Niqab, hijab, burqa: veils and a lot of confusion
How to illustrate information evoking one or more veiled women? The question arises regularly in the newsrooms. And the answer is not always satisfactory. Wednesday, June 10, the site of Current Values has used this image to talk about a news item involving a woman wearing a hijab:
The image in question, taken by an AFP photographer, shows women in Bahrain protesting after the death of a woman in the custody of the authorities. These women wear the niqab, not the hijab.
The site of the weekly is not the only one to commit this type of error. Le Monde.fr has also caused confusion in the past, as other sites have not failed to point out. A Tumblr, Réflexe Niqab, identifies this type of error made when illustrating an article.
However, many elements distinguish niqab, hijab, chador and burqa, the four main types of Islamic veil. Explanations:
1. What does the Quran say about the veil?
The veil predates the Koran: from the Assyrians, the free woman is obliged to wear the veil, under penalty of sanctions. A practice that we find, with varying degrees of obligation, among the Jews or the Romans.
The Koran takes up this practice and codifies it, without however explicitly recommending the wearing of the veil. Nevertheless, several writings mention this practice for the wives of the Prophet Muhammad, in particular in verse 31 of sura 24:
“And tell the believing women to lower their gaze, to keep their chastity, and to show their finery only as it appears, and that they draw back their veils over their breasts; and that they show their finery only to their husbands, or to their fathers, or to the fathers of their husbands, or to their sons, or to the sons of their husbands, or to their brothers, or to the sons of their brothers, or the sons of their sisters, or the Muslim women, or the slaves they own, or the helpless male servants, or the prepubescent boys who know nothing of the hidden parts of women. »
But also in verse 59 of sura 33:
“O Prophet! Tell your wives, your daughters, and the wives of the believers, to bring back their large veils: they will be recognized more quickly and will avoid being offended. Allah is forgiving and merciful. »
The use then differed, according to the countries and the times, tending sometimes towards more flexibility, and other times, on the contrary, towards an important codification, which could be set up in law by the political regimes of the countries. in question. For this purpose, there are four types of veils:
2. The hijab: the generic “veil”
"Hijab" actually means "veil", "curtain" or "screen". The term designates the veil in its broad sense, and therefore all its variations. Nevertheless, today, it is mainly used to refer to the most widespread Islamic veil, covering the head and the hair, but not the face.
Depending on the region of the world, the hijab can be worn around the entire face (our photo, where it is worn by an Australian woman), as a simple veil covering the hair, or as part of a more complete costume (India , Indonesia).
The hijab therefore does not cover the face or the whole body, but there are several types, which can be more or less visible.
3. The niqab: the veil hiding the face
Generally black in color, the niqab differs from the hijab because it also hides the face, with the exception of the eyes. Its port is rather the fact of practitioners of a rigorous Islam, in particular the followers of Salafism. The niqab is sometimes accompanied by gloves intended to hide the hands (even sunglasses or a mask), and can consist of a garment covering the whole body.
A controversy exists within Islam on the “obligation” or not of wearing the niqab. Certain currents, rigorous, estimate that it is the case, contrary to the opinion of the majority of theologians.
It was the niqab that raised questions in France in 2011, and led to the law prohibiting masking the face in public places. It is also the niqab that is most often used by the press to illustrate issues of the veil, even though its wearing is far less widespread than that of the hijab.
Another garment is similar to the niqab: the haik, a piece of fabric attached to the belt, which Maghreb women wore with a veil, sometimes transparent, over the face. It is less present today, but still exists in some villages.
4. The Saudi jilbab, between hijab and niqab
Another garment, which this time is not limited to the hair and the face but encompasses the whole body, has been appearing for a few years: the jilbab, a long dress, often black but not exclusively, and used by Saudi women. Unlike the niqab, it does not hide the face, but unlike the hijab, it covers the entire body, hiding the shapes of its wearers, which is seen as "virtuous" by the defenders of this garment.
This, and its male "equivalent" (the qamis, a long solid-coloured male robe from Saudi Arabia), are sometimes experienced as also being imbued with religious significance, or even the only "pure" garments. for true believers. This rigorous vision is diffused in particular in Salafist Islam.
However, many theologians refuse this interpretation, recalling that historically, Muslims have dressed very differently depending on the country and time, and that these two clothes are mainly from the Persian Gulf.
5. The chador: Iranian clothing
Frequently used for "niqab", the chador is actually a garment (blue, black or more rarely white) corresponding to a specific practice: that of Iranian Shiism. The chador is not only the veil (which is worn, like the hijab, without covering the face), but a piece of fabric, without sleeves, that Iranian women wore before the advent of Islam.
Initially worn during prayer, the chador became compulsory in the street in the 18th century. The Shah of Iran then banned it in 1936, asking the police to hunt down women who wore it.
In the 1970s, Iranian women had adopted lighter veils, exposing the hair. But, from 1979 and the coming to power of Ayatollah Khomeini, the chador was brought back into the spotlight. Nevertheless, its wearing is not compulsory in present-day Iran, a headscarf hiding the hair and clothes concealing the forms being sufficient.
6. The burqa: clothing imposed by the Afghan Taliban
Here too, a source of much confusion, the burqa is not the niqab. And this garment exists very little outside of Afghanistan, where it was born. The burqa, often blue in color, is a garment covering the whole body, including the face. A veil or “grid” of fabric is installed at eye level to allow seeing.
This garment, which has become a symbol of the oppression suffered by women in countries in the hands of radical Islamists, has only existed for a few decades in this form, the traditional Afghan garment being closer to the Iranian chador.
It was the Taliban, Islamist fanatics, who imposed the burqa when they came to power in the country at the end of the 1990s. Their motives for doing so were different from those mentioned in the Koran: it is not to veil the woman for her protection, but to avoid temptation for men.
Samuel Lawrence
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