands.
Long after prophet Mohammad passed away, the verses of the Quran was collected and compiled by his first generation of followers. The territory of Muslim rule spread in a short time to other countries. For application of verses of Quran, in different times and places, the verses became subject to interpretation. Personal preferences of interpreters influenced their interpretations. Hence, Islam divided in several fractions/affiliations. Among the 4 main Sunni Imams, Abu Hanifa had a moderate position in interpreting the above mentioned verses of Quran. The same moderation is seen in Iman Jafar Sadeq among Shia Imams. The population of Afghanistan is divided to the followers of these two moderate Imams. Both of them believed that women are not asked in these verses of Quran to cover their faces and hands. That is why the Afghan hijab (chadar in Dari en tsadar in Pashto) does not cover the face and hands.
Some rulers in Golf states follow the strict interpretation of the Quran verses with respect to hijab. Niqab is designed for these countries. But our search for tracing the history of burqa brought us to India. In an article ‘tracing the history of purdah in India’ published on the Indian website ‘Hans India’ on 18th of June 2016, the origin of burqa has been mentioned. In this article we read:” Strict Purdah originated with Amir Timur, when he conquered India and entered in this country with his army and womenfolk, he made the proclamation, “as we are now in the land of idolatry and amongst a strange people, the women of our families should be strictly concealed from the view of stranger’. Strict Purdah, thus, became common among the Muslim ladies, although it was not as rigid with the Hindu women. The term Purdah in Hindi is defined in the following phrase of the same article: “Purdah is the practice that includes the seclusion of women from public observation by wearing concealing clothing from head to toe and by the use of high walls, curtains, and screens erected within the home. In other words, an extreme form of hijab which includes burqa for going outside”
A girl started observing seclusion near her puberty and generally, continued to adhere to it till her death. Although the tenets of the Quran allowed her to dispense with it after she passed the childbearing age, but by the time, she got so much used to it that she felt more comfortable living in seclusion than out of it.
The article of ‘Hans India’ website and other Indian sources are clear about the reason behind the creation of Burqa and its origin. Burqa was 4 centuries later introduced by merchants exporting British-Indian goods to Kabul. Gradually, in the bazaars of old Kabul city, a special burqa shop started to exist. As long as Afghanistan is underdeveloped and much of the population is illiterate, conservative clergy will be able to convince some men to ask or force their wives and girls to wear burqa in Afghanistan.
Why a large number of Afghan women in the cities wear burqa?
Despite the fact that burqa a foreign product is and not an Afghan phenomenon, it matched the desire of conservative circles and clergies to cover the whole body and face of women and make women invisible and isolated in the society. They promoted burqa with all possible means and ways. Therefore burqa found its way gradually to many provinces. But it never became a substitute for headscarf.
In the patriarchal Afghan society, even in capital Kabul, girls and women used to accept the orders of their fathers or husbands. However, the hijab of majority of them was headscarf; a growing number of illeterate women wore burqa to please their fathers or husbands. But almost all of them felt uneasy while they were walking inside a burqa, especially in the warm summer season. For women suffering from breathing problems (COPD), was wearing burqa a kind of suicide.
Hijab has been a sensitive political issue in Afghanistan. When king Amanullah (1919-1929) tried to reform hijab and give women the chance of getting education and participation in the society, the conservative clergy in cooperation with the British authorities in India, started provoking and financing armed protests by some uneducated conservative circles against the king, as a result of which the king had to leave the country because he wanted to prevent bloodshed among his own countrymen. Hence, progressive government collapsed.
But the message of Amani regime for political, economic and cultural change had influenced the society. Intellectuals inspired by him tried to start again a movement to promote the progressive political goals, but were suppressed by the new pro-Great Britain king Nader Shah and his brothers. After the end of World War Two and termination of direct British rule in India and Pakistan, Kabul gained more room to decide its own policies. Developments in the region, primary and higher education of women in Afghanistan, the membership of Afghanistan in the United Nations and active presence of UN agencies in Afghanistan and the increasing role for women in the World, paved the way for a careful move by the royal family to make a start in giving a sign to Afghan women that they can chose themselves the kind of hijab they wanted to wear. The move was motivated by change of mentality among the highest layer of women. In the 50s, burqa became the symbol of deprivation of a woman from her rights and liberties for educated Afghan women and girls. Prime minister Daoud Khan (1953-1963) was a strong leader and had the courage to start again with reforming the country. He organized first a modern army and police before undertaking reforms. He decided to bring an end to the social and psychological pressure exercised by conservative clergy on women to use burqa outside home. By asking Queen Humaira, his own wife Zainab Daoud and wives of his high ranking officials to take part in an official public gathering only with a long coat and a small headscarf, he demonstrated his reform on hijab. This move by the powerful and dictator Daoud Khan met armed protests by some tribal groups provoked again by conservative clergy in Kunar and Kandahar. Daoud and his new army were able to suppress this revolt. It paved the way for women to return to the traditional headscarf. Some years later, a number of women removed their headscarf in big cities. This number increased day by day. The women got the freedom of observing wearing hijab or not. This situation continued until the reign of jihadist political parties in April 1992. Women are the first target of any government controlled by Political Islamists. President Rabani issued 3 decrees between 1992 and 1994. All of these decrees were meant to limit the women rights and isolate them. Mr. Sayaf, his coalition partner, forbade broadcasting the voice of women by State TV station. Burqa shops were the only profitable business in that period. Obviously the Taliban as hardliner political Islamists, made observance of Burqa compulsory in their first reign (1996-2001)
In the last 2 decades, you can see a large number of burqa-wearing women on the streets of big cities in Afghanistan. The main reason for using burqa by these women is the sense of insecurity that prevails in the lawless streets of Kabul and other major cities for young women. Women, even with headscarf, experience verbal and physical sexual tented violence by un-educated aggressive men who have lost their faith in Afghan ethical norms and values. A covered face makes the chance of becoming victim of aggressive men smaller. A normal government would solve this problem by taking serious measures to guarantee security for scared women and prosecuting, punishing end educating the aggressive men, not by forcing women to cover their faces. Quran orders both men and women to modesty: “Say to the believing men that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts; that is purer for them; surely Allah is Aware of what they do”(Quran, Surah 24:30–31). Imposing burqa or Niqab on women because the men are not able to cast down their gaze, is punishing the victims.
Niqab is rarely used in Afghanistan. Most users consist of Afghan returnees from Golf and other Arab countries. A pro-Taliban women group, which demonstrated recently to support the Taliban views on women, use Niqab. But their appearance seemed strange on the streets of Kabul. Wearing niqab was an unpleasant show for the Kabul population. Both Burqa and Niqab are imported items from outside Afghanistan.
Fayaz Foundation, as a human rights organization, believes that everybody enjoy the right of choosing his or her own clothes. The only limitation for this choice is, that the clothes do not violate the generally accepted social ethic rules. Women willing to observe Islamic hijab are free to do that. Other women and men have the right to decide on what they wear in their daily life.
Fayaz Foundation for Promotion of Human Rights Afghanistan