Recent study by Dr. Viren Swami and his colleagues at University of Westminster showed that hijab is linked to less negative body image among Muslim woman.
Hijab refers to clothing such as the veil and the headscarf that Muslim women wear as a symbol of modesty.
Most of the western men and women think about Muslim woman as being oppressed or having no choice on wearing or leaving hijab (a head and body cover most Muslim woman wear).
Psychologists used a wide range of body image measures found that British Muslim woman who wear hijab have a more positive body image while giving less attention to beauty ideals and advertisements. They give less importance to their appearance whilst saving time for other more important things.
They interviewed 587 British Muslim women, who were questioned about their preferences about wearing hijab, conservativeness towards hijab, importance of appearance, attitude towards beauty ideals, body image variables and religiosity.
Preliminary results showed that, out of 587 women, 218 never wore a hijab and 369 wore one or the other king of hijab frequently.
As for as religiosity is concerned, women who wore the hijab had more positive body image, lesser internalization about beauty standards, gave less importance to appearance than women who did not wear the hijab.
Among women who wore the hijab, hijab use significantly predicted weight disparity and body gratitude over and above religiosity.
"While we shouldn't assume that wearing the hijab immunizes Muslim women from negative body image, our results do suggest that wearing the hijab may help some women reject prescriptive beauty ideals," says Dr. Viren Swami.
Source: Science 2.0
