The Analysis of Islamic Feminists’ Perspective Concerning Hijab, the Case Study of Asma Barlas’ Viewpoint

During the recent decades, the issue of hijab has been constantly one of the controversial issues in Islamic circles. Meanwhile, the trends of new thinking have been of different views compared with the previous thinkers and they presented new theories towards the quiddity and limits of hijab. The salient sample of these new thinking trends is the trend famous for Islamic feminism. The thinkers related to this trend are in disagreement with the amount of present hijab and they are of different interpretations about the quiddity of hijab. In the present article, it has been investigated via the descriptive-analytical method, the views of Asma Barlas, one of the outstanding new thinkers of Islamic feminism about hijab by referring to his works as well as the Islamic reliable sources. Barlas believes that the false views related to hijab are due to the false understanding of verses of Holy Quran. He ignores the universality of Jilbab verse and relates it to the age of revelation. Through the special interpretation of the 31st verse of Noor Chapter, he deems this hijab to be obligatory together with some conditions. After studying Barlas’ theories and emphasizing on the true viewpoints of the author, it is pointed to the violation of two- movement theory and the consideration of Jilbab decree as a historic issue with weak reasons, the false interpretation of Jilbab verse in underestimation of humane position of servants, the least and false meaning of Jilbab and Khimar as well as the amount of covering chest and neck.