Time to change religion?

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Religious customs fascinate me, and especially the way humans invent these customs and then come up with all sorts of ingenious ways to circumvent them. One example that comes to mind is the edict that women should cover their hair. Whether a woman’s hair incites lust in a man is a matter I have never actually been able to confirm, and if it is indeed the case then why the women should be the ones to have to mitigate this problem and not the men is a whole other question, but anyway… The idea of covering the hair appears in Christian teachings (especially St Paul) as well Jewish and Muslim traditions. Of course they are all related anyway, but they are interpreted in different ways. And the practice of covering the hair has existed for centuries, such as in ancient Greek and Roman traditions. Until quite recently, Christian women generally wore a hat or headscarf when they went out. And in church, women always wore hats while men were supposed to remove theirs. Of course any woman going to church in her ‘Sunday best’ would have a nice hat, most women had a whole array of lovely hats. But over the past several decades this practice has fallen away, at least in this country, and now any woman going out in a fancy hat would be looked at askance unless she was going to a wedding or Royal Ascot. In contrast, the practice of covering the hair has become much more widespread among Muslim women, even though it is not mandated in the Qur’an which only stipulates that men and women should dress and behave modestly. Wearing the hijab, which was previously a custom only among certain societies, has now come to be seen as necessary by any Muslim woman in order to be perceived as ‘a good Muslim’. In this country, which has a growing Muslim population, the hijab is practically obligatory especially among young women. Of course they often team up the hijab with all sorts of sexy clothes, stunning make-up and gorgeous jewellery. Meanwhile certain branches of Judaism also mandate head-coverings for women, but they allow not only headscarves but also wigs. Among Orthodox Jews, married women cover their hair with wigs, often made from human hair and available in all sorts of lovely colours and styles. Only they can tell that their hair isn’t really ‘theirs’. They don’t have to bother spending hours at the hairdresser’s, if they want a different style they can just use a different wig, and look great! So when I look at other middle-aged women with thinning hair, going grey, or with their hair-dye badly needing a touch-up, I can’t help but think that they look bad in comparison to their Jewish or Muslim compatriots. We would all look better, and probably more alluring, with a pretty headscarf or a gorgeous wig! And of course we’d also be warmer in winter and better protected from the sun in summer. Maybe it’s time to adopt a different tradition! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.