Hijab

Audio transcript:

>>STEVE ST. GEORGE: Hello. I'm Steve St. George. And this is your crash course in Islam. Today we examine hijab. For many people when they think of Muslim dress they think of the headscarf or hijab as it's come to be known. There is some debate in the Muslim world over whether or not the headscarf is required of women. But what is required by the Quran is that both men and women dress modestly, that they not draw unwanted attention to themselves and that they set themselves apart from others in the way they dress. For women that has often come down to the headscarf. But that's only the most visible manifestation of this requirement to dress modestly. The term hijab is meant to refer simply to the way a woman dresses. Of course standards of modesty vary from culture to culture. So there is some debate over what women must do. And there are some countries where women must cover all of their bodies in long cloak like garments. In other places women must only cover their heads although even that requirement isn't given in all places. Men too must dress modestly although again what that means is often defined culturally. The one standard of sorts being that men should cover themselves from navel to knees which has sometimes caused problems for men who play sports such as soccer.

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