The History of Hijab, from Head Covering to Modest Fashion

The history of head coverings, or what we now know as veils or hijabs spans more than three thousand years, long before Islam existed, reaching back to a time when rules for veiling were first carved into clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia. The cloth that we now consider merely a head covering has passed through many eras, religions, and political shifts before finally transforming into daily attire and a fashion item, as it is today.

This article traces its timeline chronologically, from the earliest records of veiling to the wave of modest fashion now taking shape in Indonesia.

When Did Head Coverings First Appear in Historical Records

"The oldest reference to head coverings comes from the Middle Assyrian Laws, clay tablets from around the 13th century BC, which mandated that honorable free women cover their heads and strictly prohibited slaves and prostitutes from doing so."

Veiling began as a marker of status, not belief. The Assyrian Empire, which ruled Mesopotamia roughly from 1380 to 612 BC, left laws on carved tablets that treated the veil as a privilege for high-status women. Crossing that line could result in severe punishment.

• The first written law. Around 3,000 years ago, Assyrian rules required married women, including widows, to be veiled in public spaces, while simultaneously prohibiting slave women from doing the same.
• A class badge, not religious. The cloth drew a line between "honorable" women and concubines or servants. Matters of doctrine were almost entirely irrelevant.
• Spread through conquest. Persia later inherited this custom from the Assyrians, and from the Persian region, it permeated into the Levant and the northern edges of Arabia, at least according to the remaining records.

Head Coverings Across Civilizations and Early Religions

"Head coverings have never belonged to any single religion. Ancient Greeks, Persians, Jews, Muslims, and early Christians each had their own versions, generally related to modesty, status, or ritual, rather than a single doctrine."

The picture is certainly incomplete, but the patterns are consistent even among cultures that never came into contact. Some traditions with better-preserved records:

Nothing is uniform, and habits have shifted with every generation. The common thread is simpler than it appears.

Hijab in Islamic History

"The hijab entered Islamic practice in the 7th century AD, when the Arab community, long outside the Persian and Byzantine veiling cultures, encountered that custom through conquest, and then reframed it around guidance concerning modesty."

Arab societies living deep in the desert interior only truly became acquainted with the veil upon reaching Persian lands in the seventh century. In its original Arabic meaning, hijab means a barrier or curtain, a partition between spaces, and it was only later that the meaning narrowed to the head covering known today.

• Scriptural foundation. The Qur'anic verses most frequently cited regarding covering are Al-Ahzab 59 and An-Nur 31, although interpretations have always varied according to school of thought and era.
• Broadening meanings. For centuries, "hijab" referred more to seclusion and separation than to a specific style of dress, before the modern narrowing of the term occurred.
• Legal distinction. Early Islamic jurisprudence applied covering rules to free women, while slave women were treated with different standards, an echo of the old class logic of the Assyrians.

History of the Hijab in Indonesia

"In Indonesia, the hijab moved from local pre-Islamic head covering cloths to attire that was quietly banned from public schools in 1982, then legally protected in 1991, and finally became the heart of the national fashion industry."

Long before the Arabic term arrived, the archipelago already had its own ways of covering the head. Local forms like the *rimpu* in Bima, the *tudung* among the Bugis, and the *tengkuluk* in Jambi integrated into Islamic dress rather than being displaced. What happened afterward was not so gentle.

There is a small but important linguistic note here. Throughout almost the entire 20th century, Indonesians referred to it as jilbab or kerudung; the word hijab only took over as the trendy umbrella term in the 2010s, influenced by modern styles.

Hijab in the Era of Modern Modest Fashion

"Today, the hijab supports the global modest fashion economy, with clothing and footwear reaching 326 billion US dollars in 2023, and Indonesia is openly positioning itself as a world center for Muslim fashion."

The cloth that once marked status now moves the market. Spending on Muslim clothing and footwear is projected to hit 433 billion US dollars by 2028, and Indonesia is at the forefront of that change.

• National ambition. As the world's largest Muslim-majority country, Indonesia has made fashion a state policy, aiming for a global center position and currently ranking third in the State of the Global Islamic Economy index.
• Real export weight. Indonesia's Muslim fashion exports reached approximately 2.85 billion US dollars in the first half of 2022 alone, placing the country among the world's top exporters.
• The rest is done by screens. Instagram and TikTok turned hijab tutorials and styles into daily fare; that is roughly the point where the hijab stopped being read as a religious note and started driving mainstream trends.

Why History Determines What You Wear

Understanding where the headscarf comes from changes the feeling when choosing one. A piece of cloth that once separated the free from the enslaved, survived school bans, and now glides across the runway at fashion week carries a weight that cannot be captured by any product description. Next time a headscarf is pinned on, that silent legacy comes along, whether the wearer thinks about it or not.

FAQ

Was the hijab originally an Islamic invention?

The practice of veiling predates Islam by more than a thousand years, with the earliest evidence found in Assyrian law around the 13th century BC. Islam adopted and reshaped a custom that was already ancient, rather than starting it.

When was the hijab first mentioned in history?

The oldest remaining reference appears in the Middle Assyrian Laws, a collection of clay tablets from approximately 1400 to 1100 BC. The rule reserved the veil for respectable free women and punished anyone outside that class who wore it.

Why was the hijab once banned in Indonesian schools?

The trigger was political suspicion. In 1982, the New Order government issued Decree 052, which effectively banned headscarves in public schools amid tensions between the state and Islamic movements. The ban lasted until it was revoked via decree in 1991.

Did non-Muslim cultures also wear head coverings?

Greeks, Persians, Jewish communities, and early Christians all veiled in some form, mostly to signify modesty or status. This custom was practiced across the ancient world long before any single religion claimed it.

How did the hijab become a fashion trend?

Largely due to money and media. As Indonesia transformed modest wear into an export industry and social platforms amplified hijab styles, this attire crossed from a religious obligation into a global fashion category that is now worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

References

• Middle Assyrian Laws and the ancient origins of veiling.
• Veiling practices and terminology in Islam.
• History and politics of the hijab in Indonesia.
• Modest fashion market size and Indonesia's role.
• General references on veiling.