Shakirah Hunter

The world reacts,as the focus once again, is the head covering of a Muslim woman. We all reacted in fury time and again when our sisters in France faced laws that discriminated against their freedom of religion. We passionately spoke out. Then it happened in India and we joined every hashtag. Muslims and non-Muslims alike we join in solidarity at our rights to religion being hindered in any way. Recently we watched sisters deep emotion as they were forced to remove their hijaab as they entered their places of work . You can hear the emotion,the worry the fear of breaking a command of Allah. The intense worry between losing their hard-earned salaries or keeping on to faith.

As a nation we jointly pointed out the oppression of it all. We had not a moment of doubt in our hearts and minds ,that in obeying a command of one’s Creator no one should have a law above them . We understood that no matter the religion – we can never allow manmade laws to prevent the worship of Allah.

Yet, as we look out at the world through those lenses of support and underlying the utmost importance of the Hijab covering as a command of Allah, one wonders at our own relationship with the Hijab . As a nation we are all at varying points in our journey to complete modesty. We are allowed to go about our day , in banks , government buildings and police stations all with our hijaab on. We have complete freedom to enter our universities with hijaab and most of our identification documents are taken with the Hijab on.

The outsider hearing our intense support for the religious choices and protection of a Muslim woman might be terribly confused. In our country what we know and understand to be an obligatory act by Allah and His Rasul صلى الله عليه وسلم has been narrowed down to personal choice.

I write this not in judgement but in a deep retrospection. Would we as a South African nation feel the deep pain of our Muslim sisters ,should we be forced to not wear the Hijab? Would the world support us if they know that we have the freedom that they want with regards to hijab-  yet we don’t use it with complete respect to it’s laws?

Yes , we are all at different paths in out journey to covering.  We can never know the struggles of our sisters as they navigate the test of modesty. But is it time that we re-evaluate our own relationship with the Hijab? Should we begin to question cultural norms that allow us to choose the manner in which we obey this direct command of Allah?

 Our hijab is a fight first and foremost to live differently. To choose modesty. To choose to have a deep sense of modesty that brings you closer to Allah Ta’ala in that you become shy to disobey His commands. In supporting women across the world, we must support ourselves too- we have to understand the deep relationship of modesty and the intrinsic link to it being a command from Allah. Let us evaluate where we may be in our hijab journey and ask ourselves if this modesty is in keeping with the command of Allah. While man tries to take away our choices, it is our duty to remember that this was never about man , and always about pleasing Allah in the correct manner.