In this article, we will not talk about the history of the veil before Islam, but rather we will talk about its hypothesis after Islam, we must also agree that clothing of any kind is an integral element of a person’s culture, and it is one of the material elements of culture, and religion is also an element of non-material cultural elements, so if the two words (religious clothing) come together, let us know that we have mixed material and immaterial culture. let's start ...In any year of the Muhammadan message imposed the veil?
It was said in the fifth year of immigration, (In the story of Mrs. Zainab bint Jahsh: the wife of the Messenger of God - may God bless him and grant him peace) and it was said that Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, wanted, that the figures of the Prophet's wives be obscured by houses or howdahs, and not only to cover themselves with veils - God is a concession for them in that need, and it was said, until the hijab was obligatory on them so that they would not cover themselves except for necessity, such as relieving oneself, and the place for relieving oneself was far from the homes
What is the story of the lady - Zainab bint Jahsh - when the verse of hijab was revealed?
In the Two Sahihs, on the authority of Anas bin Malik, he said: When the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, married Zainab bint Jahsh, he called the people and they fed, then they sat talking, He said: So he took hold as if he was preparing to stand up, but they did not stand up, and when he saw that he got up, and when he got up, those of the people got up, Asim and Ibn Abd al-Ala added in their hadith, he said: So he sat three - and the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, came to enter, and then the people were sitting, then they got up and set off. He said: So I came and informed the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that they had set off, He said: And God Almighty revealed: ( O you who believe, do not enter the houses of the Prophet unless permission is given to you: to food not looking at it- tofor that was a great thing with God)
And what is the story of Sawda bint Zam'a in the hijab - may God be pleased with her?
Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated on the authority of Aisha, may God be pleased with her, that she said: Sawda went out after the veil was lifted for her need, and she was a large woman, which was not hidden from those who knew her, Umar bin Al-Khattab saw her and said: O Sauda, by God, you are not hiding from us, so see how you will come out, She said: So I turned back and the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, was in my house, And that he was having dinner with a sweat in his hand, so she entered and said: O Messenger of God, I went out for some of my needs, Omar told me such-and-such, she said: Then God revealed to him, Then he was lifted from him, and the sweat in his hand did not put it on, He said that he had given permission, but that you should go out for your needs.
What was the clothing of women in the Umayyad era?
Women's costumes had their own distinctive character, as they were dominated by elegance, preciousness, extravagance, and exaggeration in the materials, In clothing, exaggeration appeared in this form of jewelry other than the use of fur and leather in their clothes, they used a variety of different types of fur, such as sable fur, canal fur, and maraizi made of goat hair and an animal called the funk, which is a type of fox, in addition to woolen clothes that help keep warm in the winter. Brocade, that is, embroidered silk, is one of the finest types of clothing for women, as it was adorned by non-Arab kings, and it was the proverbial example of luxury and sophistication.
And what about head coverings in the Andalusian era?
Andalusian women used to wear a head covering that needed a dress and a robe of the same type, which was called the masked one
The most important of these covers
The veil
It is a covering that is placed on the head and falls back slightly. It is long for women. It is made of thin materials and is made of linen or cotton for the common people, and silk sweetened with gold threads for the ruling class and the rich.
Al - asaba
A square piece of woolen cloth with red and yellow edges that is folded into a triangle and then tied to the head from behind
Al - ghafara
A piece of cloth that a woman puts between her head and the veil so that her veil does not get dirty from the oil with which she perfumes, and she puts it on her hair
Niqab
A kind of veil with two holes in front of the eyes so that women can walk, and this veil was worn in Andalusia
Kanbocho- atabby
They are also two types of veils that women cover their heads with
What is the dress of women in the Abbasid era?
It consisted of a loose sheet and a shirt slashed at the neck, over which was a short, narrow robe, usually worn in the cold. When the woman went out, she wore a long sheet, she covers her body, and wraps her head with a handkerchief tied over the neck
High class ladies
Headdresses encrusted with jewels and decorated with a gold chain inlaid with precious stones
Middle class women were decorated
Their heads were flattened with gold, and they wrapped around them a headband adorned with pearls and emeralds, and they wore anklets on their legs, and bracelets on their wrists and ears.
Al-Obeidi mentions that women also wore
A kind of outer body clothing called “the prnoce”, as it developed in this era from what it was in previous ages, as the women of the upper class were, the wealthy cover their heads with a veil embellished with jewels and a chain inlaid with jewels. It is said that the first person to introduce this was Aliyah, the daughter of Al-Mahdi, the sister of Harun Al-Rashid, Zubaydah Bint Jaafar, the wife of Harun al-Rashid, had a great influence on the development of the dress and the introduction of changes to the clothes of women in her era, as it is attributed to her taking the jeweled slippers for women.
What are the types of women's clothing in the Abbasid era?
Al ghlala
It is a thin garment that is worn under a thick garment, and if Al ghlala is cut off, it is called a tie, and it is one of the transparent women’s garments.
Al khmar
It is a woman's veil, and it is called the mask or burqa. It covers the front of the neck and covers most of the face
Baqmah
The wearing of the veil was limited to the free women, then the slave girls began to wear it in implementation of the teachings of the Sharia
Al asabah
It is a black square-shaped silk veil, with a red or yellow border, and it was folded obliquely then the head is wrapped around and hung from the back with a single knot.
What are the clothes in the Mamluk era?
The attention of most historians of the Mamluk era is drawn to this extreme care for the clothes of the sultans and princes, and it is no secret to anyone the extent of prosperity and wealth that the Mamluk state reached, and its impact was evident, of course, in their public and private lives, a great diversity was introduced in the styles of clothing brought by the Mamluks from their original homeland of Central Asia, and men’s clothing differed according to the person’s status and social position, so we find the kaftan spread among the clothes of merchants and the well-to-do, and it is worn over the shirt and waistcoat, the kaftan is distinguished by being loose, with long sleeves that cover the hands, and the fiddle is open at the end. The kaftan is belted with a cotton or silk cashmere belt. The Mamluks used to wear furs, and they had a market known as furs, in which fur makers and merchants lived, and it was common to wear it during the days of Sultan al-Zahir Barquq.
Does the head coverings that were common in the Mamluk era?
What is known as the sharbush, and it was like a costume for men and women, and it is more like a crown like a triangle. It was placed on the head without the turban, the use of the sharbush was abolished in the Burji Mamluk state, and it was replaced by the green, red and blue caps, which men and women wore without a turban, among the basic clothes of Mamluk women, we find the loincloth, which is a kind of pants that reach the knees, over it was a shirt, and the woman used to wrap herself in a loose sheet that was known by various names, the most famous of which is the bagultaqa or the coat. It is also noted on women's clothing in the Mamluk era, It did not remain the same, but rather evolved with the development of what is known today as fashion, so each class was inspired by the simulation of the women of the class above it, and al-Maqrizi testified, more than once that what the general women of his time did in terms of clothing was from imitating what the women of the sultans and princes did, and he describes how the women of the sultans invented long dresses, their tails are drawn on the ground, and they have wide sleeves, then they resemble the women of Cairo in that, until there is no woman left without her clothes as well.
What about women's clothing in the Fatimid era?
The Fatimid state reached the peak of its civilizational glory in the fourth and fifth centuries AH, and left clear imprints in Egypt's cultural and social history, life in Cairo was characterized by luxury, and it is not strange what historians tell about the treasuries of the Fatimids and what It contained precious treasures and luxurious clothes, the textile industry occupied a prominent position, and new types appeared, such as brocade, which is a kind of bright, thin, colored cloth, and he established Jacob bin Killis, Minister of the Caliph Al-Aziz, special factories for its production were known as Dar al-Debaj. A type was also known as al-Saqlatoun, which is a kind of silk laced with gold. The city of Damietta and Tennis was specialized in a type of embroidered cloth, It is only produced in them, and it is the white and colored brocade, in addition to the Dabiqi cloth, which is produced in the city of Dabiq, and it is a type of brocade cloth.
The Fatimid state adopted the white color as the emblem of the caliphate
The caliph's clothing in the official processions was a silk dress, followed by another dress made of dubaiqi silk, as the Fatimid caliph used to wear sometimes a special dress known as the badna, woven mostly with gold in a courtly manner that does not require further detailing and sewing, and to cover the head is a turban and sometimes the kluta, and it was worn alone or with the turban, the ministers wore a distinctive garment known as the shield, which was a short robe that did not reach the knees, slashed from the neck to the bottom of the chest, and these clothes were the sign of the ministry, to cover the head is a large turban made of several layers, and the crooked talisan, with the tail of the turban loosened on the back, which is the dress of the judges as well, relaxing the end of the turban on the back was considered an honor to its owner, and no one is allowed to do that, especially in official processions other than the caliph and the minister, and women’s clothing varied in this era, and it was the basic parts, It is the shirt and pants, and it was the clothing of the man and the woman, and its shape differed, sometimes it was narrow and reached the foot, and sometimes it was wide, and it was tied to the tiqa, and a head cover in various forms, of course, it differed according to social classes, and one of the women’s head coverings was what is known as the asabah, which is a shawl or a piece of cloth in the shape of a triangle, It is wrapped around the head and its two ends are backwards, as well as veils for women from going out, including the mask, which is a piece of cloth that the woman puts on her head, Her face was wrapped with it and fixed under the loincloth, and it was made of Mosuli cloth. As for the niqab, it also covered the face, and it had two openings for the eyes.
Can you give an overview of the history of women's clothing in Egypt?
Until the beginning of the twentieth century, Egyptian women continued to wear a form of hijab (what covers their heads and faces) when leaving their homes, regardless of their religious beliefs, or her social level, even when the question of religiosity receded, it was that the “wrapping sheet” and the “burqa” were present, and the “handkerchief Abu Uya” and “Al-Yashmak” and “Bisha”, as an integral part of the accepted social form and the common dress of Egyptian women.
in popular neighborhoods
The handkerchief Abu Uya and the wrapping sheet were the women's clothing in the popular neighborhoods
in the middle classes
While the burqa was the most common among the middle classes
The upper classes
Wearing the bisha and the jashmak was restricted to those with wealth and those belonging to the upper classes.
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
Egyptian society began to witness social transformations and political conditions that led to the emergence of many calls and movements calling for removing the burqa first, and then extending to the veil, It is worth noting that the phenomenon of removing the veil during this period did not come at one step, but rather came at different periods and stages affected by many events that the Egyptian society went through.
1 - The advent of the French campaign to Egypt
Where it has become customary to see French women wandering the Egyptian streets in modern Western fashion - according to what Al-Jabarti recorded about the history of Egypt in this era -They drew attention to them because they did not wear a headscarf, revealing their faces and wearing them
For different costumes from what the Egyptians used to
2 - Muhammad Ali took over the rule of Egypt
The number of European women increased in Egypt, where Muhammad Ali brought them in to educate his daughters in the palace, and the elite of the people followed him in that.
3 - British occupation of Egypt
Large numbers of English ladies came with them, with their European clothes and adornments, different from women's clothing and customs
For a long time, the emergence of Western fashion in women's clothing in the Egyptian streets was limited to European women, until successive lawsuits began to lift the burqa and remove the veil, launched by a number of Egyptians themselves.
These lawsuits began with the efforts of Princess Nazli Fadel (1890).
In support of the women's liberation movement, as it started to organize the first cultural salon in the Middle East for the pioneers of the liberation movement and those who believe in women's freedom to discuss and exchange opinions, and he was one of the most important members of this salon
Sheikh Mohammed Abdo
And Saad Zaghloul
Qasim Amin
They are the three figures who led the liberation movement in Egyptian society on the religious, intellectual and cultural levels. After that, writings and articles of the nation's leaders and thinkers followed in this regard.
The first real call to remove the veil came
in 1984
As a form of women’s liberation, in the book “Women in the East” by Morcos Fahmy, in which he called for women to be free from veils and be equal to men, after that, many women's magazines appeared, which dealt with women's affairs and called in different ways to remove the veil as a symbol of reaction, such as Al-Firdaws magazine, Mirror of Al-Hasna magazine, and Girl of the East magazine.
Qasim Amin had the greatest influence in this regard
Through his book “Women’s Liberation” in 1899, as this book had a wide resonance and caused an uproar at that time between supporters and opponents, so many foreign and Arabic books and articles were published, that supported and encouraged him, and on the other hand, there were articles and books that deplored and rejected his ideas, including the book “Women’s Education and the Veil” by Talaat Harb, which was published in 1899.
Mustafa Kamel published a number of articles in Al-Liwa newspaper, attacking Qasim Amin's views
Some accused him of loyalty to the West, which prompted Qasim Amin to respond to those who criticized him in the book “The New Woman".
1900
We point out here that Qasim Amin's call was a call for a comprehensive program of national reform and progress that includes women's liberation by lifting the burqa and revealing women's faces so that they are not veiled from society and that they are able to participate in the rise and progress of the country. as he was of the opinion that the hijab and meant by it covering the face with the burqa - a custom that Muslims took from mixing with other nations, so they approved it and exaggerated it and dressed it in the dress of religion. In accordance with the provisions of Islamic law and not following in the footsteps of Western traditions.
In 1915, Al Sufour magazine was published
To call on women to remove the veil in a direct manner, and it was headed by a number of advocates of women’s liberation, and this magazine focused in its topics and articles that it published on women’s liberation, removing the veil, and promoting the most famous Western fashion and modern designs and the latest hairstyles
Then the call to remove the veil took a political turn in the context of the 1919 revolution
When Mrs. Safia Zaghloul, specifically on March 20, 1919, led a women's revolution to demand independence,at that time, the commander of the occupation forces scolded her and warned her that what prevented him from shooting at them was that they were women, so she removed the veil to assure the colonizer that they were like the men of Egypt and there were no differences between them.
And after the revolution of 1919, specifically in 1921
Hoda Shaarawy and Cezanbrawi lifted the burqa in front of the masses, as they welcomed Saad Zaghloul upon his return from exile. Add to this the efforts made by Saad Zaghloul to remove the veil of Egyptian women, as he left no opportunity without calling for the liberation of women, It was required for those attending his sermons to lift the veil from her face.
Then came magazines specializing in women's affairs
Such as “Al-Masria” magazine and “The New Woman” magazine, which were published in 1925, It did not differ much from the “As Sufur” magazine in terms of issues related to women, and the issuance of books and articles calling for the removal of the hijab became commonplace.
And in 1928
The book “Unveiling and the Veil” appeared by Nazira Zain al-Din, in which she called for removing the veil as one of the symbols of the backwardness and oppression of women. It is worth noting, in this context, that the statue of the renaissance of Egypt by Mahmoud Mukhtar, which was erected in one of the major squares of Egypt, next to the University of
Cairo in 1992
Pictures of a woman dressed in the clothes of an Egyptian peasant, placing her right hand on the head of the Sphinx, and with her left hand lifting the veil from her face, an expression - as Mukhtar stated - of advancement and the desire to remove what hinders Egypt from progress and advancement, and it prevents her from returning to her old glory, and calls continued to remove the veil in various forms and methods, so that the third decade of the twentieth century would be without a veil, and no official law was passed to ban the veil, as happened in some other Arab and Islamic countries, and the matter remained a personal choice, but the impact of the various movements and calls to liberate women and remove the veil was stronger than the law, as the matter did not stop at removing the burqa, but rather extended to the veil, so that women of all classes since the beginning of the forties of the twentieth century (unveiled)
. One of the reasons for this phenomenon may be that the veil was no longer part of the religious component during that period, but rather turned into a mere cultural heritage, like the fez for men, which made it easy to dispense with it in order to keep pace with the developments of the age, At that time, the veil lacked the character of religious obligation, which made taking it off an easy matter. This prompted some to try to awaken the religious sense of Egyptian women and invite them to wear the veil in response to the divine command, and not to conform to social custom.
In the book “Tabarruj” by Nemat Sidqi in 1947
In which she called on the Muslim woman to complete the pillars of her religion by wearing the legal dress. But it happened that since the fifties of the last century, the state adopted leftist discourses and raised nationalist slogans, which led to the disappearance of the veil from the Egyptian street for decades.
After the setback of June 1967
The hijab did not suddenly return to the Egyptian street. Rather, it went through a long throes, which paved the way for an increase in religious motivation and the desire of the Egyptians to draw closer to God, the national project retreated, the Egyptians tried to search in religion for a way to overcome the feeling of defeat and raise morale, so society gradually turned towards Islam, which appeared in the October War, when religious slogans were raised, where the October victory consolidated the societal shift towards religion. During this period, the number of women wearing the hijab was not large, but it began to gradually increase in the streets, universities and workplaces,
The travel of large numbers of Egyptians to work in the Gulf countries
at this time had an impact, Kabir to adopt the style of Gulf clothing, including the niqab, the veil continued to increase in the Egyptian street, and it was not affected by the state’s restrictions on political Islam groups and its suspension of their activities after Sadat’s assassination, this is thanks to the efforts of Al-Azhar sheikhs and the religious lessons and programs that were broadcasted by Egyptian radio and television.
Celebrities, including female artists and media figures, began to wear the hijab.
Influenced by the lessons of great sheikhs and preachers such as Sheikh Al-Shaarawi—
This was done in different styles and ways, some of which, of course, were appropriate to the prevailing fashion, especially in light of the haste of fashion designers to adapt the veil according to the standards and lines of fashion and beauty.
And at the beginning of the third millennium
The number of veiled public and famous women has increased thanks to the new preachers, and their ability to attract young people by presenting a moderate Islamic discourse, and their reliance in their style on simplification and the use of modern terminology and modern methods, which approached the form of human development lessons, and they focused a great deal of their efforts on attracting a sector of upper-class women, and the presence of these preachers expanded in TV programs and satellite channels, and they began to appear in seminars held in universities and clubs, their lectures were widely distributed as cassette tapes. Despite the increase in the number of veiled women during this period, the intellectual debate over the veil did not stop, and this was embodied in the rejection of a number of thinkers and journalists of the veil and the call to remove it, and among the most prominent of these was the journalist Iqbal Baraka in her book.
Entitled “The Veil: A Modern Vision” in 2003
And Muhammad Saeed Ashmawy in his book “The Truth of Hijab and the Authenticity of Hadith,” where they tried, through a special interpretation of some verses of the Holy Qur’an and what was stated in the noble Sunnah, to prove that the veil is not part of the religion and that it is a symbol of backwardness. On the other hand, it is worth noting the restrictions that it faced, some veiled women at the end of the last century and the beginning of the new millennium tried to curtail their role in society, by depriving them of holding high positions in the state and preventing them from appearing on television as announcers, with the exception of some limited models.
After the revolution of January 2011
The veil in Egypt declined again for the following reasons
The feeling of freedom after the revolution, which led to a series of repercussions, the most prominent of which was the state of disintegration that affected many traditional values, and the desire of many to get rid of the imposed social, cultural and religious restrictions and their attempt to break all constants, to demolish the old and rebuild on new foundations and standards.
The failure of political Islam movements to fulfill their promises to large segments of Egyptian society, and the shaky image of youth after their vociferous involvement in political life, which created a state of confusion among some, after linking the teachings of the Islamic religion, and between the performance of these groups, and the outcome of that was a state of aversion or rejection of everything that could indicate, even remotely, belonging to these Islamic groups, and that was the veil.
The distortion of the phenomenon of the new preachers, after they were seen as symbols of moderation and moderation of religion, they were seen as symbols of confusion between religion and business, and voices of ridicule began to rise from each other because their personal behavior conflicted with what they call for in their sermons and religious lessons, these and other reasons made the way open for movements demanding the removal of the veil, and nostalgia for the forties and fifties when Egyptian women were in full elegance without a veil, and the use of social media was expanded to promote these ideas, and the issue began to be raised on television and talk shows to discuss whether the veil is a cult or a habit. alien to society?
Gradually, removing the hijab became a form of public defiance
This includes what some girls are doing by publishing their pictures as they get rid of their headscarves in a way that is not devoid of provocation, and some of them wrote books documenting this stage of their lives to encourage the rest of the girls and women to give up their headscarves.
On May 1, 2015
The call of some activists for millions to take off the veil, to which some women have already responded by standing in Tahrir Square. The truth is that we are now facing a very complex societal scene, It is noticeable that the number of veiled women is still large, and it can even be said
They represent the majority in society.
However, it is seen that their numbers are declining significantly, especially among the youth, and even a percentage of the veiled women themselves diverge from their traditional positions, and fluctuate between the religious form and the modern form of the veil, (by wearing the “Turban” and the Spanish), while others are trying to adapt, Hijab according to their desires by covering the head (as agreed) while the rest of their dress remains far from being religious or even socially acceptable decency.
But despite this, the opposite phenomenon can be observed
It is represented in the arrival of some of the traditional veil wearers to a number of public and high positions; Ministers, deans and announcers. However, this does not preclude confusion from the overall scene in Egyptian society.
In conclusion
It can be said that the movement of wearing and removing the veil is a revealing indicator of the distance through which the Egyptians move away or approach their frames of reference, since religion is the basic normative fence of the Egyptian personality, from which most of the characteristics are derived Its value system that governs its behavior and habits, it seems, is no longer taken for granted, as the Egyptian personality now seems to be in a state of retreat in the face of a number of Western influences, which tempt it to adopt reference frameworks and value systems that contradict its traditional formation, . It seems that this state of civilized confusion is likely to worsen, as long as the fundamental questions regarding the position of the Egyptians regarding their identity on the one hand, and the culturally dominant and culturally dominant other on the other hand, are not resolved.
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