Hijab - outward practice/spiritual meaning?

[Ms. Toad]

I am attending what is billed as a community event at the local Islamic Center tonight. Out of respect, I asked whether it was expected (or would be appreciated) for non-Islamic women to wear headscarves, and the response was that it would be appreciated.

So - I spent part of last night watching videos for how to wear a hijab. It struck me that the hijab may have some similarities with plain dress and plain speech (Quaker practices, at one time), and it got me wondering.

For background, in the early days Friends wore plain dress (similar to what many Amish wear currently, on the non-colorful end of the scale of Amish dress), and used plain speech ("Thee" and "thou" instead of "you&quot . The reasoning was twofold - simplicity and avoidance of class distinctions. Over time, the dress and speech created its own kind of class distinction - setting us apart (one might say elevating ourselves) from the world by our speech and dress. Because plain dress and speech had become (for many of us) inconsistent with spiritual integrity, the practices were dropped by all but a very few Friends. (There is at least one group in rural Ohio which still uses plain speech, and a few families I am aware of who wear plain dress.) Simplicity is still one of our basic beliefs, but it is no longer interpreted to require a specific type of dress or speech.

As I understand it, the hijab is worn as part of the spiritual discipline of dressing modestly. It may be my own personal lens, but modesty to me has at least components of avoiding displays of sexuality and generally, of not being ostentatious. Many of the videos I watched last night included quite glamorous hijabs - multiple layers of luxurious fabric, broaches, sequins, and far more variations of wrapping than I would have imagined.

Is there any exploration of how the "trendy" hijab (as many of the videos were captioned) fit with the spiritual discipline of dressing modestly?

I'm not passing any judgment. The similarity with Quaker plain dress and speech struck me last night and made me curious. In at least some Muslim sects there seems to be a fair amount of flexibility in interpreting the Qur'an, rather than reading it literally - which is how Quakers traditionally read the bible - as a living text which is informed by our ongoing personal and corporate relationship with God (historically, at least, through Christ) - which is what led me down this particular thought train. Similar practices, and a similar approach to reading the holy books of our faith.