cover the head, face, and neck, and outer cloaks draped from above the head so that only the wearer’s eyes are visible, and that women should wear turbans, short coats, and the like, this would be permissible. Yet this contradicts the revealed texts and scholarly consensus.

For Allah Most High said to women:

“And let them draw their head-coverings over their chests and not reveal their adornment except to their husbands…”

And He said:

“Tell your wives, your daughters, and the women of the believers to draw their outer cloaks over themselves. That is more likely that they will be recognized and not harassed…”

And He said:

“And do not display yourselves as in the former days of ignorance.”

If the distinction between men’s and women’s clothing rested solely on what women or men habitually wore according to their own choice and desire, women would not have been required to draw their outer cloaks over themselves or their head-coverings over their chests, nor would they have been forbidden to display themselves as in the former days of ignorance, since that had been those women’s custom.

Nor is the criterion a particular form of clothing specified in a statement of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or established by the customary dress of men and women in his time, such that one could say: “This alone is obligatory, and anything else is forbidden.” Women in his time wore garments with hems long enough to trail behind them when they went out, whereas men were commanded to raise their hems so that they did not reach the ankles.

Thus, when the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade men to let their waist-wrappers hang low, he was asked, “What about women?” He replied, “They should let them down a handspan.” He was told, “Then