by Behnam Sadeghi

In April 1991, a graduate student at Caltech named Behnam Sadeghi posted a careful summary of a key argument from Ayatollah Murtaza Mutahhari's book "The Question of Hijab." The argument is philological: the word hijab, as used in the Qur'an and in classical Islamic jurisprudence, meant curtain — not women's dress. The word the jurists actually used for modest covering was satr. The conflation of these two terms, Mutahhari argued, has caused widespread confusion about what Islam actually requires of women — lending false Quranic authority to the institution of women's seclusion, which is not Islamic at all but came from ancient Iranian practice.

In his book "The Question of Hijab," Ayatollah Mutahhari points out an interesting and important fact. He writes that in our age, the word hijab is used to convey the meaning of the women's clothing and "covering of the body." But this is a modern development. The word hijab was used in the Holy Qur'an, as well as by the Prophet's companions and Islamic jurisprudents (fuqaha) to denote "curtain" (purdah). He writes that Islamic jurisprudents used the word "satr," not hijab, to talk about the "covering" of body.

The word "hijab" was not used in the Qur'an in verses which command women to observe modest dress. Instead, he writes: "the verse in which the word 'hijab' is used concerns the Prophet's wives. As we know, the Qur'an contains pronouncements that are specific to the Prophet's wives." He cites the verse in the chapter Ahza:b that "And when you ask them [Mothers of the Believers] for a thing, do so from behind hijab (curtain)." He adds that when Traditions or Islamic histories talk about "hijab," this is the meaning they have in mind. For example, when they talk about such and such an event occurring prior to or after the revelation of the "hijab verse," they are referring to the verse in the chapter Ahza:b, not the verses in chapter Nour which command women believers to observe modest dress.

He writes:

In the past, the word "satr" was used, especially by jurisprudents, to refer to the covering of body (e.g. in the books assalat and annikah). It would have been better if the usage of the term had not changed so that we would use the words cover and "satr" instead of "hijab." The fact that the word hijab also means "purdah," has caused some people to suspect that Islam requires women to stay behind curtains and not to leave home.

The duty of modest covering of body that Islam has established does not mean that women must not leave home. Imprisonment and confinement of women does not exist in Islam. The custom of women's seclusion existed in ancient Iran, India, and China, but not in Islam.

As to why in this age the words hijab and purdah are used instead of the Islamic jurisprudent's satr and cover, this is beyond my knowledge. Perhaps it's because the Islamic hijab [dress] was confused with the "hijab" customarily observed in other nations.

In another place, Mutahhari writes that women's seclusion, absent in the Prophet's lifetime, probably became common amongst Muslims after the conquest of Iran, a nation that observed a very severe form of the institution (especially in the upper class).

Colophon

Posted to soc.religion.islam, April 28, 1991. Author: Behnam Sadeghi ([email protected]), California Institute of Technology. Archived from the UTZOO Usenet mirror. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

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