Graphic by Moonie Sohn, adapted from graphic by Dorothy Lam/The Gazelle

The hijab is not a choice for millions of women across the Islamic world, and this is a reality too many choose to overlook. In our attempts to be politically correct, we laud women for adorning the hijab. We insist that the hijab is a choice, that they have chosen to wear it and have not been forced by societal pressure or by laws. In doing so, we forget the many women in the Islamic world who were never given this choice in the first place.

I will not go into a debate over the place or role of the hijab in Islam. That is a debate for another article. People more knowledgeable than me have debated this for far too long for me to give a worthy opinion. However, people have not pondered the implication of nodding along with those who wrongly insist that the hijab is a choice for everyone. Sure, the hijab may be a choice for those living in more liberal, individualist societies, for those who have been brought up by less-than-conservative parents. This is the reality of a specific middle class that is more vocal, more prominent, more powerful and has used this power to hijack the debate. But this is not the reality of most Muslims in this world, dare I lump them into one group.

Let’s face it: Those who come from non-Muslim cultures know the Islamic world through the Internet or through their Muslim friends. Both sources of information aren’t truly reliable because, and I say this unapologetically, both seem to have an agenda. Liberal, middle-class Muslims seek to promote the hijab as a choice, a symbol of modesty and purity, while detractors of Islam are quick to jump on the anti-Islamic bandwagon, making the hijab another symbol of how morally backward Islam seems to be as a religion. Both sides have a rather blunt approach to the issue. It is one which quickly detracts from the idea that the hijab might encompass a social issue rather than a religious one, that it might be one of the tools keeping control in the hands of powerful men. I am not commenting on the hijab itself — just how it is used. As I said, that is a debate for another time.

I find the general lack of research on the hijab’s social impact infuriating. Regardless, the information that we have does provide an important look into how Islamic societies perceive the hijab. In a survey conducted by University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research on how people in Muslim countries prefer women to dress in public, over 60% of Saudi respondents said that appropriate dressing would mean a women essentially covering her whole body, even her face, but not her eyes. Of course, that’s Saudi Arabia, where the hijab is mandatory by law. Nevertheless, the general consensus in the survey was this: the majorities in most major Muslim countries agree that a woman should cover her hair.

But the more interesting part of the survey asks participants to comment on whether women should be able to choose their own clothing. Of the survey’s respondents, only 14 percent in Egypt, 22 percent in Pakistan, 27 percent in Iraq agreed that a woman should be able to choose her own clothing. Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia were divided over the issue. The fact is that social pressure and conservative attitudes towards clothing make it very, very difficult for a woman to adopt the hijab as a choice. A choice involves having different options and the freedom to select one or more of them. This is not the case in most Muslim countries.

So here’s my plea: next time you celebrate World Hijab Day, do it in the spirit of those women who do not have the freedom to don a hijab, who are under constant pressure from society to wear it and are criticized and humiliated when they chose to exercise their freedom to wear what they want. I do not dismiss the backlash faced by those hijabis who chose to wear it, but we need to realize that they are part of the minority who had a choice in the first place.