Non-Muslims need not fear Hijab; they only need to understand it:

Do not fear Hijab; understand it!

A large number of women in my family back home in India and in the West wear the hijab. They do not consider it to be a burden or something that has been forced upon them. On the contrary, they would literally, fight for their right to wear Hijab if the men were to stop them from wearing it!

 

What Hijab is not:

 

What the NonMuslims and the West need to understand, before reacting so aggressively to a piece of cloth, is that the hijab is not a radical statement. It is not a fight against other religions. It is not a battle with other women who do not cover their heads. It is not a political ideology. It is not a sign of subjugation. It is not by force. It is not a sign of suppression or subservience. It does not make a Muslim woman anybody' s slave. Muslim women who wear the hijab are not a threat. It does not make them weak. It does not make them ignorant. It does not make them dumb. It is not a burden; it is a choice, and for most Muslim women, it is empowering and equalizing.

 

What Hijab is:

 

The hijab (or in its entirety, the burqa) is a representation of one of the basic principles of Islam and that is modesty.

The Quran states in Surat An-Nūr (The Light): "Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband' s father, their sons, their husband' s sons [step-sons], their brothers or their brother' s sons or their sister's sons, or their women, or their slaves whom their right hands possess or male servants free of physical needs or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex." (Surat An- Nur, 24:31)

 

Please understand- A Muslim woman wearing a hijab is not oppressed. She is free. She is proud. She is comfortable with her identity. Those who do not understand this do not understand Islam.