Logic Behind Hijab

by Haroon Saadiq

O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of believers to let down upon them there over-garments. This is more proper, so that they may be known, and not be given trouble. And Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful [Al-Ahzab:59]

This is a verse taken from the Holy Quran the last book of The God. It has a clear directive for the believers that women have to cover themselves up modestly in public. Today we find West criticizing the issue of women who wear hijab and cover themselves up. To them I would quote from their bible and give them the opportunity to ponder about the basis of their criticism:

(I Corinthians 11:5-9) " . . . but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head - it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved. For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have hair cut off or be shaved, she should wear a veil. For man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man. Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man."

Allah says that there is something which you like but thats not good for you and there is something which you don't like but there is good for you in it. So if women do not like to cover themselves up then they should remember that this is Allah's order and there is definitely something good in it. Apart from God's disobedience, not following what has been advised can have an adverse affect on the society too. Following is a piece of research about sexual assaults, the cause of which may be partly the topic under discussion.

Sexual Assault Statistics

According to The National Women's Study, 683,000 forcible rapes occur every year, which equals 56,916 per month; 1,871 per day; 78 per hour; and 1.3 per minute. (National Victim Center & Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, 1992).

According to the 1996 National Criminal Victimization Survey, there were a total of 98,000 completed rapes of persons age 12 and older, a 43% decrease from 1995, and a total of 307,000 completed and attempted rapes and sexual assaults, an 18% decrease from 1995. (Ringel, 1997).

Twenty-two percent of women polled say they have been forced to do sexual things against their will, usually by an intimate. However, only 3% of men admit to ever forcing themselves on women. (Laumann et al., 1994).

According to a 1995 Department of Defense survey, 4% of all female soldiers said they had been the victim of a completed or attempted rape or sexual assault during their military service. Sixty-one percent of the female soldiers said they had been sexually harassed in the Army. (High, 1997).

Victim Characteristics

Sixty-one percent of rapes occurred before the victims were eighteen years old. Twenty-nine percent of all forcible rapes occurred when the victims were younger than eleven. (National Center for Victims of Crime & Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, 1992).

In 1994, the rape/sexual assault rate for females was 3.7 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older, a total of 407,190 victimizations. The rape/sexual assault rate for males was .2 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older, a total of 25,570 victimizations. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997).

Data from an urban, hospital-based rape crisis center revealed that, of male and female adult victims of completed, forcible rape, men were more likely to have been raped by more than one assailant and by a Caucasian, but were less likely to have been physically harmed. (Frazier, 1993).

About two-thirds of rapes/sexual assaults occur between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Nearly 6 out of 10 occur at the victim's home or the home of a friend, relative, or neighbor. (Greenfeld, 1997).

Only sixteen percent of rapes are ever reported to police. Fifty percent of surveyed rape victims said that they would be a lot more likely and 16% would be somewhat more likely to report rapes to police if there was a law prohibiting the news media from disclosing their names and addresses. (National Center for Victims of Crime & Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, 1992).

A survey of sexual assault victims looked at the factors correlated with delayed and early disclosure. Being a victim of child sexual abuse, the rape being completed and using avoidance coping mechanisms were factors correlated with delayed disclosure. Early disclosure was associated with the offender using alcohol before the assault and the victim seeking medical attention after the assault. (Ullman, 1996).

Rape-Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Nearly one-third of all rape victims develop Rape-related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (RR-PTSD) sometime in their lifetimes, and more than eleven percent suffer from RR-PTSD at the present time (National Center for Victims of Crime & Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, 1992).

Results from the National Women's Study show that 26.6% of women suffering from bulimia nervosa were raped at some point in their lives while only 13.3% of women who do not have binge eating disorders or bulimia nervosa have been raped. (Dansky, et al, 1997).

References

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1997). Criminal Victimization in the United States, 1994: A National Crime Victimization Survey Report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Bonnie, Timothy Brewerton, Dean Kilpatrick & Patrick O'Neil. (1997). "The National Women's Study: Relationship of Victimization and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder to Bulimia Nervosa." International Journal of Eating Disorders, 21(3): 213-228.

Frazier, Patricia. (1993). "A Comparative Study of Male and Female Rape Victims Seen at a Hospital-Based Rape Crisis Program." Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 8(1): 64-76.

Greenfeld, Lawrence. (1997). Sex Offenses and Offenders: An Analysis of Data on Rape and Sexual Assault. Washington, DC: US Dept of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

High, Gil. (1997). "Combating Sexual Harassment." Soldiers, 52(2): 4-5.

Laumann, Edward, et al. (1994). The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

National Center for Victims of Crime & Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center. (1992). Rape in America: A Report to the Nation. Arlington, VA: National Center for Victims of Crime & Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center.

Ringel, Cheryl. (1997). Criminal Victimization 1996: Changes 1995-96 with Trends 1993-96. Washington, DC: US Dept of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Ullman, Sarah. (1996). "Correlates and Consequences of Adult Sexual Assault Disclosure." Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 11(4): 554-571.