Zahra Shafei, cultural researcher
The West’s enmity toward hijab is a confrontation deeper than a mere disagreement over clothing. The hijab of the Muslim woman, symbolizing a religious duty, faith, and dignity, is portrayed by the West as a sign of oppression and a restriction on freedom. The West’s efforts to change the way Muslim women dress stem from colonial policies and schemes aimed at globalizing Western values. This confrontation consists of two entirely opposing fronts: one is based on the West’s colonial model, which defines women as commodities for consumerism and sexual objectification; the other is the authentic Islamic model, which upholds the dignity and social role of Muslim women within the moral framework.
Imposing the Western woman model as the ‘global standard’
From a long time ago to the present, the West has sought to impose the European-American woman as the only acceptable model of a civilized woman on other societies. Regardless of the slogans of “freedom and equality,” this model, in reality, serves women to serve the capitalist system and is rooted in the archetypes of Roman and Greek civilizations, which had reduced women—devoid of human rights—to mere objects of men’s pleasure. Today, this view is repeated under a modern disguise: the “liberated” Western woman is, in fact, enslaved by fashion, extreme consumerism, and sexual attractions that must be publicly displayed.
In contrast, Western colonial policies and the propaganda surrounding them depict non-Western Muslim women as needing to be rescued and granted human rights. In past colonial eras, such hollow and false slogans were used to justify the “civilizing missions” of colonial powers. In Algeria, French occupation forces, by degrading local culture, portrayed the hijab as a symbol of backwardness and humiliation of women, while presenting its removal as an act of empowerment for Muslim women. Today, in France, under the guise of laïcité (secularism), the government controls Muslim women’s dress while turning a blind eye to the objectification of women in advertisements and entertainment. In the latest example of this, the French Senate passed a bill banning the hijab in sports competitions in February 2025, one year after prohibiting wearing Abbaya by girls in schools. French politicians, from the Interior Minister to certain members of parliament, have vocally advocated for the “ban of the hijab in the streets of France,” with some expressing sentiments like “death to the hijab” in their speeches. The message is clear: “Your religion and identity are incompatible with being French.”
Colonial Britain, much like France, saw itself as duty-bound to fight against the hijab. Lord Cromer, who once served as Britain’s consul-general in Egypt, elaborated on Western views toward Egypt and the hijab in his 1908 book, Modern Egypt. In one part of the book, he wrote: “Islam is a religion that humiliates women before men who are free to dress as they please and does not allow them the same freedom of dress.” In addition, Cromer made Britain’s withdrawal from Egypt conditional on women’s liberation—that is, the removal of the hijab. The British have always supported the removal of women’s hijab
After World War II, the colonial British empire, no longer able to continue its “civilizing mission,” passed the torch on to the United States, which, during its occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, used its official platforms to justify war and invasion in the name of women’s freedom. George W. Bush himself, in a speech referring to the entry of American forces into Afghanistan, said: “Today, the women of Afghanistan have gained their freedom.”
The West’s battle against the hijab is not limited to restrictive laws or repressive policies; global media serve as the invisible weapon in this war. Hollywood, social networks like Instagram, and even video games have become arenas for imposing Western beauty standards and lifestyle norms. In these media, the hijabi Muslim woman is either erased entirely or reduced to a stereotypical image of an oppressed, backward individual in need of “rescue.” In films, hijab-wearing female characters either appear as victims of domestic violence or are depicted as symbols of extremism. These portrayals are no coincidence; they are part of a larger project to erode Islamic identity and instill a sense of inferiority among the younger generation of Muslims. These media outlets have even waged war on traditional and religious identity, even in conservative Christian societies—such as certain regions of Latin America—by promoting nudity and sexual promiscuity.
And thus, under the claim of “saving women from patriarchy,” a process of cultural colonization emerges: freedom and empowerment achieved through submission to sexual promiscuity, Western beauty standards, and extreme consumerism.
Legacy of the Western model: Destruction of family, violence and corruption
The free Western woman—career-focused, sexually unrestrained, and independent—is presented as the pinnacle of social progress. Yet the devastation left behind by this model tells a much darker and bitter truth: the collapse of the family, the degradation of women’s dignity, the rising number of illegitimate children, and countless other social problems.
The nuclear family—once the cornerstone of Western society—is disintegrating. In the United States, 40% of children are born to single mothers, and the divorce rate is nearly 50%. In France, 55% of marriages end in divorce, and 60% of children are born out of wedlock. Another consequence of the false myth of “sexual freedom” has been the widespread sexual commodification and objectification of women in all aspects of their social and personal lives, reducing them to mere pawns for corporate profit and prey for sexual exploitation by men.
These crises, themselves the products of deceptive slogans like “freedom” and “equality,” show that the Western model is not a solution to women’s issues but rather a force that contributes to the reproduction of oppression and abuse. In this system, the woman is “free” to buy luxury brands, yet she is enslaved to unreal beauty standards. She has the right to engage in sexual relationships without commitment, but when it comes to supporting single mothers and children without identity, Western society offers no response.
The confrontation between imperialist model and Islamic culture
Why does the West, which claims to defend human rights, support the dictatorial regime of Saudi Arabia while imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic over the hijab? Is Western “democracy,” which bans the Islamic hijab in schools, truly a defender of freedom?
The truth is that the West’s enmity toward the hijab has never been about women’s freedom—it is about eliminating the symbol of resistance against Western cultural hegemony. The war on hijab is a matter of power-seeking and cultural imperialism. The hijab is the banner of the fight against an arrogance that wants to integrate all nations into its value system. The hijab serves as both a religious obligation and a political movement—an embodiment of faith, conviction, and resistance against cultural genocide.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, by upholding the hijab as part of its Islamic-Iranian identity, has proven that it is possible to resist the onslaught of colonialists against national and religious values and to present an alternative model based on human morality and dignity. As the Leader of the Revolution stated in a speech in 1991, true Islamic environments, with the Islamic Republic at the forefront, have rendered the colonialists’ efforts to impose their cultural model unsuccessful.
The West does not want Muslim women to have their own independent model—one that simultaneously values knowledge, growth in society, family, and ethics, and that equips them with an unbreakable shield—the hijab—in the battle of identities. The continuous and relentless targeting of Iranian society through propaganda as well as overt and covert conspiracies stems from the imperialist powers’ feeling of being threatened. A society like Iran, with a 3,000-year-old civilizational identity and a school of thought that upholds figures like Zainab al-Kubra (peace be upon her) as symbols of resistance, resists a model that reduces women to objects of consumption and exploitation, proving that Western cultural hegemony is not invincible.