Communications and Media

The identity theory as propounded by Stuart Hall has provided a base for analysis of the hijab in the Muslim world. The hijab has drawn up controversies in world today with the west arguing that it is an oppressive symbol whereas the Muslims looks at it an obligatory requirement of their faith. There has been another view of the hijab as providing an identity to the Muslim women. With the challenge of terrorism facing the world today, the veil invokes the negative notions that the west has had over the Muslims across the world. The west associates terrorism with the Islamic faith and the hijab is a symbol of Islam.

Introduction
The issue of identity has been a major concern in every society. People are fond of identifying themselves with a particular group based on shared elements of their cultural and historical orientation. The concept of identity was given an impetus by Stuart Hall who advanced the cultural identity theory based on his Caribbean society. He identifies the concept of identity as ever-changing and as affecting humanity from the historical to futuristic moments in time. This paper will offer an overview of Stuarts identity theory and analyze the hijab of the Muslim women and how it is conceptualized in the western world.

Cultural Identity
Stuart Hall identifies two aspects related to the theory of cultural identity. Stuart talks of identity as composing of a matter of becoming as well as of being. He identifies the aspect of identity as being which provides some sense of unity and commonness. The oneness is usually shared by individuals with a similar historical background. The unity underlines any other outward differences that may exist and he gives the example of the Caribbean-ness in his analogy. This unity is essential for the cultural identity and played an important role especially after the colonial struggles. The unity that Stuart talks about should be the one that imposes imagery coherence based on the experience of the dispersal and disintegration. This forms the historical background of the obligatory Diasporas leading to the re-establishment of the conceptual completeness or wholesomeness that addresses the wrecked rubric of history (Hall, 2009).

The other aspect is the view of identity as becoming which focuses on what humans really are or what they have become. It cuts across the past and the future. Stuarts is of the view that cultural identities begins at some place and goes through changes over time. Cultural identities are never constant as they keep changing due to the historical, cultural, and power forces. The historical past will only help in securing the conceptualization of ourselves in infinity when recovered, but true identity is to be realized in the names that are given to the positions and the various ways humans are positioned trough the narrations of the past. This second aspect of identity theory helps us in comprehensive understanding of the traumatic experiences of colonialism. Stuart is of the view that the black people had to undergo traumatizing experiences at the hands of the colonial powers as an exhibition of cultural dominance. Colonialists influenced the way Africans viewed themselves as the other. The idea of the other then impacts on the way cultural identity is regarded in the sense that cultural identity is not seen as an unchanging phenomenon (Hall, 2009).

The Hijab and Identity theory
The hijab is the head scarf that is traditionally worn by Muslim women as part of the religious obligation in the Islamic faith. It is related to an individuals practice of choosing modesty when dressing to conceal the private parts so as to avoid invoking enticements from the males. Within the Muslim communities, the hijab is regarded as a social norm whereas in the western societies the veil has been used as an identity tool. In the western world, the veil produces stigma from those around the Islamic women wearing the hijab. According to a research done by Gulsum Gurbuz  Mustafa E. Gurbuz in 2006, the women who wear the headscarf believed that inconsistency between the implicit and authentic identity existed from those individuals in close proximity. This inconsistency led the women to be defensive and finding common ground that the hijab is not just a mere scarf but it forms part and parcel of their lives. Thus the way stigma is managed relates to the construction of identity in two instances it reinforces individual identity and also produces the communal identity. In the first instance, those who wear the scarf do so as a matter of internalizing their value symbol. This forms part of the individual identities where a strong meaning is associated with the hijab. This is interpreted by the west to mean a symbol of oppression of the Islamic woman. The second approach to the understanding of the hijab is derived from the collective view point. The hijab is a symbolic expression that is translated to reflect the Islamic faith. This communal approach means that the hijab wearers are seen as representing the Islamic faith (Gurbuz, G.,  Gurbuz, M., 2006). The hijab is thus related to the identity theory as advanced by Stuart Hall.

Cultural significance of the hijab in a Muslim culture
In the Islamic culture, the hijab is believed to be a religious obligation that is mandated to be carried out by the women folks. The hijab is therefore something that inspires the women as it symbolizes modesty which is the general concept preached by all the religious groups around the world. The wearing of the headscarf by the Muslim women is believed to add some self respect and dignity to the women. It is claimed that prior to the imperial phenomenon within the Muslim dominated countries, the Muslim women were protected from the advances of the infidels. The hijab is meant to protect the women from the evil eyes of the infidels. The hijab is the symbol of the Islamic faith and therefore its removal is associated with the destruction of the faith. According to the Quran, the women are advised to cast down their appearances and protect their private parts. The hijab concept is derived from the Quran as women are advised to wear headscarves which should cover their bosoms so as not to reveal their ornaments to any male strangers except for their husbands and close relatives (Syed, 2008).

Modesty which is gotten through the wearing of the hijab is thought to symbolize the Islamic faith and therefore one is said not to be having religion in case of lacking modesty. The hijab is not an oppressive symbol per se it is in fact taken to be an equality symbol in the Muslim world in the sense that being a symbol of honor and equity, it shields the Muslim women from the evil men. The Quran preaches the equality of both men and women and discourages about the superiority of one gender in relation to the other. The hijab has also been described as giving the women some power, self-respect and admiration that can not be attributed to a non-believer. The women who wear the hijab are considered as well-behaved and therefore command some respect from other people. The hijab is also said to symbolize self belief as those who dont wear it are said to be suffering from inferiority complex and that they would wish to use their womanly charms to attract men. The hijab is regarded as one of the many commandments of Allah and therefore by wearing the hijab, it is one way of showing obedience to Allah (Syed, 2008).

Allah had foreseen the devastating damage that could result from not observing hijab. Failure to observe the hijab could result in the un-ending chain of offensive behaviors within the community. Therefore the mistake of one individual may result in unwanted events that affect many people in negative ways. Though the individual who failed to observe the hijab is squarely to blame for a series of undesirable events that follows those other individuals who participated in the indecent acts are equally to be blamed for their participation. It is therefore a societal obligation to make sure that such eventualities are prevented from happening. If hijab was not to be observed there would be harm not only to the woman who fails to observe the practice but also to the many others in the community. Adversities associated with failure to observe the hijab include rape, murders, and family breakages among many other indecent activities (Syed, 2008).

The perception of the hijab through a western culture
The west has always viewed the hijab from a different angle altogether. In the western culture the wearing of a hijab is thought to symbolize the male oppression towards the female gender. The west thinks that the Quranic interpretation that the woman ought to dress in a modest manner was wrongly interpreted to mean than she has to cover her head with the hijab. Though within the Muslim community the women are judged depending on how they dress, the hijab is seen as an instrument meant to contain the sexuality of the women. The Muslim community is said to have advanced negative attitudes towards the women who fails to use the headscarves. They are advised to use the hijab as a protection to guard them against sexual nuisance from men. This is interpreted to mean that there is a justification for the vice on those women who fails to wear the headscarves. In the west, this is interpreted to mean that men should not take responsibility for their actions. The hijab is seen as having been forced to the women by men under the disguise of religion. Countries where the females enjoy very minimum rights have enforced the laws that force women to wear the hijab as a legal requirement treating the females as sub-humans. Forcing the hijab upon the women is interpreted in the western world to mean subjugation and humiliation to the female gender (Ada, 2004).

The west has always viewed the hijab as resembling the backwardness or seen as lack of liberal principles. They see the hijab concept as symbolizing the unregulated patriarchic of the Muslim faith which is viewed as unacceptable towards the realization of gender equity in the secularized liberal world. The west has taken the hijab as a direct challenge to liberal principles of the west as it is seen as an inevitable and incontestable sign of subordinating the women. One would think of the western society as being a model or gender equality. A closer look at the western society however reveals that this society consists of imbalance when it comes to gender issues. Again, other religions uses head gears like the case of the Catholic nuns whereas Judaism requires women to shave their hair andor cover their heads. There are no complains about these incidences and one would wonder the motive behind the Muslim hijab. This then can be said to be a well calculated move to discriminate not only the Muslim woman but the Islamic religion as a whole (Scott, 2009).

In the western world, wearing of hijab has been associated with the concept of discrimination and ill treatment to the Muslim women. As demonstrated by the French government which banned the wearing of the hijab by female students in all public schools, most western countries have imposed legislations that deny the Muslim women the right to practice their region freely. For some women, they have taken to wearing the hijab as defiance directed towards the western society which has been seen as increasingly becoming intolerant to their faith. They choose to wear the headscarves as part of their identity despite all the discriminatory actions they have to undergo for being Muslims. These women objectively see the western societies as being oppressive towards the female appearance. The western culture is therefore to the contrary perpetuation oppression towards these women unlike it is presumed of the hijab as being oppressive to the women. It is therefore important to observe that religion is not the source of human progress neither should we presume that the western society as the ideal model for human progress (Ada, 2004).

Following the terrorist attacks targeting the western interests in the recent past, the issue of the hijab has taken a different move among the western society. The ban on hijab in European countries, and partly in Australia and the United States as well as controversies surrounding the building of Mosques in these countries has further raised the issue of discrimination among the Muslim community. Women in hijab are usually subjected to abuse and intimidations of all sorts. Following the September 11 attacks in the United States, a woman in Australia observed that

I thought long and hard about taking the scarf off after September 11 like many women  I remember within one hour of going out I had been spat on, had someone threaten me as if they were going to hit me, the shop assistant at Coles supermarket would swipe my card and would not look at me in the eye. I remember coming home crying my eyes out and asking myself, Do I take this scarf off (Abraham, 2007, para 11).

The identity stigma of otherness has therefore been directed towards the Arab community which happens to be Muslim. This shift has been propagated by the terrorist attacks in which case the western societies have associated the Islamic faith with terrorist activities (Abraham, 2007).

Conclusion
The issue of hijab and the concept of identity are closely related. Through the identity theory that was propounded by Stuart Hall in the analysis of the Caribbean natives, we are able to infer his theoretical framework to the understanding of the hijab as seen through the western culture. The headscarf has been viewed as an identity symbol of the Islamic faith by the bearers while to the western society it is seen as symbolizing oppression and backwardness of the Muslim world. Terrorism perpetrated by the Islamic fundamentalists has worsened the western view of the hijab as it is related to Islam which is linked to terrorism in the western minds. The hijab therefore forms a critical element in the identity of the Islamic women and the religion as a whole.