Was the ḥijāb (the veil required under Islamic law) enjoined to discriminate between free women and slave women?

Some critics of Islam argue that the ḥijāb has nothing to do with modesty, claiming that Islam prohibited slave women from observing it. According to them, the practice of ḥijāb was intended primarily to discriminate between free and slave women. They support this view by citing a report in which ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb allegedly reproached a slave woman whose dress resembled that of free women, exclaiming, “Do not imitate free women!”¹ They invoke this incident to suggest that sartorial practices in Islamic law—particularly rules regarding women’s dress, namely the ḥijāb—were primarily concerned with social status distinction. Some of these critics even go so far as to claim that the rationale behind the obligation of veiling has disappeared since slavery no longer exists. This claim, however, is unfounded. First, the authenticity of the report attributed to ʿUmar in which he allegedly punished a slave woman for dressing like free women is questionable. Most variants of this report are marāsīl (sing. mursal)—that is, reports with noticeable gaps in their chains of transmission. Moreover, even if the report were authentic, it does not establish anything about the limits of a slave woman’s ʿawrah (the parts of the body that must be covered under Islamic law). Ibn al-Qaṭṭān commented on this report, stating: “This is its text, and it is not authentic. It contains nothing more than his (ʿUmar’s) condemnation of her for wearing attire [intended] to make others assume she was a free woman.”² In other words, this report describes an incident in which ʿUmar reprimanded a woman for disguising her social status (i.e., dressing in a way that made others believe she was a free woman rather than a slave) and not because of her modesty (i.e., the fact that she was veiled). Contrary to the claim of Islam’s critics, Qurʾān 33:59 makes it clear that all believing women—free women and slave women alike—must observe Islamic standards of modest dress, which, according to the majority of scholars, require covering the entire body except for what is apparent: the face and hands.³ Abū Ḥayyān commented on this verse, writing:⁴

Likewise, Ibn al-Qaṭṭān argued at length that this verse makes no distinction between free women and slave women, concluding:⁵

Ibn al-Qaṭṭān also asserted that the Qurʾānic command in 24:31⁶—that women should not reveal their adornments except what is normally apparent thereof—applies to slave women no less than to free women.⁷ Hence, given the generality of the Qurʾānic verses and ḥadīths (Prophetic traditions) commanding chastity and modesty for all believers, many scholars maintain that the ʿawrah (the parts of the body that must be covered under Islamic law) of slave women is the same as that of free women. Ibn Ḥazm wrote:⁸

Ibn Taymiyyah wrote: “The default ruling is that the ʿawrah of a maidservant is like that of a free woman, just as the ʿawrah of a male servant is like that of a free man…”⁹ Al-ʾAlbānī documented the weakness of several narrations that attribute this interpretation (i.e., excluding slave women from the generality of “the believing women”) to the veiling verse (33:59), concluding:¹⁰

Hence, the phrase “the believing women” in the Qurʾānic verse on veiling refers to both free and slave women. That is, the ḥijāb (veil) is obligatory for every Muslim woman who is bāliġah (one who has reached puberty) and mukallafah (fully accountable under Islamic law). Indeed, the matter of ḥijāb has been decisively established by the Qurʾān and the Sunnah. In addition to the Qurʾānic commandment to veil found in the aforementioned verses (33:59 and 24:31), it is reported that the Prophet (PBUH) once said to Asmāʾ, the daughter of Abū Bakr [may Allāh be pleased with them], that once a girl reaches puberty, nothing of her body should be seen by men who are not her maḥrams (those men whom she is permanently forbidden to marry) except for the face and hands.¹¹ Hence, the consensus of Muslim scholars throughout Islamic history is that ḥijāb is a clear and unequivocal commandment from Allāh, and the view that “the believing women” refers only to free women, excluding slave women, contradicts the plain meaning of the veiling verse (Qurʾān 33:59). Ibn Ḥazm exclaimed:¹²

Indeed, al-ʾAlbānī advanced a sophisticated argument that both free and slave Muslim women are subject to the same norms of modesty.¹³ Likewise, when asked whether it is reprehensible for slave women to observe the ḥijāb in public, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal replied: “the beautiful slave woman should, in fact, wear [even] niqāb (face veil), and this is the ruling for the free woman without distinction.”¹⁴ As for ʿUmar’s instruction that slave women should not imitate free women in their dress, it pertained to uncovering the face, not the head.¹⁵ That is, the full ḥijāb—which includes the face veil—is generally required only for free women, and slave women should not imitate free women by wearing it; ʿUmar therefore forbade them from doing so. Naturally, this applies when there is no risk of fitnah (temptation due to exceptional beauty). However, if fitnah is possible, they must take whatever measures are necessary to prevent it, including covering their faces.

One might ask: what is the practical rationale behind the command for slave women to uncover their faces? Before answering, it should be noted that it is impermissible to look at slave women except in the same manner that is permitted for free women, since men are forbidden from gazing lustfully at any woman to whom they are not lawfully married. Ibn al-Munḏir [may Allāh have mercy on him] stated: “It is forbidden to look at her [the slave woman] if she is beautiful.”¹⁶ As for ʿUmar’s command that slave women should not imitate free women in their dress, this was because, as noted earlier in the discussion of slavery, these slave women had fought on the enemy’s side against the Muslims and were captured as prisoners of war. That is, they had been willing to kill Muslims. How, then, could they imitate free Muslim women? In addition, ʿUmar instructed the slave women to uncover their faces so that they could be distinguished from the free women of Muslim households, for if the slave women were to cover their faces like the free women, their misdeeds—particularly given that their faith might still have been fragile as recent reverts—could have been wrongly attributed to the latter.

In sum, the claim made by some contemporaries—that the Qurʾān permitted only free Muslim women to observe ḥijāb as a mark of respect and honour, distinguishing them from slave women, and that ḥijāb is now obsolete because it was based on a free/slave distinction that no longer exists—finds no support in the Qurʾān, the Sunnah, or the historical practice of the early generations of Muslims, including the Companions. In a word, ḥijāb is not a religious marker intended merely to discriminate between free and slave women, but rather a dress code ordained by Allāh for all Muslim women.