Little girls in headacarves

[Tallulahoola]

Can anyone tell me why very young Muslim girls - Year 1 and above - wear headscarves and what it signifies?

I went to school with a lot of Muslim girls and a couple with very religious parents started wearing headscarves when they reached 13 or so. I always assumed this was because they had reached puberty so were considered to be young women, and as such were dressing modestly.

Skip to now and I see a lot of girls aged 5 and above wearing headscarves at the local primary schools. Is there a concept of a modesty at this age? Does it mean their parents are extremely religious? Or is it particular to certain communities (the parents are from Somalia and I think from Bangladesh, whereas the community I grew up around was Pakistani)

Head scarves are now seen as trendy. Many Muslim female bloggers post videos on how to do trendy headscarves. Maybe like PPs said copying their Mums and glamorous sisters!

H&M were the first fashion house to use a woman in a headscarf in an advert. They're now all over the catwalks now. Modesty is "in" hence why when you look on the high street androgynous shirts, brogues etc are everywhere. I think the headscarf is part of this trend for Muslim women

Just a link outlining why Sikh Women cover their heads - we always seem to get bundled with muslim women but we cover our heads partially as a sign of equality with men (what's good for the goose is good for the gander ) amongst other reasons .

Worth a read as women with covered heads aren't always muslim ...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35563415

I don't think in the case of very small girls it's for fashion. I think it's seen as ultra pious and it's decided by the family. Personally, it seems to suggest that some families feel the need to protect their five year olds from the lustful gaze of men, which seems kind of perverse to my Western atheist mind...

I once saw a tiny girl in Whitechapel wearing a jilbab and full veil. It was almost eerie seeing such a small child walking around like that. And that was over ten years ago - I daresay it may be more commonplace now.

Thanks pendu that's really interesting. Not sure I have ever seen this in real life, there must be very few Sikhs around where I live

The Sikh position is interesting, especially as it centres on women being equal to men. If only the same could be said of Islam.

Does anyone remember the Trevor Phillips TV programme where he researched various Muslim views? He interviewed an ex-headteacher of a predominantly Muslim primary school, who said that uncovered girls were having their heads hit by the boys, and were abused and insulted by them for not wearing headscarves. Attitudes and behaviour like that in such young children can only come from their own communities.

I'm surprised and disappointed by how many assumptions are made on this thread!

Please, just ask the parents or the child instead of assuming things.

I wore a headscarf from about the age of 6 because I desperately wanted to. In fact my mum tried to take me out of it, but I wanted to wear it. Is that so hard to believe?

And since when is wearing a head covering (hijab or a hat for example) sexualising young children? Wearing a bikini may be, but not a head covering. It is ridiculous to even suggest such a thing.

My DD will be free to wear a headscarf whenever she wants to. If she wears it from a young age, I will be pleased, as unfortunately she's going to have get used to people giving her the cold shoulder because of wearing hijab and looking Muslim. and people making assumptions about her, and it's easier to create that thick skin from a younger age and get used to it! So practically, yes it'll be easier for her to wear it from a younger age rather than when she's older. And I am pretty certain that she will want to wear the hijab when she's older.

I had a Muslim friend who started letting her daughter wear a hijab to school after getting headline for the umpteenth time.

GinAndSonic, lol yes, and when my mum was pregnant and had severe morning sickness, she didn't have to comb and plait my hair everyday

What I don’t understand, and maybe the Muslims on this thread can explain, is why wear the headscarf, if the religion doesn’t require it?

It can’t be everyone protecting their daughters from headlice or disguising a bad hair day.

Is it to foster a pride in the religion, a desire to be immediately recognisable as a Muslim, even at a distance? Is it due to community pressure to conform to cultural dress codes (see the example above from the primary school)?

I'm afraid the fact that girls wear it and not boys tells me that there is a root in controlling women or protecting them from men. That's where the sexualisation comes in. And that's why no one minds a Sikh equivalent - because men and women do it. When women do stuff that men are not required to do and say it's their own free choice I tend to suspect other motives. When men start to choose to wear these clothes because they like it then I'll think again. But for now the men are not choosing any of this.

I feel the same about the argument that overtly sexualised female behaviour 'is empowering'. I wonder why the people with actual power in the world don't feel the need to do this.

Backing, men do wear a form of hijab. They are supposed to wear a 'hat/cap' and loose robe type clothing. The hijab is certainly not exclusive to women.

For me the hijab (headscarf and the requirement to cover body) gives me freedom to dress how I wish to instead of what society expects me to. Just have a look at that thread on MN where women are complaining about how much they loathe their body in their summer, as they feel it's not 'perfect enough' to be shown in public. Like it or not, women are put under an immense amount of pressure to have hair free skinny glowing bodies, and the truth is the vast majority of us don't have that. The fact that I cover and wear loose clothing means I don't need to worry about what people on the street think about my legs or my arms or my figure!

Limer, first of all the vast majority of young Muslim girls do not wear hijab. Maybe 1% do. Those that do, the majority wear it because they want to.

As I said in my previous post, the quicker the young girls get used to wearing hijab and all the strange looks/comments people give them because of wearing it, the easier it is in the long run. You really need to develop a thick skin, because people will have lots to say and lots of assumptions will be made about you!

None do where I live. It's what I hate most. To see a family walk down the street - little boy in shorts and t shirt suitable for the weather, dad in jeans and t shirt. Mum completely invisible under black cloak, covering the whole face - even hands covered.

the quicker the young girls get used to wearing hijab and all the strange looks/comments people give them because of wearing it, the easier it is in the long run.

There is a massive assumption above that a child will want to wear one when it grows up. Essentially you are saying: enforce it early so that wearing a scarf becomes a habit and by the time the child is an adolescent it will be "normal" and the element of choice will be removed.

An adult can wear what it wishes IMO. But I find seeing tiny girls swathed in head scarfs utterly abhorrent.

Backing it's up to the woman how she dresses. I can't understand why non-Muslim women find that so difficult to understand. We Muslim women choose to cover up if we want to. No one is enforcing it on us. I do it because I want to!

whatatodo of course the element of choice will not be removed! As soon as the child is old enough, or even young enough, the child can remove it! And many do!

Many girls who reach the age of say 15 want to wear hijab but wish they had worn it from a slightly younger age, so it wouldn't be such a huge transition.

Personally I'd encourage my 11 year old DD to wear hijab, but if she then chose not to wear it, that's up to her, and between her and God. It's none of my business after that. I just want the transition to hijab to be easy for her if she chooses to want to wear it at puberty, so I'd rather play it safe and let her get used to wearing it, after which she can remove it if she wishes to do so.

Yes I find it hard to understand why only women choose this utterly unsuitable dress. Most of the women where I live - I cannot see their faces. I can't see if they are smiling at me as they cross the road. I can't see if they look old or young so should be offered s seat on the bus. Their identity is hidden from me. That is not suitable in an open society. Apart from anything else I find the total coverup quite disrespectful to my values.

It's also notable that every cafe I pass on the way home is packed with men. It's a very outdoor culture here in the summer so every pavement seat is full - of men enjoying the evening. Never a woman. Never. Perhaps they also choose of their own free will not to be out in the evening with their friends. But perhaps there is something more subtle going on.

Fwiw I work in a business of Arab origin and my colleagues also hate the creeping acceptance of this way of dress. It's not something they grew up with in their once liberal homelands.

The idea of getting girls used to the idea of wearing a hijab early kind of makes sense

Sense is a chilling, horrifying way.

We Muslim women choose to cover up if we want to.

I don't think you get to speak for all Muslim women worldwide.

You can't seriously be trying to suggest that male abuse of women is non-existent in Muslim communities around the world?

That Muslim men are unique amongst men in not using their strength to subjugate women?

" And I am pretty certain that she will want to wear the hijab when she's older."

Why? Possibly because she has been brainwashed into it from an early age...........

A few years ago I saw a family in the park, dad and son wearing shorts & t shirt, mum fully covered inc face. The daughter was about 5, she was wearing a long black dress with a long black coat & gloves and she had her head covered. It has stuck with me because it was a very hot day and the girl tried to take off the gloves but was loudly told off ( they weren't speaking English but it was clear what was going on) I don't believe for a moment that the girl had chosen to dress like this.

Male abuse of women is existent in every single country including the UK. It is NOT exclusive to Muslim majority countries.

My issue is that the status quo for some very young girls is that they always wear a scarf. That becomes the norm to them; they don't know anything else. To stop wearing it aged 15 would be to cast off something they are familiar with, a symbol equated to their religion and would excite more notice and be more controversial than simply not choosing to wear it.

IMO making (or allowing) a headscarf to become a permanent feature of a girl's life from early childhood, is essentially grooming the girl to wear a head scarf for the rest of her life.

"Male abuse of women is existent in every single country including the UK. It is NOT exclusive to Muslim majority countries."

Of course it isn't.

But yet we in the west dont object too much to covering our genitalia and breasts. In fact to expose them in public could get us into trouble with the law. Yet they are just part of our bodies..