The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday said that wearing hijab is not mandatory in the Holy Quran. It is a cultural practice and is used as a garment as part of social security measures. The Court, in its decision, said, “At the most, the custom of wearing this garment may have something to do with culture, but certainly not with religion. Such information is found in Yusuf Ali’s Note 3764 to verse 59 which reads as follows: ‘While going out in a state of insecurity, they were asked to cover themselves with clothes. It was never considered that they should be confined to their homes like prisoners’.
The High Court said that the history of mankind is replete with instances of abuse and oppression of women. The region and time from which Islam originated was no exception. The court observed that the era before the introduction of Islam is known as the time of Jahiliya-barbarism and ignorance.
The court observed that “the Qur’an shows concern for cases of ‘molestation of innocent women’. It is therefore recommended to wear this and other garments as a measure of social security. Maybe some of the religions in the meantime The elements may have entered. This practice is common in any religion.”
The court said, “However, this in itself does not make this practice much less essential to the primarily religious and Islamic faith. This becomes clear from Ali’s footnote 3768 to verse 60 which ends with the following incisive line: Is… I wish we should ask ourselves this question: ‘Do these conditions exist between us today?’ Thus, it can be reasonably assumed that the practice of wearing the hijab was closely related to the socio-cultural conditions prevailing in that region.”