Hijab Quotations

Hijab or ħijāb is the Arabic term for "cover" (noun), based on the root حجب meaning "to veil, to cover (verb), to screen, to shelter." It is chiefly a reference for Islamic covering for women.

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In ancient Iran, aristocratic women used to wear hijab. Women from lower classes did not bother. But when Islam came, it rejected such instances of discrimination. It said that all women must wear the hijab. In other words, it wanted to honor all women....they blame us by saying: You have made hijab compulsory. They themselves have made lack of hijab compulsory. They do not allow girl students to enter university, if they wear a headscarf.
- Khamenei,

Women who do not respect the hijab and their husbands deserve to die.
- Hojatolislam Gholam Reza Hassani, representative of Khamenei in eastern Azerbaijan,

By problemitizing and forbidding hijab, a favorite fetish of Muslim fundamentalists and the Western press alike, the French government has forced a reaction from those forces that includes sworn proclamations that the head scarf is a mandatory religious duty for women, and that banning the scarf is tantamount to interfering with the fundamental practice of Islam itself.

I just wish I felt supported by the image-makers of the West, who seem to have a veil fetish. They are doing the exact opposite of what the European politicians suggest: They're imposing the veil on women.

[S]ome Islamist men...claim to find the veil sexy; Shabbir Akhtar, a British writer, sees it creating "a truly erotic culture in which one dispenses with the need for the artificial excitement that pornography provides.

The veil can be erotic but in a political context it is not; it is a kind of seal on property, a mark of submission.

On the issue of the hijab, all religious scholars are in agreement that if revealing a woman's face might lead to temptation and other things, it is forbidden. In addition, even when they permitted the revealing of the woman's face, they placed restrictions on this. Even Sheik Al-Albani did so. They stated that only the face and the palms may be exposed. The woman is not allowed to expose her neck or her hair. She is not allowed to appear with make-up or jewelry. The religious scholars have all agreed upon this.
- Saudi cleric N. Al-Huneini
- Saudi TV Newscaster Buthayna Nasser Slams Islamists over Initiative to Prevent Women from Appearing on TV (March 2005)

I want the whole world to know that they oppress us and all we can do is put up with it.
- A teenager's remark on the compulsory hijab, Crackdown in Iran over dress codes, 27 April 2007

Despite this surge of the hijab and of religious clothing, the state of moral values in Egypt is at its worst...What kind of man is sexually aroused by a little bit of hair and needs to be protected? The Mufti of Australia said that a woman who does not wear the hijab is like a piece of abandoned meat, and that cats should not be blamed if they sink their teeth into it. I say to him: No, this is a disgrace. I'm not an abandoned piece of meat, and men are not hungry cats.
- Egyptian Intellectuals Discuss the Hijab May 2007

Our colleges and universities are not recognized in the world. The universities of Cairo and Ein Shams are ranked below 3,000 in the world. We do not have education. Look at the universities today – all you can see is the hijab and niqab.
- Egyptian Liberal Sayid Al-Qimni and London Islamist Hani Al-Sibai Debate Secularism and Fundamentalism in the Arab World,video clip, July 2007

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