Are Muslim women oppressed?

Deconstructing hijabophobia and reclaiming the hijab’s multifaceted significance: an Islamic perspective

Abstract

The hijab, a central religious symbol in Islam, has been disproportionately stigmatized within global discourse as a marker of Muslim women’s oppression – a narrative that contrasts sharply with its multifaceted significance in Islamic theology and lived experience. While modesty practices exist across Abrahamic faiths (e.g., Christian nuns’ veiling, Jewish tzniut codes), the hijab uniquely bears the weight of Orientalist stereotypes that reduce it to patriarchal submission. This article challenges such hijabophobic frameworks by centering Muslim women’s own interpretations of the hijab through a synthesis of Islamic hermeneutics and sociopolitical critique. Beyond its role as a religious obligation (fard), scholarly analyses reveal the hijab as a polysemic symbol: it embodies piety (taqwa), ethical selfhood, and communal belonging while also functioning as a tool of resistance against Islamophobia, hypersexualization, and colonial hegemonies. Contrary to secular feminist and Western political discourses that frame the garment as inherently oppressive, Muslim women articulate the hijab as a source of agency – enabling autonomy over their bodies, dignity (karamah), and defiance against erasure. By foregrounding these faith – centered perspectives, this study dismantles reductive binaries of “oppression versus liberation” and advocates for intersectional understandings of the hijab that honor its theological, cultural, and emancipatory dimensions.