of demonstrating that their nations were modern
and progressive. However, postcolonial nationalist
and religious movements have embraced the hijab
as a symbol of Islamic piety and cultural potency.
The contemporary debate about the hijab
reflects the complex nature of identity in a post-
colonial world. Those who reject the hijab often
argue that it is a symbol of patriarchal domination
over women’s bodies, a socially enforced indicator
of women’s submission to men. However, for many
women who choose to wear some form of mod-
est dress, hijab is a marker of propriety, faith, and
freedom. They argue that wearing the hijab allows
them to be recognized as “respectable” women,
giving them greater freedom of movement in social
situations where they may have otherwise been
subjected to sexual innuendo. They embrace it as
a way of rejecting the objectification of women’s
bodies as well as a marker of their piety. Also, they
adopt the hijab as a symbol of their Islamic identity
and view it as a historical connection to genera-
tions of Muslim women preceding them.
See also bUrqa; colonialism; harem; pUrdah.
Nancy L. Stockdale
Further reading: Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in
Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992); Margot Badran and
Miriam Cooke, eds., Opening the Gates: A Century of
Arab Feminist Writing (London: Virago, 1990); Fadwa el
Guindi, Veil (New York: Berg, 1999); Fatima Mernissi,
The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of
Women’s Rights in Islam (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wes-
ley, 1991).
Hijaz See mecca; medina; saudi arabia.
Hijra (Arabic: emigration, abandonment;
also spelled Hijrah, Hejira)
The theme of an epic journey from home into
the world can be found in the myths and sacred
histories of many cultures and religions. It occurs
in the origin myths of Australian aborigines and
the Indian tribes of the American Southwest. The
Hebrew Bible narrates the journeys of the patri-
arch abraham from Mesopotamia to Canaan and
egypt and the famous exodus of moses and the
Israelites from slavery in Egypt to Sinai and then
to the “land flowing with milk and honey”—the
Holy Land. The exodus is remembered every year
during the Jewish feast of Passover. The New
Testament Gospels describe the journeys of JesUs
in palestine, culminating with his Last Supper,
crucifixion, and resurrection in JerUsalem. The
book of Acts tells the story of how Paul and other
apostles carried the Gospel throughout the Holy
Land and then to Asia Minor and Greece. Among
the Asian religions, one of most famous events
in the life of the Buddha was his Great Going
Forth—his abandonment of wealth, home, and
family in search of enlightenment. The Islamic
“exodus” or “great going forth” is the Hijra, the
emigration of mUhammad and about 70 of his fel-
low Muslims from mecca to medina in 622. This
event was considered so important that Muslims
have designated it to be year one on their official
lunar calendar. The 15th century of the Hijra
began in 1982.
The word hijra is Arabic for emigration or
abandonment, but it was also given other mean-
ings in medieval Arabic dictionaries, including
“forsaking one’s home or country and moving
to another place.” English dictionaries often
mistranslate hijra as “flight.” That the journey
of Muhammad and his followers was more of
an emigration than a flight is supported by the
details of the accounts about the event provided
by Ibn Ishaq’s biography of the Prophet (mid-
eighth century) and other early Islamic historical
sources. According to these accounts, as Muham-
mad gained more followers from different classes
of Mecca’s society, he also attracted the atten-
tion of the city’s leading authorities, particularly
dominant clans of the qUraysh tribe. They were
angered by the Quran’s attacks on their polythe-
istic religion and worldly attachments, whichK 298 Hijaz