The Supreme Court of Indian has nullified the mandatory use of hijab by female Muslim, adding that the sura does not make it compulsory.
The Karnataka High Court, India, while declaring that the wearing of hijab by Muslim women is not an ‘essential religious practice’ in Islamic Faith, said that, “The Holy Quran does not mandate wearing of hijab or headgear for Muslim women”.
The Court also observed that the prescriptions in suras regarding Hijab are not mandatory.
“The Holy Quran does not mandate wearing of hijab or headgear for Muslim women. Whatever is stated in the above sūras, we say, is only directory , because of absence of prescription of penalty or penance for not wearing hijab, the linguistic structure of verses supports this view”, the Court observed.
A full bench of Chief Justice RituRaj Awasthi, Justice Krishan S Dixit and Justice J M Khazi in their 129 page judgement relied on the ‘The Holy Quran: Text, Translation and Commentary’ by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, (published by Goodword Books; 2019 reprint).
The bench referred to various Sūra’s and observed, “This word (hijab) as such is not employed in the Quran, cannot be disputed, although commentators may have employed it.”
The judgement, after quoting the footnote 3760 to Verse 53, (from the referred Holy Quran), observed, “…In the wording, note that for Muslim women generally, no screen or hijab (Purdah) is mentioned, but only a veil to cover the bosom, and modesty in dress. The screen was a special feature of honour for the Prophet’s household, introduced about five or six years before his death…”.
The bench further observed, “Thus, there is sufficient intrinsic material within the scripture itself to support the view that wearing hijab has been only recommendatory, if at all it is.”
Full Judgement of the court available here – https://images.assettype.com/barandbench/2022-03/7f35387f-d9d0-4db0-9ff8-ca442c6a2a07/Resham_v__State_of_Karnataka.pdf
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