Recently women in Iran have started to publicly protest against mandatory hijab by the help of My Stealthy Freedom, a social media campaign which encourages women to stand up against the oppressive Islamic regime. Meanwhile, in the western countries, hijab has been fetishized as a symbol of power and autonomity of women. With all due respect to individuals who have freely chosen their paths, hijab is and has always been a means of oppressing women. In this series of posts, I will discuss veiling from its evolutionary roots to its modern fetishization. Happy reading!
God seems to want all women. He is omnipotent and does not require earthly ways of reproduction, but he cloisters women away. He monitors their sex lives and takes revenge against their sexual independece. In Abrahamic religions, women’s sexuality is under male jurisdiction and God requires women to submit to men.
To understand the oxymoronic behaviours of God regarding sexual repression, let’s explain it from the evolutionary point of view. Understanding our reproductive psychology clarifies everything.
Evolution is chaotic, and gruesome. The illusion of order and intelligence design has made us see all the beauties. However, evolution has required animals to take on strategies for survival, some of which we consider as immoral in today’s world. Submission of female to male is one instance.
Survival of a male gene depends on its access to a female. Protection, jealousy and the constant effort of blocking the rivals are the main reasons of sexual repression. Whether in an ape or a modern human. Veiling is one of theses strategies. As I have discussed before in “Why God is so angry?”, religions were made by alpha males to control, rule or survive. Thus, asking their women to veil to make sure that they are exclusive to them is a survival strategy! It’s worth mentioning that another example of a grotesque fuck-up of evolution is rape which I will explain later in another
post.
“Powerful men often demand exclusivity, along with powerful non-human primates. Among these males, sexual exclusivity is of prime concern. Similarly, God’s demand for unrivaled allegiance is often framed in terms of sexual jealousy.” Hector A. Garcia, Alpha God.
Long hair, breasts and bottoms are regarded as highlights of female beauty and sign of health and fertility, thus they are instantly more attractive to men who are constantly trying to reproduce. So, an alpha male assumes that covering these parts will decrease the risk of losing his reproductive advantages. Explaining it from an evolutionary point of view makes the issue look distant and ancient. However, it happens in our modern world! I remember that some years ago, a friend of mine married a man, nice guy, but strongly Muslim. My friend would never wear hijab. She always greeted us by a hug and a kiss too. After the marriage, her husband forced her to wear hijab, and stop touching However, the fetish has gone over the limits. In Saudi Arabia, in 2002, a fire broke out at a girl school in Mecca. The moral police didn’t let fire fighters to rescue schoolgirls, at the same time prevented the children to run out, because they were not covered by the traditional black veil! In Nigeria, people killed over Miss World pageant. In Iran, women are fined, sentenced to prison or lashed for not wearing hijab properly. They always wear it, but the moral police decide if it is worn appropriately or not! These are some of the top-down examples which we have access to. There are hundreds of bottom-up examples happening inside families, often include domestic violence, which we do not hear or read about!
References:
Www.facebook.com/stealthyfreedom
Alpha God by Hector A. Garcia
Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Cartoon by Mana Neyestani, retrieved from http://www.radiofarda.com
Decent atheist 
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