Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims

by Yasmine Mohammed

It is important to clarify the distinction between culture and religion when talking about the hijab. A common response from people is that hijab is “cultural clothing.” But which culture are they referring to? Women in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Indonesia share no cultural aspects. They do not have similar food or clothing or traditions or language. The only thing they share is religion. Hijab is worn by women in all those countries because of the religion of Islam, not because of any culture. Claiming the hijab is cultural clothing is as vacuous as claiming a Pope hat is cultural. Catholics from the Philippines, Italy, or South America share no cultural aspects—but they share a religion. There has been a deliberate conflation of religion and culture that only serves to erase cultures and replace them with the monolith of Islam. Dozens of countries lost their cultures to Islam. It is sad to see that there remains this pervasive idea that Muslims all share a culture. No. They do not. They each have distinct cultures that have just been shrouded by Islam in the same way each individual girl’s personality gets shrouded by hijab so that they all start looking the