Tudung: Beyond Face Value

Tudung (Hijab); Beyond Face Value
By Salinah Aliman
Bridges Books, 100 pages

I read once about the guy around the block, a term coined for a man encountered by a woman more than once in her life as a partner during a separate time in a different life.

As such, this book is therefore the book around the block for me.

The thought-provoking title of the book had caught my attention while I was in Dar-ul-Kutub (The House of Books), the university bookstore when I was a freshman. I had bought and read it with a sense of pride and entitlement of a lifelong hijabi. I hadn’t read it with the intention to learn, but simply to affirm and decidedly prove what I had already believed in.

Simply put, the book was taken for granted. Now the book sits silently, its spine fought itself to surface amongst other books covered in dust.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a gift from my blogger friend. As the gift arrived while I was in a rush to leave for official matters in Kuala Lumpur, I took the package with me partly hoping to open it somewhere on the road, only to bring it home yet untouched.

I opened the parcel excitedly the following morning, as the book cover made its way through the torned package, I felt my breath hung in the air. Ever wonder how it feels like to meet the ex-boyfriend on the street, only to fall in love again as if for the first time? Oh, you know the drill.

The coffee table book was published in Singapore, it features a calm and thoughtful reading on the issues centering tudung and those who dons it. A collection of articles presented are adorned with articulate and meaningful photography, and written by authors ranging from knowledgeable Imaam and religious scholars, to freelance writers and filmmakers, to women of different professions; doctors, software engineers, and proud mothers.

In the book, tudung is aptly introduced in the first chapter in relation to its status in Islam and how it is significant spiritually and socially. The inter-dependent relationship between faith and modesty was explained, hence putting hijab as one of the important benchmarks in Muslim women’s life.

Reading Tudung:Beyond Face Value again allows me to finally relate to and understand the experiences of being a tudung-clad woman as portrayed in the articles. Despite being a religious conduct, donning hijab in Malaysia (as in Singapore and other multiracial countries) can be a cultural practice, which is not at all wrong for it helps with nurturing the practice. But in the end, embracing the spiritual meaning tudung entails to its wearer is undoubtedly a personal choice and responsibility.

I particularly love the articles in the final chapters where female writers themselves conclude tudung is but another article of clothing taken out of deliberate choice. A woman’s true value and beauty is to be seen beyond her outward appearance. Ironic as it may seem, but it actually applies to every woman out there of all races and religions.

While a Muslim woman is not to be judged as being oppressed when she put her hijab on, she herself is ever more encouraged to look beyond religious and cultural differences to bridge mutual respect and compassion to everyone in the society.

Tudung:Beyond Face Value is a great source of reflection for everyone from all walks of life, its contents are especially befitting to a multiracial and diverse country like Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In fact, the term unity in diversity is portrayed accurately enough in the book where I think we Malaysian lots have a lot to learn from.