Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is a fairly modern city and it is striking to see the difference between the wealthier city people, many of whom dress like westerners, and the people from the country areas (mostly Malays) who dress in a more traditional and conservative way. The woman below looks like she has come into the city from one of the outlying villages (know as Kampongs in Malay). The headscarf she is wearing is called a tudung but here in the west it is better know as a hijab.

Malaysia is a comparatively moderate Islamic state and many foreigners would be mistaken for thinking that the women there are being coerced by fundamentalists into wearing hijabs.

First off a hijab isn’t necessarily a head covering, it’s more of a state of mind. Sure, a headscarf worn by a Muslim woman is called a hijab (or tudung in Malay) but hijab actually refers to dressing and behaving modestly. The modesty that Moslems are referring to, isn’t just sexual modesty but modesty in thought and action; such as not showing off or being raucous. For many Moslem women the hijab is a reminder to behave according to the teachings in the Qur’an and that includes being compassionate and non-judgemental.

There are huge debates going on in the Islamic world about what is hijab and it would be a big error on the behalf of non-Moslems to think that all Moslems think the same way about hijabs and what constitutes modesty. To give an idea of the sort of things that are being mooted, I’d recommend reading an interesting post by Unique Muslimah about current hijab fashion in Egypt (the comments will give you an idea of the diversity of opinion on the matter).

If you’re interested in seeing more hijab fashion (to help break the stereotypes pushed by the right wing western media) the Hijablog has some spectacular and beautiful examples.