In Arabic, the woman's loose body-covering
is called Jilbab, the head-covering is Hijab, and the face-veil
is Niqab
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A Bevy of Muslim
Beauties |
Many believe that this dress code stems
from the teachings of the Qur’an, but there is evidence
that Arabic and Persian women dressed in this way long before
Islam.
For example, the Roman African Christian
Tertullian, writing in Chapter 17 of The Veiling of
Virgins around 200 AD, praises the modesty of the "pagan
women of Arabia" who "not only cover their head,
but their whole face...preferring to enjoy half the light
with one eye rather than prostituting their whole face."
Strabo, writing in the first century AD, also refers to
covering the face as a practice of some Persian women.
Based on the verses in the Qur’an
and the collected traditions of Mohammed, both men and women
are required to dress and behave modestly in public.
However, this requirement has been interpreted in many different
ways by Islamic scholars.
Here are two extracts from the Qur’an.
I leave you to interpret them in your own way. I tried.
I got confused by the parts in red, then I got bored.
Chapter Al-Ahzab Ayah/Verse 59
"O Prophet! Say to your wives and your daughters and
the women of the faithful to draw
their outer garments close around themselves; that
is better that they will be recognized
and not annoyed. And God is ever Forgiving, Gentle."
Chapter: The Light. Verse 31
"And say to the faithful women to lower their gazes,
and to guard their private parts, and not to display their
beauty except what is apparent of
it, and to extend their head coverings to cover their
bosoms, and not to display their beauty except to their
husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers,
or their sons, or their husband's
sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons,
or their sisters' sons, or their womenfolk, or what their
right hands rule (slaves), or
the followers from the men
who do not feel sexual desire, or the small children
to whom the nakedness of women is not apparent, and not
to strike their feet so as to make known what they hide
of their adornments. And turn in repentance to Allah
together, O you the faithful, in order that you are successful"
