The word derives from the Arabic root hjb and means “to veil, to seclude, to conceal, to form a separation, to mask.” The word can be applied to a veil on one’s person, to a curtain or to a partition in a room. It can apply to amulets that children wear to ward off harm or the evil eye. The word can mean “screen” in various senses: as a synonym for “eyebrow” (screening the sun), or as an individual screener. In early Islam, the hajib was the man who “screened” people seeking an audience with the caliph.
The Quran refers to the hijab repeatedly, but never as an article of women’s clothing. Rather, it refers to the hijab as “seclusion,” and does so particularly in reference to the Prophet Muhammad’s wives, who were to be secluded—as a sign of their social exclusivity.
Just as the word has many derivatives whose meanings multiply its application, the notion of the hijab as a covering of the face or the body also applies differently, and goes by different names depending on the region and the custom: chador in Iran, burqah in Afghanistan, abayahon the Arabian Peninsula, burnusin the Maghreb.
