Islam has respect for women hard-wired into its fabric. While Islam makes much of the equal status of women to men, it also specifically acknowledges that women are different. This is different from the rhetoric of Feminism in the West, which asserts that women are "equal" to men. The difference is subtle but profound.

Along these lines, comparisons of women's status, especially with regard to oppression, can be made between Islam and western culture. The degradation of women in Saudi Arabia, for example, is reprehensible, and only defended by those few Muslims who have succumbed to tribal impulses and the inexplicable allure of ignorance, lacking basic human decency as well as an coherent understanding of their own faith. Westerners and Muslims (and Western Muslims) alike can agree on the obvious fact that the burka, as practiced by Wahabis and the Saudi theocracy, is oppression in its purest form.

But if we Muslims are to cast a critical eye at ourselves, surely the West can do the same? For example, in the matter of the bikini. Far from being an expression of freedom, the bikini is as much a tool of oppression as the burka.

Here follows a justification of this statement, from an Islamic perspective (rather, of of many possible Islamic perspectives. Your mileage may vary). But to understand the nature of the bikini, we must revisit the burka.

What is the burka? As routinely imposed on women, it is a full-length one-piece garment that covers the woman from head to toe, almost invariably black. Usually the face is uncovered, except in extreme cases where there is a veil or even worse, a metal faceplate. This is almost exclusively a Sunni-Wahabi innovation of recent times, whereas if you look at the modes of modest dress in other Islamic societies you see much more healthy interpretations, ranging from the two-piece colorful ridah garments worn by women in my own community, the Dawoodi Bohras, to fully-Westernized business attire (jacket, pants) topped with headdress or scarf. Many muslims living in America use a particular form of headscarf known as hijab, which is a shawl that drapes around the women's head and shoulders. It's a matter or ethnic and cultural variance as to how much hair is visible, or whether the shoulders are covered, or whether it's black or white or some other color. There is an incredible variety of which non-Muslim commentators are almost universally ignorant of - it's no exaggeration to say that the variety of Islamic female fashion easily matches if not exceeds the variety of fashion found in Western societies. In fact, since many Muslim comunities are Western, there is a healthy mixing between these two fashion universes, with many innovative and (dare I say it?) attractive innovations.

However, none of these fashionable garments are worth anything if they are imposed against the woman's will. However, apart from a few cases (worst offender being Saudi Arabia, homeland of Wahabism), modest dress is part of the culture and not a cruel imposition.

It's important to emphasise that the Qur'an places restrictions on womens' and men's dress (both). These restrictions are solely for modesty, whose importance as a virtue is comon to Judaism and Christianity. Attractiveness is NOT the same as sexiness. It is possible to be attractive and yet retain modesty, but sexiness is inherently immodest, because it promotes women as sex objects. Modesty is retaining your dignity - and maintaining your identity as a person, to be respected on the basis of your character. Webster's dictionary defines it as "humility respecting one's own merit." The concept of merit is intrinsic to the Islamic concept of modesty as well.

Many women choose burka freely, as well as lesser variations such as hijab or ridah. Even the most oppressive-seeming burka with metal faceplate and voluminous robes is actually a weapon in the hands of a woman when chosen willingly. My own wife wears ridah full-time, even to medical school, though I was initially against the idea. But I supported her in her desire to achieve her moodesty, and the result has been astonishing. But the benefits she derives from wearing ridah are a topic for some other time.

Contrast the Qur'anic prescription of modest dress with the tribal custom of imposing oppressive dress on women. It's not exaggeration to say that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity brought the first concepts of equality between genders to tribal peoples who at the time had decidedly primitive notions of gender roles. To take one self-aimed example, pre-Islamic customs of burying first-born daughters alive was stridently condemned by Muhammad SAW. Yet these practices still persist in modern times - for example in Nigeria, where a woman was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Also recently a woman was sentenced to be buried up to her neck in sand and again stoned, for having a child out of wedlock. And there is the case of the gang-rape of an innocent girl in Pakistan, and riots in India.

These kind of barbaric decisions are always made in remote villages by a band of grizzled elder men, who invariably call themselves an "Islamic court". The truth is that these are immoral primitive tribal customs, which are used by the tribal elders as a power play of enforcing their authority. They are wrapped in poorly-argued Islamic reasoning, often bundled with some selective out-of-context Qur'anic verse, so that no one dares argue. But this is not Islamic, it's purely a primitive cultural practice, with its sole aim as a power play of I-have-control-over-you.

These tribal impulses of control are the root cause of the Saudi burka, and the absurd punishments in Nigeria and Pakistan, and the concept of honor killings. They also, to a lesser degree, are the underlying philosophy behind the bikini, which is the real subject of this essay.

The bikini was invented in 1946 by an engineer in Paris, Louis Reard (here's a history link via Google). The historical record doesn't mention whether Reard was grizzled or an elder, but he was definitely male, and the bikini was a invention specifically designed to "stir the masses". What the bikini does is reduce the woman to a caricature of sexual desire - by revealing almost every part of her anatomy, it completes obliterates any trace of modesty (and hence, undermines her respect in her own merit).

It's true that some women wear bikinis because they have pride in their bodies and don't care (or need) what men think. But a larger fraction of women wearing them are doing so because they want to influence the response of men in some way. Jim Henley called this the "sexual power if women" but it is analogous to appeasement. Whatever power the woman has, is being bent to serve the desires of the other party (in this case, titillation of the male). One of the major flaws in Jim's argument is unstated but implicit assumption that the bikini is an expression of female power - but in fact, it's an abject surrender. Is it really true that women have to strip down to two strategic strips of cloth just to excercise their power?

The bikini and the burka are so far to the extremes that they meet again. They both serve to reduce women, from a person, to an object. In the case of the burka, that object is "slave". In the case of the bikini, that object is "sex". The burka is forced upon women, for fear of consequences, whereas women are induced to wear the bikini, out of desire for consequences. But in both cases those consequences are to please males.

The bikini and the burka can both be used by women as expressions of power and independence. The burka, or ridah, or hijab, can be a powerful weapon of modesty, if chosen freely (and in fact, it is in Western countries like America that Qur'anic modes of modesty in women's dress do finally take on the meaning they were intended to have, because of the freedom of choice. America is the greatest Islamic country on earth). Likewise, the woman wearing a bikini solely out of her personal pride in her appearance has turned the bikini into a weapon of self-expression.

That said, the bikini is not Islamic, because it is immodest. Whether you care about modesty or not of course is irrelevant to the issue of whethr you are being oppressed or not.

But in the West, many women wear bikinis to try and attract the attention of men. And in the East, many women are forced to wear burka, especially cruelly oppressive versions. In that case, both are wrong and immoral^[1], and this is why I claim that they are equally oppressive.

^[1] I am not saying that the woman wearing a bikini is immoral, though that opinion is shared by many, not just Muslims. We can leave that open to debate. But for the purposes of this essay, the manifestation of men's control over women, is what I am labeling immoral. I am careful to only use the word "immoral" in the context of forcing women to wear burka, or the power play which makes women want to wear a bikini to please men. The burka and bikini themselves are simply pieces of cloth, nothing more.

This is a very excellent discussion of the burka versus the bikini. I'm finally glad to see that a Muslim admits that Saudi Arabia's implementation of the burka is repressive. I've seen female Muslims on a PBS special about Muslims actually say they didn't know what all the fuss was about the burka. However, what Mr. Poonwalla misses is that in the West the bikini is not mandatory. A woman need not wear a bikini as swim wear. Otherwise I agree with Mr. Poonwalla, but the fact that woman chooses whether or not to wear a bikini, elevates the bikini over the burka, which is mandated in Saudi Arabia. If anything the burka, to me symbolizes, the marginalization of many Islamic women. Like a gag, the burka immediately puts the woman in a second class position, isolated from men as well as other women. I think that forcing the burka on Islamic women only shows how easily shackled Islamic women are. Western women (American women) would never let men tell them what to wear. That Islamic women have let male Immans tell them what to wear illustrates the submissiveness of Islamic women. What will Islamic women do with democracy, which requires the individual to form and opinion and vote? I. Webster/Boulder, Co.

Webster,

I am late to this but I think you are severely mistaken in your attempts to blame everyting on Islam. You may not be as insulting as the others but the point is the same.
The burka is traditional to SA, women in the 98% Muslim country that I hail from do not know/do such a thing. If they choose to make it mandatory, they may as a sovereign state. And you are entitled to your opinion regarding that practice, and the Saudis may consult you when they'll deem that such opinions are crucial to them.
Until you recognize that Muslims as a community is as diverse and the NY City population, your posts will only appear as willfully ignorant.
I doubt that you'd ever entertain nudists' claims to rights to walk around "buck-naked". According to them it is only "naturel" . Webster, another oppressed group in the US? I do not think so. But your moral relativism and your selective historucal and cultural perpective betrays the Islamophobe that you are.
Come clean, mon cher.

A very insightful article. But just let me add the perspective of a woman. I. Webster stated that the bikini is a matter of choice and that Western women are not shackled as Islamic women are and that we would never let men tell us what to wear. This is incorrect. The only difference between the shackles of Islamic women and Western women (of which I am one)is that many Islamic women may know they are shackled. Most Western women are not exercising intelligence enough to realize that they are shackled by the male idea of women as sex symbols. As the first writer mentioned, the bikini was not invented by a woman, but a man. Western women are slaves to fashion, and their whole self esteem is tied up to what men think of their bodies. I wonder how many Islamic women suffer from anorexia or other disorders relating to their opinion of their bodies.

The bikini is not an expression of freedom, but slavery. Slavery to the idea that my value as a woman is based on my outer appearance. Any woman who choses to wear a bikini, is not doing it just because she is proud of her body independent of what men think, for she is only proud of her body because she is convinced she has one that men think is attractive, so she is still a slave to such mentality. Women who dress this way are the most insecure, not the most proud or powerful. Their whole identity is based on what others think, not of them, but of their bodies. In my opnion the bikini wearer is worse off than the one who has the burka enforced upon her because, the latter is oppressed from without, but the former is oppressed from within, she has become in her own mind, a slave. And I will say that except for the first time a woman tries to wear a bikini in public, perhaps out of ignorance, she is immoral. After wearing it once, any moderatley intelligent woman cannot deny being aware of the affects it has, not only on the men she encounters, but on her own thoughts. She either retreats to modesty, or decides to make a pact with immodestly, and that is immoral.

- Posted by Martina on Oct 18, 03 | 12:04 pm

I think all of you are forgetting the conclusion of the article which is that the bikini and burka are just "pieces of cloth, nothing more." The very fact that people judge outer appearance, and use it to defines a person's supposed character/personality is extremely shallow. I am Muslim btw.
One of the reasons why society is so corrupt today is because unnecessary labels are always being placed on people. I don't exactly follow any guidelines when it comes to fashion but I couldn't care less what men think, if I am "proud" of my body then it would only be because it is unique and my own rather than something that has been pre-approved by a bunch of men. Its not as though most mens bodies are perfect! Human nature is such that people are never satisfied, whether its wearing the burka, bikini or moderate dress, there will still be talk. What do i think? WHO CARES? Its whats inside that counts, because i honestly never judge a person by what they are wearing, but rather what their characters is like. As for the bikini being a sex object? Maybe so, but its just a part of many different changes in fashion throughout the ages, i mean, belly dancers outfits are quite similar to a bikini. Anyway, that's besides the point, I'll bet anything it was just coincidence that a man invented it, cuz a lot of women are responsible for equally revealing attires, such as the mini-skirt, the tube top etc etc.
In all the comments, not one has mentioned mens clothing as being an issue; it seems that no one cares that guys can walk around half-naked and not get criticised for that when in fact, that could just as distracting to a women and bikini may be to some men.
Basically, look beyond what the eyes can see, Islam teaches not to be shallow and materialistic by judging anothers outter appearance, instead the focus should be on improving ones own personality and appreciating any truly good people, which is a blessing. We should respect every good human being that comes our way, regardless of his/her dress sense.
Peace,
Samira
p.s. I name a number of women i know, who definately do not wear the bikini to attract men.

Although we shouldn't make character judgements based on someone's appearance, be it the color of hair, skin, eyes, shape of body, etc. the fact is that it is human nature to make judgements about what we see. Our brains are wired to do so. And as humans every CHOICE we make does reflect who we are as people and reflects on our character. That is not shallow, but simply true. Many people make subconcious decisions that have implications they never think about. I believe the purpose of such articles as the one above is to raise one's consciousness about clothing and the impact it has on people. To deny that impact is simply sticking one's head in the sand. A mature woman, makes decisions based on healthy attitudes and a good thought life about herself and others. She does not need others dictate to her in regards to clothing. On the other hand, she also uses her intelligence and social awareness to make choices that don't contribute to the moral breakdown of society. It is a fine balance, and it is an indication of maturity when a person reaches the point where they don't dwell on the outer material things, yet at the same time, can make decisions about such things that show a sensitivity to appropriateness.

I agree that the bikini is just a lame excuse of people that pretend that a women require to expose her body to such an extent, just for swimming. Men on the beaches generally wear bermuda shorts, which are definitly more covering, and can swim as well.
I also agree that women in saudi arabia and some other places, is living under pressure. We know that human being interact with other people by expressing their feelings (happiness, unger, satisfaction...) via their faces. Therefore, covering the a women face is like preventing his existence and participation in the public places. And this has nothing to do with Islam.
So, to my mind, bikini and burka are just phenomenons that results from the manner in which these societies look to women. Whereas, modesty and respect are essential things, that are a part of Islam.
I also think that "the clothes should depend on the place". It's definitely more shocking to see a woman in bikini shopping down the street than swimming in a pool.
But if we criticize the bulka and the bikini, what are the moderate clothes for the woman? Hijabs, jeans or shorts skirts? Is there a strict limit for exposion of women's body parts? A lot of people say that the Hijab is the legal attire for the muslim women. but wait a moment, then, just imagine a women in hijab playing tennis or basketball. I think this is impossible because the hijab sensitively limitates the movements of the body. Further more, the majority of women that wear Hijab do not practice any sport during their life, which is a shame.
In the other hand, some muslim people say that there is no strict limit for exposion of parts of woman's body, and that we should only apply the rule "the clothes depend on the place". But can this rule be sufficient, when we should keep in mind that western fashion is creating more and more short and tight clothes, and that the beauty and appearance of woman is naturally important for her, as mush as power is naturally important for man, and so women might wear more and more shorter and tighter things.
But the more sensitive problem is about women's clothes when doing her prayer (salat) or going to the mosque. Nowadays, clothes that exposes more than women's faces, hands and feet, are forbidden in the mosques. Is this really a religional limit or just a cultural limit?
In this post, I am not giving solutions, but I am rather presenting the opinions of people and the problems that they may face.