Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS

by Azadeh Moaveni

That night, she sat crossed-legged on the couch at home, lit a cigarette, and studied the leaflet. Women are taught from early childhood that their worth is proportional to their attractiveness. The definition of beauty is ever changing; waifish is good, waifish is bad, athletic is good, sorry, athletic is bad. Women are not going to achieve equality by putting their bodies on display, as some people would like to have you believe. That would make us only party to our own objectification. Wearing the hijab has given me freedom from constant attention to my physical self. Because my appearance is not subject to public scrutiny, my beauty, or perhaps my lack of it, has been removed from the realm of what can legitimately be discussed. In the Western world, the hijab has come to symbolize either forced silence, or a radical, unconscionable militancy. Actually, it’s neither. It is simply a woman’s assertion that judgment of her physical person is to play no role whatsoever in social interaction. Its purpose is to give back to women ultimate control of their own bodies. And we do not lay on any soul a burden except to the extent of its ability (al-Quran, 23:62).