Hijab

Hijab (pronounced hi-jahb, hi-jab, hee-jahb or hee-jab)

(1) A traditional scarf or veil worn by Muslim women to cover the hair and neck and sometimes the face.

(2) The traditional dress code of Muslim women, calling for the covering of the entire body except the face, hands, and feet (except in places where the interpretation is more strict and all or some of the hands, face and feet must be concealed).

1885–1890: From the Arabic حِجَاب‎ (ḥijāb) (veil, cover, curtain), from ḥajaba (to cover).  It first appeared in this sense in bilingual dictionaries in 1906 whereas in classical Arabic it meant both "partition, screen, curtain," and also generally "rules of modesty and dress for females.  One (1800) English lexicon of the “Hindoostanee language" suggested hijab was used to mean "modesty or shame," and other similar dictionaries (circa 1800) noted the connotations of "to cover, hide or conceal" and the 1906 publication (qv) also listed "modesty".  The alternative forms hejab, hijaab, hijāb; hajib & hijabi are all now regarded as non-standard, globalisation and the internet making hijab the preferred global spelling; the noun plural is hijabs.

Asif Ali Zadari and the late Benazir Bhutto, pictured on their wedding day, discussing head fashions.

The hijab is the most minimal of the Islamic veils.  Classically a square scarf of any color which covers the head and neck but leaves the face exposed, it can be of any shape, color or fabric but styles and shades tend to be more somber in more conservative cultures.  It can be used as just another fashion accessory, and, where local circumstances permit, some do drape it in a rather perfunctory way, exposing just as much as can be gotten away with.  Politicians attempting simultaneously to placate the local Mufti and assert their feminist credentials adopt this trick; former Pakistani prime-minister, the late Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007), was an expert.

Lindsay Lohan, wearing an al-amira, pictured here with aid worker Azize in Antep refugee camp, Gaziantep, Turkey, October 2016.

The al-amira and shayla are variations on a theme.  The former is two-piece, consisting of a close-fitting cap and a tube-like scarf, the latter a long, rectangular scarf, wrapped around the head and tucked or pinned in place at the shoulders.  Both are more closely-fitting than a hijab and are used when it’s important to ensure no hair is left exposed.

Lindsay Lohan, pictured here wearing a burka by Gucci while shopping in Dubai during her self-imposed exile from US while Donald Trump was president.

The almost identical niqab and burka are the highest evolution of the form.  The burka (also variously as burqa, burkha, burqua, boorka, bourkha (obsolete) & bourqa (rare)) is an all-enveloping garment, almost always in dark, solid colours which covers the entire body with a small (sometime mesh-covered) aperture through which to see.  The niqab is the same except it leaves the eyes exposed.  Until 2022, of the many “morality police” forces which have existed in countries with a majority Islamic population, the best known was Afghanistan's Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice which actually pre-dated the Taliban takeover in 1996 but they certainly deployed it with an enthusiasm which went much beyond it functioning as “burka police” and in one form or another, it actually operated for most of the (first) post-Taliban era.  When the Taliban regained power in 2021, immediately they created the "Ministry of Invitation, Guidance and Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" and, in a nice touch, allocated as its headquarters the building formerly used by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.  The protests in Iran which in September 2022 began over the conduct of their hijab police rapidly became a movement chanting "Death to the Dictator!". 

The khimar is a long, cape-like veil that hangs down to just above the waist. It covers the hair, neck and shoulders completely, but leaves the face clear. The chador, worn by many Iranian women when outside the house, is a full-body cloak that is favored over the similar looking burka because it is more easily put on and taken off.  A cloak, it's especially suited for wearing in cooler months when the clothing underneath tends to be bulkier.

Celebrated since 2013 on the first day of February, World Hijab Day is all encompassing in that it’s not restricted just to hijabs and includes other styles.  The day notes the long tradition attached to head-coverings mandated for religious purposes, the history pre-dating Islam by hundreds of years and the garment was anyway probably created out of necessity, those living under a hot Mesopotamian sun using linens to protect their heads from the sun and wind.  It seems head coverings were first written into law during the thirteenth century BC, in an ancient Assyrian text mandating women, daughters and widows cover their heads as a sign of piety. Notably, headscarves were forbidden for prostitutes and women of the lowest classes, an edict enforced by social ostracization or even arrest.  From this origin, the practice was adopted by the religions which emerged from the region, Judaism, Christianity & Islam and the bible (1 Corinthians 11:6-7) contains a typical injunction:

For it shall be a disgrace for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head.  For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.

Although the tradition has faded, even in some parts of the Islamic world, conservative sections still maintain the rule.  Even some post Vatican II Roman Catholic nuns continue to wear the habit, Orthodox Jewish women will don either the tichel (a type of headscarf) or sheitel (a wig) and in Islam, the Quran's verses about modesty have been interpreted in different ways, some insisting head covering is obligatory while others say it’s a choice.  Political systems, geography and ethnicity also interact with tradition in the politics of head coverings and several countries, including France, Germany and Austria, have limited women from wearing full-face coverings such as the niqab and burka in public spaces.

Mufti

Mufti (pronounced muhf-tee (U) or muff-tee (non-U))

(1) Civilian clothes, in contrast with military or other uniforms worn (as applied to persons who usually wear a uniform (used in the English-speaking world except North America); the synonym is civvies.

(2) As Islamic scholar & jurist expert in the shari’a law and the interpretation of legal principles written in the Koran who issues fatwas.

(3) In the Ottoman Empire, a deputy to the Sultan’s chief adviser on matters of Islamic law.

(4) As Grand Mufti, a senior figure in some Islamic systems.

(5) The acronym of Minimum Use of Force and Tactical Intervention, used in the military and law enforcement.

1580-1590: From the Ottoman Turkish مفتی‎ (müftî), from the Arabic مُفْتِي‎ (muftī) (one who delivers a fatwa (literally “deliverer of formal opinion”), from مُفْتٍ‎ (muftin), the active participle of أَفْتَى‎ (ʾaftā) (to give), a conjugated form of fata (he gave a (legal) decision).  The use to describe civilian clothes (worn by military officers when off-duty) as opposed to military uniform dates from 1816 and was a term used in the British Indian Army under the Raj.  The origin is murky but is presumed to reference a mufti’s costume of robe and slippers in stage plays of the time and was thus a synecdoche for plain clothes.  The archaic alternative spellings in English were muftee & mufty; the noun plural is muftis.

Of Muftis, the Sheikhs, Mullahs, Imams and Ayatollahs

Sheikh Hasina Wazed (b1947; Prime Minister of Bangladesh 1996-2001 & since 2009).

Like many religions, In Islam there are a number of titles, some of which seem to overlap and the use in one place can in detail differ from the duties and responsibilities undertaken in another.  An added complication is that Islam does not have the same distinctions between religious and other matters familiar in many other faiths.  A Mullah (the word a substitute for molvi or molai) is one who has studied and attained a degree in the fields of Hadith, Tafseer & Fiqh from any authentic Jamia or Madrassah (University of Islamic Sciences) and holds a qualification of Sanad or Ijazat-e-Hadees.   A student is announced Scholar (Molvi) in a graduation ceremony after when he has attained Ijazat e Hadith from his teacher of Hadith (Sheikh-ul-Hadith).  With this qualification, the graduate is deemed able to understand & explain Ahadith (plural of Hadith (the entire collection of hadiths (sayings and deeds) of Muhammad within a particular branch of Islam or Islamic jurisprudence).  A Mufti is one who, after graduating, has undertaken further study in a specialization in one or more of the field such as law or history.  A Mufti is able to issue a fatwa, a written authorized verdict on any of the Islamic problems brought to his attention.  The best known of these judgments are those associated with Dar-ul-ifta (the institution with the authority to write and publish verdicts on the Islamic issues of every nature).  A Grand Mufti is the highest ranked Mufti at a Dar-ul-ifta and can be thought of as something like a chief judge in a court but, because Islam is structurally more integrated than the pattern understood in many countries, such comparisons are merely indicative.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900-1989; supreme leader of Iran 1979-1989).

The widely used Sheikh is often misunderstood.  It is an honorific title for someone and need not be formally conferred and, unusually, it can be used by women; a mark of respect vaguely similar to “sir” in English or “san” in Japanese.  However, in some parts of the Arab world, Sheikh can be used instead of mufti (or molvi).  An Imam is a leader, the term used for a recognized religious scholar or authority in Islam and in Sunni Islam, it is the Imam is the one who leads formal prayers, even in locations beyond a mosque and for a mosque formally to be constituted, there must be an imam to lead the prayers, even if in circumstances it may be someone from the gathered congregation rather than an appointed official.  Such a person is chosen on the basis of their knowledge of the Quran, and Sunnah (the prophetic tradition) and their good character; their age is not relevant.  Imams, formal and otherwise are almost always male and in some traditions exclusively so but in some cultures women certainly lead women in prayer and there is a long history of women fulfilling the role when the congregation is comprised exclusively of family members, even if it includes men.  The Sunni branch of Islam does not have imams in the same sense as the Shi'a where the role is best understood in the position of Ayatollah, the most famous of which are those of the Islamic Republic of Iran.  The founder of that state, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was within the country usually referred to as “the Imam”, a courtesy title not extended to his successor.

The Führer and the Grand Mufti, Berlin, 1941.

The 1941 meeting in Berlin between Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Nazi head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (Mohammed Amin al-Husseini (1897–1974) Mufti (Grand Mufti after 1922) of Jerusalem 1921-1948) cast a long shadow.  In 2015 then Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (b 1949; prime minister 1996-1999 & 2009- 2021) claimed Hitler at the time of the meeting was not considering exterminating the Jews, but only expelling them from Europe and that it was al-Husseini who inspired the genocide of the holocaust to ensure they didn’t come to Palestine.  Mr Netanyahu is marvelously unscrupulous and inclined, where there's some gap or inconsistency in the historical record, to insert alternative facts which suit his purposes.

The only record of the meeting is the official German report, published decades ago and there’s nothing in it to support Mr Netanyahu’s accusations.  Of course, an official government record of a meeting involved his head of state may not be a complete record of the conversation and it may be that the views attributed to the mufti by Mr Netanyahu are exactly those expressed to the Führer and not included in the official record for reasons of political sensitivity.  It’s just that there’s no basis for the accusation and that all the available evidence does confirm the Nazis had months before the meeting taken the decision to proceed with the holocaust and the planning was well-advanced before the mufti arrived in Berlin.  The mufti was anti-Semitic and collaborated with the Nazis as a broadcaster and propagandist, helping recruit Balkan Muslims to form a division of the Waffen-SS.  He also appears to have known about the Holocaust as early as 1943 but there is no evidence to support the assertion he was in 1941 either its inspiration or even an advocate.

Australia’s most entertaining mufti was the Egyptian-born Sheikh Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly (b 1941; Mufti of Australia 1988-2007),  After a quiet start he was never far from the news but his most celebrated moment came in 2006 when he delivered a sermon discussing the relationship between rape and the clothing women choose to wear.  The essence of his message was:

Were one to leave uncovered meat in the street, in the garden, in the park or in the backyard, just leave it without a cover, when the cat comes and eats it, is that the fault of the cat or the uncovered meat?  Of course it is the fault of the uncovered meat.  If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.

Covered meat: Lindsay Lohan in hijab (al-amira).

After repeating his comments in public, there was an unfavorable reaction and he issued a statement: "I unreservedly apologize to any woman who is offended by my comments. I had only intended to protect women's honor, something lost in (the newspaper’s) presentation of my talk.  I would like to unequivocally confirm that the presentation related to religious teachings on modesty and not to go to extremes in enticements. This does not condone rape. I condemn rape.  Women in our Australian society have the freedom and right to dress as they choose; the duty of man is to avert his glance or walk away."

Collar

Collar (pronounced kol-er)

(1) The part of a shirt, coat, dress, blouse, etc that encompasses the neckline of the garment and is sewn permanently to it, often so as to fold or roll over.

(2) A similar but separate, detachable article of clothing worn around the neck or at the neckline of a garment.

(3) Anything worn or placed around the neck.

(4) In law enforcement, a slang term for securing an arrest.

(5) In metalworking, a piece rolled to wrap itself around a roller.

(6) In biology, a marking or structure resembling a collar, such as that found around the necks of some birds.

(7) In engineering, a section of a shaft or rod having a locally increased diameter to provide a bearing seat or a locating ring

(8) In butchery, a cut of meat, especially bacon, from the neck of an animal.

(9) In ancient chivalric orders, a symbol of membership.

(10) In jewelry, an ornament for the neck, a variant of which is the choker.

(11) In rehabilitative medicine, a device worn around the neck to support the head.

(12) In architecture, a variety of beams and ties which are structural elements in roof framing between rafters.

(13) In baseball, a slang term for a player getting no hits in a game.

(14) In plumbing, a type of sleeve used to join two tubes.

(15) In industrial power generation, a piece of hardware used on power transmission devices as a mechanical stop, locating device, or bearing face.

(16) In the profession of the hangman, the knot of the noose (archaic).

(17) In extractive underground mining, a curb or a horizontal timbering around the mouth of a shaft.

(18) In botany, the neck or line of junction between the root of a plant and its stem.

(19) A ring-like part of a mollusk in connection with the esophagus.

(20) In nautical architecture, an eye formed in the bight or bend of a shroud or stay to go over the masthead; also, a rope to which certain parts of rigging, as dead-eyes, are secured.

(21) In financial market jargon, a trading strategy using options in a ways that there exists both an upper limit on profit and a lower limit on loss, constructed through taking equal but opposite positions in put and call options with different strike prices.

1250–1300: From the Middle English coler from the Anglo-French colier & Old French coler, derived from the Latin collāre (neckband, collar), the construct being coll (truncation of collum (neck)) + āre (neuter (as noun) suffix of āris).  Ultimate source was the primitive Indo-European kwol(o) (neck) which entered both the Old Norse and the Middle Dutch as hals (neck), literally "that on which the head turns" from the root kwel (move round, turn about).

The meaning "border at the neck of a garment” emerged in the fourteenth century and all meanings since are in some way analogous.  Collier exists in Modern French, again from the Latin; cognate with the Gothic hals, the Old English heals and the Spanish cuello.

Collars

Noted for slogans rather than imaginative linguistic flourishes, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (b 1968; Australian prime-minister since 2018), a confessed meat-eater, was so shocked at the tactics some rabid vegans had used to disrupt the slaughter industry's supply chains, he was moved to describe the protesters, inter alia, as “green-collar criminals”.  He’d likely have preferred to label them eco-terrorists and have them locked-up somewhere but may have been advised that might be unlawful or at least hyperbolic.  Interestingly the phrase “green-collar crime” is used both to describe some of the actions of activists and the environmental damage against which they’re protesting; it’s not clear which meaning will prevail and it's an amusing if confusing co-existence.

It’s among the most recent of the “collar” words, all variations of the old white-blue collar delineation (except the ecclesiastical dog collar which is from the nineteenth century).  Blue collar worker was used first in 1924 to describe the working class, an allusion to the hard-wearing blue denim they stereotypically wore.  White-collar worker was coined in the 1930s by US writer Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) in connection with those absorbed in clerical, administrative and managerial functions.  Used mostly in economics and sociology, the collars have been handy (if imprecise) definitional shorthand in both academic and other writing.

Blue collar:  Originally, a member of the working class who performs manual work and earns either an hourly wage or is paid a piece rate.  The labor market in recent decades has changed so much that for economists it may now be a useless or al least misleading term although culturally, it is still of real utility.   

White collar:  Historically, salaried professionals, office workers and management; ie clean, safe jobs in pleasant physical environments although for many, salaries were low.

Pink collar: Now probably obsolete, it described a member of the working class in the service industry in occupations such as waiters and retail or other roles involving relations with people.  Origin of the term was the need to describe the rapidly expanding employment in service industries during the 1990s and its overwhelmingly female demographic.  Now treated as sexist, there were suggestions it could morph into something gender-neutral but it didn’t work as well and is now close to extinct although the companion pink collar crime endures and remains a descriptor of white collar crimes committed by women where the loot stolen is of relatively low-value.

Gold collar:  A highly skilled multi-disciplinarian who combines the intellectual and practical skills of both white & blue collar employees.

Red collar:  Government workers of all types.  In China, it refers also to Communist Party officials working in private companies, the implication being they’re placed there for some party purpose; similar in both function and ultimate purpose but different in ideology to the old party commissars.  

Grey collar: Skilled technicians, typically someone whose role is a mix of white and blue collar (although some say the distinction between grey and gold is a bit vague; notion is that gold are higher paid than grey).  Like gold, grey collar is a recent invention which seems not to have caught on; both may die out.

New collar:  Jobs said to require the technical and soft skills needed to work with contemporary technology industry; often associated with a non-traditional education path.  Cynics suggest it’s there to describe university drop-outs whose start-ups work out ok.

Happy times in dog collars.  Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023, left) with his predecessor as Archbishop of Melbourne, Sir Frank Little (1925–2008, right).

Dog collar:  Christian clergy (although, technically, only a sub-set of the whole); now rarely seen outside of churches and courtrooms.  In the public consciousness, such is the association of the male clergy with pedophilia that the clergy, when out and about, usually do so in disguise (mufti).  That's actually not new.  One of the (many) reasons Jesuit priests were once so mistrusted was that they tended not to wear clerical garb, claiming the wearing of everyday clothes permitted them to be closer to the people.  Actually, it was just a trick so they could spy on them.

No collar:  Artists, the precariously employed and others who tend to privilege passion and personal growth over financial gain.

Orange collar:  Prison laborers, named for the orange jumpsuits most associated with inmates in the US prison system.

Green collar:  Workers in a wide range of professions relating to the environment and renewable energy.  Confusingly, green collar crime is used by both sides to describe the actions of their opponents in that activists refer to those accused of causing environmental damage as green collar criminals whereas the slaughter industry uses the same label for the radical vegans who disrupt their production or distribution.

Scarlet collar:  Prostitutes and ancillary staff (brothel receptionists et al included in an example of the way the "collar" labels are sometimes applied to industry sectors as well as specific occupations).

Black collar:  Originally used to describe manual laborers in jobs when workers habitually become very dirty although it has been extended to those working in the illicit black economy.  Of late it’s been applied also to (1) the pro-gun movement in the US, (2) artists who have adopted black clothing by choice and (3) those in insecure, low-paid employment.  The meaning may now be too diluted to be of much use.

Virtual collar:  Robots performing manual repetitive tasks, both physical and virtual but has been used also to describe the cheap, mobile technology capital uses as a tool of control.

Rainbow collar:  Workers in industries which serve or are most identified with the LGBTQQIAAOP community.  This was once a largely volunteer movement but increasing has a paid-labor component.  The adjectival rainbow, in polite society, has now wholly supplanted pink (eg the earlier pink dollar), partly because of the historical use of pink labels or descriptors by repressive régimes.  Pink collar was never linked with the LGBTQQIAAOP community and the earlier lavender collar enjoyed only a brief linguistic career.

Lindsay Lohan in army green, fur-collared jacket over blouse with metal studded collar, New York, March 2014.

Fatwa

Fatwa (pronounced faht-wah)

(1) In Islam, a religious decree issued by a high authority (such as a mufti) or the ʿulama (a body of Muslim scholars who are recognized as having specialist knowledge of Islamic sacred law and theology).

(2) In Islam, a non-binding judgment on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized religious authority.

1620s: From the Arabic fatwā or fetwā (a legal ruling given by a mufti) and related to fata (to instruct by a legal decision).  The Arabic فَتْوَى‎ (fatwā) was the verbal noun of أَفْتَى‎ (ʾaftā) (to deliver a formal opinion; he gave a legal decision), مُفْتٍ‎ (muftin) (mufti) the active participle of the same verb.  The noun mufti, one of a number of titles in the Islamic legal and institutional structures, dates from the 1580s muphtie (official head of the state religion in Turkey), from the Arabic mufti (judge), the active participle (with formative prefix mu-) of afta (to give) a conjugated form of fata.  The alternative forms are fatwah, fetwa, fetwah, futwa & (the archaic medieval) futwah although in some early sources it appeared as fotyā (plural fatāwā) & fatāwī; in English use, it’s written usually as fatwa.  Fatwa is a noun & verb and fatwaing & fatwaed are verbs; the noun plural is fatwas or fatawa.  The occasionally used adjectives fatwaesque & fatwaish are non-standard.

Portrait of the Imam as a young man: Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900–1989; Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1979-1989).

Apart from the work of historians and other scholars, the word was rare in English, popularized in the West only when, on Valentine’s day 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwā sentencing to death the author Salman Rushdie (b 1947) and others associated with publishing The Satanic Verses (1988), the charge being blasphemy.  The fatwā was revoked in 1998.  Interestingly, in purely juristic terms, The Satanic Verses fatwā is thought neither remarkable nor innovative, the call for extra-judicial killings, the summary execution of those condemned without judicial process, was well grounded in the historic provisions of Shiʿite (and Sunni) jurisprudence.  What lent this fatwā its impact was it had been issued by a head of state against the citizen of another country and seemed thus archaic in late twentieth century international relations.

A fatwā is the authoritative ruling of a religious scholar on questions (masāʾel) of Islamic jurisprudence either (1) dubious or obscure in nature (shobohāt) or (2) which are newly arisen and for which there is no known precedent (mostaḥdaṯāt) and it’s in connection with the latter category that the word fatwā has long been regarded as cognate with fatā (young man); the sense of something new.  However, the enquiry eliciting a fatwā may relate to an existing ordinance (ḥokm) of Islamic law (particularly one unknown to the questioner) or to its application to a specific case or occurrence which is sufficiently different to the way something has historically been applied.  In this case, the fatwā functions as an act to clarify the relevant ordinance (tabyīn-e ḥokm).  This can apply to something novel like new technology.  The International Space Station (ISS) operates at an altitude of 250 miles (400 km) and travels at 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h), thus orbiting Earth every ninety minutes so when a Muslim astronaut requested guidance about the correct protocols to ensure he was facing towards Mecca when in prayer, a Malaysian scholar issued a fatwā.

The process of requesting a fatwā is termed esteftāʾ; the one who requests it is the mostaftī; its delivery is the eftāʾ; and the one who delivers it is the moftī.  There is nothing in Islamic law which dictates a fatwā must be either requested or provided in writing although this has always been the common practice and certainly followed in matters of importance.  However, request and fatwā may be delivered orally and the practice is doubtlessly widespread, especially when merely confirming things generally known. The technical process of the fatwā wasn’t an invention of Islam.  In Roman civil law, the principle of jus respondendi (the right of responding) was an authority conferred on senior jurists when delivering legal opinions; thought essentially the right to embellish a ruling with an opinion, some historians maintain it was even a right to issue a dissent although there’s no agreement on this.  Perhaps even closer was the Jewish practice of Responsa (in Latin the plural of responsum (answer)) which in practice translated as “ask the Rabbi”.

As a general principle, fatwās exist to address specific and actual problems or uncertainties, although rulings are not infrequently sought on a set of interrelated questions or on hypothetical problems the occurrence of which is anticipated.  A legal scholar can thus provide what is, in effect, an advisory opinion; something generally unknown in the Western legal tradition.  Nor are fatwās of necessity concerned purely with legal matters, doctrinal considerations necessarily involved whenever a fatwā results in takfīr (the condemnation of individuals or groups as unbelievers).  This is a feature especially in Shiʿite collections of fatwās which are sometimes prefaced with a summary of essential doctrines, intended to create concise handbooks for the common believer of both theology and law.

A misunderstood aspect of the fatwā is the extent to which it can be held to be mandatory.  Because of the structures of Islam, a fatwā is not comparable to a papal bull which is an absolute ruling from the Holy See; a fatwā is intrinsically obligatory simply because there is in Islam not the one lineal hierarchy, it is an expression of learned opinion which relies for its authority upon the respect afforded to the author and the willingness of followers to comply.  That’s not to say that some strains of Islam don’t attempt to formalise a structure which would impose that obligation.  In Shiʿism, the authority to deliver a fatwā is generally restricted to the mojtahed (the jurist qualified to deduce the specific ordinances of the law (forūʿ) from its sources (oṣūl), and obedience to the mojtahed of their choice (the marjaʿ-e taqlīd) is incumbent on all who lack learned qualifications.  As a specific point of law, the ruling given in the fatwā of a mojtahed is obligatory for those who sought.

Holy Quran commissioned by the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980).

One curious aspect of the fatwās is that while the process is only partially based on anything from the Holy Quran, by definition the content of a  fatwā can be based on nothing else.  The theological point is that while there are Quranic verses in which the Prophet was asked for rulings (yasʾalūnaka (they ask you) & yastaftūnaka (they ask you for a ruling)), the Prophet himself is not the source of the rulings for in these versus he is instructed to say, “God provides you with a ruling” (Allāho yoftīkom); a fatwā, ultimately relying for its authority not on the scholarship of the writer but upon it being Quranic: the word of God.  This relationship is made explicit in the injunction in 16:43 (“Ask the People of Remembrance (ie those learned in the Holy Quran) if you do not know”).  This accounts also for the brevity of most fatwās compared with Western traditions, it being superfluous for the moftī to cite textual or other evidence simply because all that can be issued is what can easily be referenced in the in Holy Quran.  It can be no other way because, under Islamic doctrine, Muhammad was the last prophet and thus, after his death in 632, God ceased to communicate with mankind through revelation and prophets; from that point onward, for all time, there are only the words of the Holy Quran.

Lindsay Lohan in hijab.

The vexed matter of the wearing of the hijab (or any of the other variations in Women’s “modest” clothing associated with Islam (as it is with some other faiths)) is an example of the fatwa in operation.  The Holy Quran contains passages discussing the concept of modesty in attire (for both men and women) but the interpretation and application of these has varied greatly within Islam’s many strands.  The Quranic verse most commonly cited is in Surah An-Nur (24:31) where it instructs believing women to “draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, or their brothers' sons or their sisters' sons, or their women, or their slaves whom their right hands possess, or male attendants who lack vigor, or children who are not yet aware of the nakedness of women.”  So there’s no explicit mention of “heads or hair” but many Islamic scholars have constructed this as a directive for women to cover their hair when in the presence of those not immediate family members or close relatives.

Lindsay Lohan in hijab.

It’s not only in Islam that interpretations of religious texts can vary widely but in the early twenty-first century (and the trend has been accelerating since the triumpt of the 1979 revolution in Iran) it’s upon Islam where much of the liberal West’s attention has been focused, this interest not the garments but the allegations of coercion imposed on women.  Some in the West have even gone as far as to deny Islamic women the possibility that in choosing to hijab they are exercising free will, suggesting they are victims of what the Marxists call “false consciousness”.  In Islamic communities, cultural, regional and historic customs also play a significant role in how hijab is understood and practiced which is why there have been fatwas which interpret the Quranic verses as severely as dictating a burqa, as a head-scarf or merely a mode of dress and conduct which could be described as “modest” or “non-provocative”.

Lindsay Lohan in hijab.

So when there are competing fatwas, a choice must be made.   Were one to take a purely theoretical position, one might hold that choice would be made on the basis of an individual's personal beliefs, level of religious observance and understanding of Islamic teachings and, because within Islam there is such a diversity of opinion, a follower might be encouraged to consult with knowledgeable scholars and from that make an informed decision.  However, it’s absurd to suggest that process might be followed in a state like Afghanistan which maintains a “hijab police” and enforces a dress code as specific as a military parade ground.  A fatwa thus exists in its cultural, social and legal context and even in for those living in the liberal West, forces may within families or communities operate to mean the matter of choice is a rare luxury.