Most westerners expected that the hijab would pass away into history as westernization and secularization took root.
However, in the Muslim world, especially among the younger generation, a great wave of returning to hijab was spreading through various countries. This current resurgence is an expression of Islamic revival. It is part of the process of restoring to the Muslims their pride and identity, which had been repeatedly attacked through colonization and economic exploitation.
Human nature seems to have a conservative tendency and consequently rejects and reacts ignorantly against the new and unfamiliar. Humans seldom stop to investigate or understand whether it is good or bad.
So it is with non-Muslim people who judge the hijab as a sign of oppression. They believe that Muslim women are enslaved by tradition and are unaware of their “lamentable” situation. These people think a Muslim woman’s salvation will come through a woman’s liberation movement or some other type of socio-economical uplift which will give her
independence, awaken her mind, and release her from the bonds of tradition and hijab.
This naïve point of view is commonly shared by those who have little knowledge about Islam. Accustomed to secularism and religious eclecticism, non-Muslims are simply unable to comprehend why anyone would want to mould his or her life to conform to a religious system established many centuries ago.
They do not understand Islam’s strength and appeal, which is universal and eternal. They are disturbed by the fact that an increasing number of women of divergent nationalities all over the world are turning to Islam and covering themselves. They feel uneasy about this “strange object” – an opaque material which not only covers the woman’s hair but also hides something special to which their eyes can have no access.
