Islamic Head Covering - Hijab
The word "hijab" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general.
According to Islamic scholarship, "hijab" is given the wider meaning of modesty, privacy, and morality; the words for a headscarf or veil used in the Qur'an are khim?r and jilbaab, not hijab. Still another definition is metaphysical, where al-hijab refers to "the veil which separates man or the world from God."
Muslims differ as to whether the hijab should be required by women in public, as it is in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia; whether it should be banned in schools, as it is in France, Turkey and former Tunisia; or whether it should be left for individuals to decide, as it is in most of the world.
The term hijab or veil is not used in the Qur'an to refer to an article of clothing for women or men, rather it refers to a spatial curtain that divides or provides privacy. The Qur'an instructs the male believers (Muslims) to talk to wives of Prophet Muhammad behind a hijab. This hijab was the responsibility of the men and not the wives of Prophet Muhammad. However, in later Muslim societies this instruction, specific to the wives of Prophet Muhammad, was generalized, leading to the segregation of the Muslim men and women. The modesty in Qur'an concerns both men's and women's gaze, gait, garments, and genitalia. The clothing for women involves khum?r over the necklines and jilbab (cloaks) in public so that they may be identified and not harmed. Guidelines for covering of the entire body except for the hands, the feet and the face, are found in texts of fiqh (deep understanding) and hadith that are developed later.
