First: Get the Concept Right

The majority of men, 54%, think about sex everyday or several times a day according to Kinsey Institute’s study in 2007 while 43% of men think about sex a few times per month or a few times per week and 4% of men think about sex less than once a week. Mind you there are numerous factors that can make a man sexually attracted to a woman. It can go way beyond a perfectly sculpted-like body shape. It can be a woman’s sense, the way she pronounces a certain word, her voice, the tone of her voice, the way she moves and the list goes on an on even to how a women bites an apple does!
In the time when Islam was new to the Arabs, they still held on to the practice of going to relieved themselves either in the late night or early in the morning before the breaking of a dawn. During that time, if a woman was a slave, she was nothing more than a chair or other households in her master’s home. Thus she was never respected and any man who was sexually aroused would simply attack her and satisfied his needs. Unfortunately sometimes the women that were attacked were not slaves, they were independent. Moreover after the arrival of Islam, Muslims were forbidden from any out-of-wedlock relationships. Thus Allah sent down the verse first from surah al-Ahzab verse 59:
O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
This came after the first restriction from speaking too complacently in the same surah verse 32 and 33. Hence the regulation of hijaab was sent down by Allah so that women were not looked at as a sex symbol. Hijaab was never meant to cover a woman’s feminity but her sexuality. It was not a symbol her being owned like in the Judeo-Christianity; a woman was asked to put on her head scarf after she was married as a symbol of her uphelding her husband while the husband upheld the Church!
Currently we can see many women making a decision to put on their hijaab. From a nobody on the street to public figures such as popular celebrities wide ranging from actresses, singers, news anchors, program hostess up to our lady ministers. There are many announcements being made on how and why they put on the hijaab. This is indeed a positive turn we have long waited. Unfortunately there are slight misconception between covering one’s hair and covering one’s awrah (forbidden parts of body from being seen by others).
The awrah of a woman is her whole body save her face and her hands up to her wrists. From this stems the compulsion of hijaab by Allah in Surah an-Nur verse 31:
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 (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or the 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; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O you Believers! You turn altogether toward Allah, that you may attain Bliss.
We must first understand the reason of this compulsion and why did Allah send this verses to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Woman as herself is very attractive to men. Thus the idea of hijaab was not to confine women but to protect them so as to enable them to walk freely without being looked at lewdly by men who have bad intentions towards women as well as to gain respect for themselves. The concept of hijaab does not stop at covering one’s hair; it goes deeper and further than that.
Covering one’s awrah should protect oneself from being insulted. As for clothing is concern, the clothes must cover the whole body except the face and hands up to the wrists, the head cover must be extended to cover the breasts, the attire must be loose and doesn’t show a woman’s shape or curves, the fabric used must be thick enough not to expose the skin colour and the colour must be decent and not too attractive to others like bright orange or red, there should not be any ornaments that can draw attention like bangles with bells or glittering embroidery on the clothes and the women should not put on too much perfume that will draw men’s attention towards them.
Then it extended to the way of conduct. A woman should not speak with melancholia or soften her voice in allurement. She should speak politely and at the tone that is sufficient to her audience. She should not move around in such a way that men find her sexy.
In short, the dress code for women in Islam is that she should be different from men so that when you see her you need not think twice as to whether or not she is a woman or a Muslim and secondly the dress and her way of conduct included, should not make her sexy.
The scenario today however is very off-polar from what Islam has long out-lined. Women really do not put on a hijaab. They only cover their hair. Thus we have many women putting on a sheer scarf on their hair where the front hair is protruding from the scarf, some put on a bonnet-like hair covers with floral knitting, some put on gypsy-like scarf where their earrings are purposely let out to be seen, many do not cover their bosoms, they put on almost transparent kaftan and wear a tight body-wrapping singlet inside. Those who were shy before putting on ‘hijaab’ now dare to move and sway their body in front of their thousands audience saying that they feel more confident now than ever, wrongly using the statement that a hijaab actually frees a woman instead of confining her. Yes a hijaab frees a woman but not that kind of cheap freedom! Some even go too far as giggling and caressing their body in front of audience until it is nothing different from a woman on the street that is subjected to prostitution.
The lack of knowledge, understanding and responsibilities toward hijaab have made women nowadays being insulted even when they have put on their head coverings because these women are only covering their hair and nor their awrah as a hijaab is really meant to be. Thus it is timely for us to take a step back and look deeply into the fundamental concept of a hijaab with a crystal clear mind. Henceforth we should practice what has been ordained by Allah with our sincerest heart that He will accept our submission to His law not to any fashion call or trend setting.