A Look into the Soft War against Hijab: Backgrounds, Tools and Solutions

Soft war and its agents seek to influence the values and indigenous traditions of their target nations and, in doing so, they utilize every means and method to transform and devastate the fundamental values of the unfriendly, target communities. One of the important features and values of religious communities is ‘the Islamic hijab and covering culture and value’, which has increasingly influenced the spirit of resistance and struggle against the enemies. Hence, the soft war agents attempt to attack the Islamic hijab and veiling and fulfill their goals by transforming the culture of veiling since the hegemonic system’s past wars against Muslim nations have proved that their Islamic culture is a strong obstacle to their wishes. Thus, hijab as one of the most significant, indigenous, Islamic symbols of Muslim nations has always been attacked by the hegemonic powers. Hence, the present article aims to answer this question: Why is a soft war waged against hijab and which mechanisms can help us cope with the resulting damages? The findings suggest that the main cause of waging a soft war against Islamic veiling is that this phenomenon can help women maintain their dignity and actively take part in cultural activities, reduce social evils, have a dignified society, confront the West’s cultural invasion, enjoy consistent socialization, strengthen the foundation of the family and have security and psychological tranquility. To fulfill their objectives, the soft war agents utilize various devices such as artistic and cultural products, mass media, fashion, perception war and imaging. If the hegemonic system’s soft war succeeds in devastating hijab, such negative consequence as descent of women’s character, an increase in licentiousness and mental disorders, educational decline, instability in economic activities, cultural consumerism, etc. will result, which, in turn, would seriously harm the Islamic system.