The Criticism of the Reasons for the Lack of Necessity of Covering Women's Hair in the Book "Islamic Code of Hijab at the Time of the Prophet (PBUH)”

Hijab is one of the most challenging issues in the present time, and various authors with different approaches have written for and against its religious necessity. “Islamic Code of Hijab at the Time of the Prophet (PBUH)” written by Amir Hossein Torkashvand denies the religious necessity of hijab for women based on narrative, historical, and jurisprudential reports. He claims that the Shari'a does not have a ruling on women's clothing, and that the narrations' putting emphasis on women's hijab was related to the observance of society's custom, and that free women covered their hair to distinguish themselves from slaves. So far, there is no comprehensive analysis of the author's historical and narrative evidences on the issue of women’s hair covering. Therefore, using an analytical-descriptive method, the present article analyzes the arguments of the book. The results of this survey show that the author’s perception of the hadiths relating to the hijab of Lady Fatimah Zahra (S) and women in Karbala is unilateral and incompatible with their code of behavior. Most of evidences against the obligation of hijab for female slaves suffer from weak isnad and inconsistency with other arguments, and the author’s interpretation of al-Ahzab:59 violates the Islamic equality and is rejected by many Shi'a and Sunni exegetes. Finally, some counter-arguments, such as the perception of “khimar” by the most of the women of Muhajir and Ansar and many hadiths concerning the subject, prove the necessity of hijab for women in Islamic shari'a and reject the arguments mentioned in the book.