‘Hijab’

If there’s anything that symbolizes the gap between Muslims and Christians, it is the hijab, or head veil.

On a Catholic woman, it elicits respect, with meanings of sanctity and honor, from Catholics and often from people of other faiths as well, including Muslims in Mindanao who may have benefited from the education given by various Catholic women religious (notably the Religious of the Virgin Mary).

On a Muslim woman, for fellow Muslims, it, too, elicits respect, representing modesty and an expression of faith. Sadly, for Christians, it sometimes brings out bias and prejudice.

A documentary just produced by the University of the Philippines and the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) features interviews with hijabi (or women who use the hijab) in Manila and their experiences of discrimination. A simple experiment, captured on video, showed a hijabi without her veil, trying to get a taxi. On three consecutive tries, she was able to get into the first taxi she hailed.

The same woman then used her hijab. Three consecutive times, the taxi driver that stopped turned her down. I wonder if perhaps there were still other taxi drivers without passengers that just went straight ahead, pretending she wasn’t there.

Discrimination

NCMF Commissioner Analiza G. Flores-Malayang spoke at the launch of the video in UP Diliman and recalled her own experiences, including losing a job because she insisted on wearing her hijab. Her bags get searched more thoroughly when she’s in a hijab, and guards follow her around in shops. Other hijabi talked about being taunted “Abu Sayyaf,” the name of an Islamist terrorist group.

There were light moments in her stories and those of other hijabi, of “ambushing” guards that follow them around, or of talking to them in English to assert themselves. Commissioner Flores-Malayang asks guards: “Can I hide a bomb under my hijab?”

It is not easy using the hijab, but Muslim women in the Philippines follow their sisters through the world. They do so for modesty, some using more covering than others. Some women use a burqa, a garment that covers the entire body. The objective is to cover the aura, parts of the body that may give rise to indecent thoughts. More orthodox Muslim men also try to be modest, wearing loosely fitting clothes especially around the area of the groin.

There are debates on which parts of the body should be covered and to what degree. The practice is certainly pre-Islamic, but have become a hallmark of Islam, just as Christianity keeps many pre-Christian practices.

The documentary was launched on Feb. 1, World Hijab Day, which is intended to stimulate interfaith dialogue. On that day, Muslims and Christians organize events where Muslims explain what the hijab means, and Christians are encouraged to try it on, to understand what it means, and what it feels to wear it.

By coincidence, sometime in January, I was reading the online edition of the New York Times and came across an article featuring World Hijab Day. I immediately e-mailed Prof. Macrina Morados, who had just been appointed dean of UP’s Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS), and asked her if we might want to organize World Hijab Day activities on campus.

She sent an ebullient reply, saying that she was in fact planning, with Commissioner Flores-Malayang, some events. Last year they had a fun run and they were having second thoughts about it because people would just stare at their group of women in hijab jogging down the road. So they thought of a film instead, and the invitation I sent for a UP Diliman activity was just right for their plans.

Mary in Islam and in Christianity

The video launch, and the sharing of the hijab—donated by a Filipino woman based in Kuwait—included an interfaith forum where Dean Morados talked about the Virgin Mary in Islam and Rev. Erahvilla Maga-Cabillas, a priest of the Philippine Independent Church, talked about Mary in Christianity. They showed the similarities in the way Mary is loved and respected in the two faiths, the only difference being that for Muslims, Mary is the mother of Jesus, a great prophet, while for Christians, Mary is the mother of Jesus, the son of God.

During the open forum there were many questions about the hijab, as well as about the Virgin Mary. There were women students from St. Scholastica’s College and the University of Santo Tomas—both Catholic schools—who were present, and who were wearing a hijab.

Certainly, there is room for more discussions about the hijab and other issues. There are many other interpretations of the hijab. Commissioner Flores-Malayang emphasized that the veil sometimes ends up being trivialized, worn together with clothing that might not exactly be modest.

There have been more extreme interpretations of the hijab intended to cover women simply because they are seen as sources of temptation. In some countries, the hijab must be in a dark color. In our part of the world—the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia—the hijab can be colorful, with beads and sequins.

What was most important was that according to both Dean Morados and Commissioner Flores-Malayang, there is no compulsion in the use of the hijab. It is also part of an individual decision of how much one expresses her faith. Some decide on being more covered than others.

It is not easy to use the veil, especially with the tropical heat of the Philippines. But even more, you have to be courageous to use it, ready to face discrimination. It therefore becomes an act of faith, an expression of pride in being Muslim.

In the context of interfaith dialogue, sharing the hijab is also an act of peace, of reaching out. I thought of the recent incident in Nigeria when an Islamist terrorist group stopped a bus and wanted to segregate Christians from Muslims and to execute the Christians. The Muslims quickly passed out their hijab and Muslim garments to the Christians and insisted to the terrorists that all of them be released together, or all of them would die together. The bus was allowed to pass.

When I recounted the story at the forum, former IIS dean Carmen Abubakar whispered to me that there are many more stories from Mindanao of Christians helping Muslims and vice versa in times of civil strife and war. We need to hear those stories of peace-building, and who knows, maybe the hijab will also become an instrument for peace.

The documentary is in public domain and can be watched here:

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