It is a well-known fact that plants produce oxygen. Hence, without plants, there would be no oxygen. However, what people sometimes forget is that the opposite is equally true. In other words, without oxygen, there would be no plants, as plants also require oxygen for respiration and survival.
This relationship between plants and oxygen is similar to the relationship between imaan and hayaa. Hence, in one hadeeth, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) mentioned, “Hayaa and imaan have been joined together. When one leaves, the other follows.” (Mustadrak Haakim #58)
It is for this reason that in order to destroy the imaan of the Muslims, the enemies of Islam deliberately and aggressively target their hayaa and actively work at eroding their sense of shame, eradicating their modesty and stripping them of their respect.
During the period when France was ruling over Algeria, the French colonisers faced continuous resistance from the Muslims of Algeria who were fighting to escape the oppressive clutches of the tyrannical French. Eventually, the French realized that on account of their imaan and Deen, the men would never surrender or submit to their rule. Hence, the French hatched a sinister plot to ‘attack’ the imaan of the men – and this was by trying to influence and brainwash their women.
The French understood that if the woman, who is the pillar of the home, wished to abandon Deen and embrace the culture, lifestyle and values of the French, then it would only be a matter of time before her husband would succumb and begin to compromise in Deen.
However, the French faced one major hurdle and obstacle – the Muslim women, on account of hayaa, were kept safe behind closed doors and could not be reached or easily accessed. Hence, the French realized that the only solution was for them to strip the Muslim women of their hayaa and shame.
Present in Algeria at that time was a non-Muslim named Franz Fanon. He participated in the resistance against the French, and also wrote extensively against the evil and oppression of colonialism. Among his articles is an article entitled “Algeria Unveiled”, in which he notes his observations and analysis of the French tactics employed against the Muslims in an effort to strip the women of their hijaab and hayaa.
He says that the political doctrine of the French colonial administration was: “If we want to destroy the structure of Algerian society, its capacity for resistance, we must first of all conquer the women; we must go and find them behind the veil where they hide themselves and, in the houses where the men keep them out of sight.”
At that time, there was high level of hayaa prevalent among the Muslims of Algeria. Describing this hayaa, and the frustration of the French who could not gain access to the Muslim women, Franz Fanon says: “It is altogether commonplace to hear a European confess acidly that he has never seen the wife of an Algerian he has known for twenty years.”
Thereafter followed a concerted campaign to get the Muslim women of Algeria to remove their purdahs/niqaabs. Franz Fanon mentions that the French launched a mission to spread the evil and false ideology that by being in the home and by remaining behind the veil, the Muslim woman is ‘oppressed’.
However, in order to reach and access these Muslim women, who were safe from such evil influences so long as they remained in their homes, a plan was made to lure and draw them out. Hence, under the guise of charitable causes and social welfare work, food such as semolina would be distributed among poor Muslim women, and as soon as they would come forward, clad in the purdah, the French women would criticize them for wearing the purdah and try to indoctrinate them with the idea that so long as they wear the purdah, they are oppressed and cannot progress.
Even the wealthy French businessmen, who employed countless Algerian Muslim employees, participated in this evil plot. Franz Fanon describes how the boss would call his male Muslim staff and personally invite them for a work function, stressing and insisting that they bring their wives along with them. The boss would say to them, “The firm, being one big family, it would be unseemly for some to come without their wives, you understand?” In this manner, the worker was placed in a difficult situation. On the one hand, he did not want to take his wife out of the home, thus compromising his Deen, and on the other hand, he did not want to displease his boss lest he lose his job. (Decolonization – Algeria Unveiled pgs. 44 – 46)
Another strategy employed (between 1950’s and 1960’s) was that the French displayed posters all over which said, “N’êtes-vous donc pas jolie? Dévoilez-vous!” This meant, “Are you not pretty? Unveil yourself!” This was a subtle attempt to demoralize the Muslim women and psychologically attack them by insinuating that the only reason why they wore the veil was that they were unattractive and wished to conceal their ugliness. If they had nothing repulsive to hide, then they should unveil themselves. (http://tinyurl.com/ysjaysty)
At the final stage of their plot (around 1957-1958), the French began to stage mass unveilings in which women were paid or were forced and compelled to publicly make a spectacle of removing their hijaabs and embracing their newfound freedom. (http://tinyurl.com/5n6mj7ap)
Franz Fanon mentions that though there were one or two isolated cases where a Muslim woman was successfully brainwashed into removing the veil, the greater effect of this persecution was that the women at that time became even firmer and stauncher in their hijaab, as this was now the mode of action required to directly resist the oppressor and protect their imaan.
Nevertheless, from the above, we understand that the Muslim Ummah will remain strong so long as their imaan is strong, and their imaan will only remain strong so long as their hayaa remains strong. So long as there is imaan and hayaa in the Ummah, the homes and families will remain firm and steadfast, and their Deen and Jannah will remain safeguarded. Therefore, we must make an effort to maintain our Islamic identity and hold on firmly to hayaa in every department of our lives.
May Allah Ta‘ala bless us with perfect imaan and perfect hayaa, aameen.