Modesty, Not Segregation
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The social role of women requires mixing with men. Islam does not permit any
discrimination between men and women, nor does it advocate a segregation
between them as it may be widely understood because of cultural practices or
views. What Islam forbids actually is that a man and a woman cannot stay
together in seclusion and privacy (khalwa), if they are not married to each other
and a sexual relation between them is possible. But men and women as individual
and groups can meet in public.
Modesty is required in the outdoor dress of both Muslim women and men.
However, there is no specific uniformed dress recommended for a Muslim woman.
Purda, chadoura, ‘abaya, quftan or hayek are local fashions preferred by women in
different places and may be changed in any time according the change of taste,
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these designs or fashions should not violate the basic and permanent requirements
of an Islamic dress. The Quran underlines such requirements for a woman’s dress
in the following verse:
“O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters as well as also all (other)
believing women that hey should draw over themselves some of their outer
garments (when in public): this will be more conducive to being recognized (as
decent women) and not annoyed.” (333:59)
Islam allows any dress that fulfills the required modesty for a decent woman, and
the creativity of fashion designers has to combine elegancy and modesty in a
woman’s dresses since one does not negate the other. The attractiveness and
respectability of a woman – the same as of a man- are due to one’s personality as a
whole, with all intellectual and psychological dimensions, and not to what is
exposed of one’s body. It is against the human dignity and equality to focus on the
physical attraction of a woman in her social performance with men. In an open
society, a fair assessment of the merits of an individual (male or female) should
consider the whole personality and one’s commitment to and fulfillment of the
moral and social responsibilities toward one another and toward the society as a
whole, as men and women all are “alwilya” of each other in enjoying the doing of
what is right and forbidding the doing of what is wrong (9:71)
