Combating Islam

Part IV: Hijab, Niqab, and the Dress Code of Control

Welcome to the sacred straitjacket.

Forget the TED Talks about “choice” and “empowerment.” Strip away the Western Instagram filters and revisionist fluff. The Islamic dress code — hijab, niqab, burqa — is not about modesty. It is not about dignity. It is not a fashion statement sanctified by God.

It is about control — male dominance in cloth form, wrapped in scripture, enforced by law, and weaponized against the body of every woman born into the system.

📜 Qur’an: The Dress Code Begins

Let’s start with the “holy mandate.”

Qur’an 24:31

“And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests…”

This verse is the hijab’s cornerstone — a command to cover what men might be tempted by.

The justification? Not female dignity. But male lust control.

And who’s burdened with managing male weakness? Women. Always women.

Qur’an 33:59

“O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused.”

Translation: Dress like this — or get harassed. It’s your fault if you don’t.

This verse isn’t a spiritual uplift. It’s a threat thinly disguised as protection. Submit to the veil — or prepare for punishment, social or otherwise.

🧕 From Scripture to Suffocation: The Tafsir Says It All

Ibn Kathir (on 33:59):

“Allah commanded the women of the believers... to cover themselves with the jilbab to distinguish themselves from the women of the Jahiliyyah and slave women.”

Read that again: free women cover, slave women don’t.

Why? Because the veil was a status marker, not a spiritual one.

Slave women were harassed, beaten, and unveiled — deliberately, legally, and with full clerical blessing.

Tafsir al-Qurtubi:

“When slave women went uncovered, they were not punished. Free women had to veil — as a mark of distinction and honor.”

So the veil’s original function wasn’t modesty. It was class control and sexual gatekeeping.

👁️ Surveillance, Not Spirituality

Every modern enforcement of hijab and niqab — from Saudi Arabia to Iran to parts of Afghanistan — follows one message:

Women’s bodies are scandalous by default.

The result?

Religious police dragging women into vans for a strand of hair.
Beatings for wearing jeans under a loose abaya.
Arrests and executions for “immodesty” — like Mahsa Amini, beaten to death in 2022 by Iran’s morality police.

This is not cultural. It is ideologically mandated. And no amount of apologetic fluff can cover that up.

🔗 “Choice” in Chains: The False Feminism of Hijab Apologists

Modern Muslim influencers gush about hijab as empowerment — their “crown,” their “freedom.”

Here’s the truth:

If your “choice” is punished when you take it off — it’s not a choice.

If refusal means social exile, family abuse, or prison — it’s not empowerment.

And if the veil is legally mandated or religiously threatened, it is coercion with a holy halo.

🧠 The Psychology of Shame

The Islamic dress code doesn’t just police skin. It polices thought.

Hijab isn’t just a cloth. It’s a theological muzzle.

Girls are taught:

Their bodies are shameful.
Their hair is seductive.
Their voice is fitna (temptation).
Their presence is dangerous to male spirituality.

So the solution? Erase them. Hide them. Smother them in layers until they disappear.

This isn’t modesty. It’s disappearance as doctrine.

📚 Legal Backing: Hijab as Law

Sharia codifies veiling as a religious obligation. Every Sunni school of law (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali) enforces some level of covering.

Umdat al-Salik f5.3 (Shafi’i): “A woman’s ‘awrah is her entire body except the face and hands.”
Hanbali scholars argue even the face must be covered.
Maliki and Hanafi allow more leniency — but still demand head and body coverage.

In countries ruled by Sharia or influenced by Islamic orthodoxy:

Noncompliance = fines, lashes, prison, even death.
Women who speak out = labeled immoral, apostate, or worse.

And even in the West, women leaving hijab face:

Familial abuse,
Community excommunication,
Threats of honor violence.

If this is empowerment, what does oppression look like?

🧬 Designed for Gender Apartheid

Let’s zoom out:

The purpose of the Islamic dress code is not spiritual transcendence. It’s gender apartheid.

Men are allowed exposure, mobility, expression.
Women are cloistered, covered, and silenced.

The veil is a wall — not a window.

It ensures men dominate public life while women self-police their very existence.

🚫 Hijab as Modesty? Or Hijab as Weapon?

When modesty becomes a yardstick for morality, it becomes a weapon.

“She was asking for it — her hair was showing.”

“She deserved harassment — she wasn’t dressed properly.”

“She’s a whore — she removed her hijab.”

This is not faith. This is fabric-based misogyny, backed by hadith, law, and centuries of doctrinal scaffolding.

🧨 Final Verdict: The Veil is the Flag of Theocratic Control

The hijab is not a symbol of liberation. It’s the flag of a system that defines women by their sexual threat to men.

It is:

A theology of shame,
A law of suppression,
And a tool of punishment for female visibility.

Hijab didn’t “liberate” women in the 7th century. It marked their bodies for regulation — and it still does.

Until the veil is recognized for what it really is — a sacred muzzle — the doctrine will keep preaching freedom with one hand while tightening the leash with the other.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This post critiques Islam as an ideology, doctrine, and historical system — not Muslims as individuals. Every human deserves dignity. Beliefs do not. Truth-telling is not hate. Silence is.

Next; Part V: Sexuality and Purity — From Menstrual Taboo to Marital Rape