BUT in my heart of heart, I knew President Buhari would not have thought of the ripple effects that that presidential gaffe would cause the whole nation.
Back to the South west, our old man, the one-man-anti-hijab, anti-'terror'-squad proceeded to the College Hospital. He got a small cardboard, took his pen and printed the following message on it- "Hijab is Now Banned in the School of Nursing." He thereafter pasted the cardboard on the entrance of the School. He did all that on his own volition. He did all of that without obtaining warrant or permission from the authorities. He was clear in his mind that his action would generate a reaction; he knew that he who sows the wind would reap the whirlwind.
In responding to the unwarranted attack on the constitutionally sanctioned rights of the students in the school, members of the Muslim community of the state sought audience of the school's authorities. They wanted to know whether the notice on the entrance of the School represented the new official position of the School on the hijab. Lo and behold!, authorities of the school of Nursing, most of whom were non-Muslims, absolved themselves as individuals and as a corporate entity from the action of the old man. In fact, they recognized the fact that the man's action was capable of generating discontent and rupturing the peaceful relationship between Muslims and Christians in the State. They promised to bring the old man to book for his assault and act of impersonation.
But why this war against the hijab? Why this war against and around women's bodies? Is it because, in line with Virginia Woolf, 'women are much more interesting to men than men are to women? Is it because in the woman men find amplification and completion? Is the war against the hijab a proxy war against Islam?
Let us try to speak to the ignorant. Or rather, let us begin by trying to dispel some ignorance. The word hijab appears five times in the Quran. It is mentioned in (Q7:46; Q19:16-17; Q33:53; Q41:5; Q42:51). As is usual with the Quran, the word hijab refers to a barrier that would be placed between dwellers of paradise and hell on the day of resurrection, a posture and candour of modesty that women of chastity usually take in relation to the other gender, a screen usually erected between women of honour and the populace, a veil that separates the inimitable presence of the Almighty even from His Prophets with whom He communicates eschatological matters and affairs.
Again in line with the Quranic style, you would discover that in all the references quoted above, none of the usages specifically refers to women's adornments. Thus the functional usage of the word hijab is to that clothing that women put on which in turn achieve almost all the above purposes of hijab usages. But in order not to leave mankind in a quandary, the Almighty comes with clearer proclamations on the latter. This is found in Quran 24:31 which reads thus: "(Prophet), tell believing men to lower their glances and guard their private parts: that is purer for them. God is well aware of everything they do.
And tell believing women that they should lower their glances, guard their private parts, and not display their charms beyond what [it is acceptable] to reveal; they should let their headscarves fall to cover their necklines and not reveal their charms except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their womenfolk, their slaves, such men as attend them who have no sexual desire, or children who are not yet aware of women's nakedness; they should not stamp their feet so as to draw attention to any hidden charms. Believers, all of you, turn to God so that you may prosper."
A number of facts can be deduced from the above verse of the Quran. For example, it is axiomatic that it is not the intention of the Almighty that women should be excluded from the onerous task of developing human societies. Rather, they are considered to be partners and co-equals in building a just and egalitarian society. Further, the Almighty equally knows that the appetitive and procreative instincts in humans needs not be denied or annihilated but held under control. In order to achieve the latter, He formulates rules and regulations that would assist humans achieve this noble duty. One of such is the injunction on hijab.
Again, it is self-evident from the verse quoted above that the duty to maintain social decorum and chastity belongs to men as it does women. In fact, going by the above verse, it is men who are first of all given the charge to lower their gaze and by implication control their emotion. So the assumption by critics of Islam that the hijab is a punishment for Muslim women is, to put it mildly, jejune and sophomoric. Would it not be vapid for anyone to surmise that the Habit on the Catholic sisters is a pointer to their lowly status in the divine scheme?
Now in order to facilitate the divine injunction and in recognition of His wisdom in creating women as different from men, the Almighty goes on to stipulate aspects of women's dressing that would meet with divine approval. Thus such now include what is known in Arabic as khimar- headscarf or shawl (Q24:31) and Jilbab – a loosely worn dress (Q33:59). For these two items on the Muslim to become and be seen to be hijab such should cover the whole body, it should be thick enough as to cover the woman's figures, it should be lose not tight on her body, it should be such whose colour is not flamboyant as to attract unnecessary attention to her.
Brethren, the hijab on the Muslim woman, as mentioned above is a signifier. But this time around the signified is the faithful in penitence, in obeisance to the Faithful. The hijab signifies modesty and chastity. In a world where sexual objectification of women sells faster than the latest ware in town, the hijab creates and maintains for the Muslim woman her divinely ordained identity.
But my sister of what use is that hijab on you if it does not shield you from indecencies and foul conduct? Of what use is the hijab on you if it does not stop you from committing acts of terror? In other words, the suggestion that banning the hijab could give fillip to the war against insurgency in the northeast is weak based on reason, reality and rule of law.
It is weak rationally because, as has been argued severally by critics, you do not ban the use of knives just because some individuals who lost control of their humanity committed murder with them. The reality on ground even makes the suggestion puerile. All around the Muslim world, including Nigeria, the hijab is and has become a marker of Muslims' communal and individual identities. Any attempt to ban its use would be an invitation to popular unrest. Thirdly, free expression of religious beliefs is enshrined in the Nigerian constitution.
Brethren, a couple of days ago, news filtered to town that the best graduating student in the medical school in University of Ilorin was one young Muslim sister who uses hijab. The other day in University of Lagos, it was another sister who won all the available prizes in the College of Medicine. In the Faculty of Pharmacy in University of Ibadan, a young Muslim sister whose long Khimar used to rile and roil some of her lecturers made the Faculty proud by wining almost all the prizes for the best student on the day of graduation. Remember that other sister in Harvard who equally turned in the best in her field a couple of years back. Given these wonderful stories, one begins to wonder what injury would the anti-hijab element suffer other than the empty search for the preservation of an empty status quo.
Let me close with this testimony from a Muslim sister: "With my veil I put my faith on display—rather than my beauty. My value as a human is defined by my relationship with God, not by my looks. I cover the irrelevant. And when you look at me, you don't see a body. You view me only for what I am: a servant of my Creator. You see, as a Muslim woman, I've been liberated from a silent kind of bondage. I don't answer to the slaves of God on earth. I answer to their King." (08122465111 for texts messages only)
