Armour of Eve

“She gets bruised as soon as she takes off her Armour”

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A woman gets trapped in the matrix when she exposes her beauty—the matrix of beauty standards. The standards dictate her weight, skin tone, how her hair should look, her forehead, chin, eyebrows, eyelashes, neck, feet, cheeks, and nails…. The list never ends. This trap dictates women throughout their lives. They are never satisfied with their appearance, which results in distress and self-image problems.

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Always in the race to appear the most beautiful. This results in constant comparison with other women, another reason for distress and self-image problems. The more body parts a woman exposes, the more conscious she gets of them and slowly drowns herself in self-image related problems.

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You would probably wonder what is wrong with comparing oneself with others. Isn’t that a usual thing? Well, the pit is bottomless and dark. Increased self-image issues lead to different psychological disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge eating disorder, and Body dysmorphic disorder. If we continue on the track of "Wear whatever you want" I don’t see happy women in the future.

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Exploitation of women

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“Mirror, Mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all”?

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Snow white’s mother had this compulsion to ask the magic mirror how she used to look daily. Note some interesting points in this case:

1. She sees the mirror daily as a compulsion

2. The mirror here isn’t a regular one that shows her reflection. It compliments her.

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A classic insatiable feminine desire is to look good and get praised. These control and exploit women if not tamed by oneself. In today’s world, almost every girl/woman has this magic mirror in which she looks daily and gets compliments. It’s called Snapchat and designed to address the classic feminine desire to look beautiful and get compliments. It’s not limited to Snapchat; other social media platforms use the same algorithm to exploit women.

On the other hand, another disaster awaits women. This push of unrealistic beauty standards ends them in the dark alley of different cosmetic treatments. Starting from Botox to plastic surgeries. There is no end.

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At this point, I have made it clear that things like “Dress the way you want” and “Independence” are not as liberating as they seem. These all are traps of cosmetic industries, social media platforms, and socio-political movements to enslave women.

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The Armour

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“And tell the believing women to lower their eyes and they better guard their private parts and better not expose their beauty except what’s obvious of it and they should strike upon themselves their shawls over their chest cavity and not expose their adornment except their husbands, their fathers, husband’s father, their sons, their husband’s sons, their brothers, their brother’s sons, their sister’s sons their women that which their right hand possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And they shouldn’t strike their feet so they may expose what needs to be hidden and repent to Allah all of you believers so that you will be successful” (Surah Nur)

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The most effective intervention for these unrealistic beauty standards and insatiable desires is; Hijab. It helps women channel their need for recognition, reduce comparison, and focus on the ultimate purpose of living life according to the command of Allah. It shields against the outside forces that control the female body. Not only this, it is also an impactful tool against psychological disorders. Hijab shifts women from enslavement to society to enslavement?of?Allah.

No doubt women find it hard to take hijab because 1) carrying extra clothing is difficult initially and 2) You do not get admired for looks. If you want big muscles, you have to lift heavy weights. This short-term pain protects from a never-ending agony. It is a medicine that may not taste sweet but has great Psychological and social benefits. The hijab should not be seen as a burden but rather as a gift of Allah that satisfies oneself in this life and has enormous compensation in the afterlife.

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“Surely in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find comfort” (Surah Raad)

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