Modern Sociology Labels Modesty as Oppression and Immodesty as Nature
By: Shaykh Hamid Kamaluddin
❖ Modesty and Dress: Coercion or Choice?
Modern sociologists and anthropologists argue that modest behavior and dressing with ḥayā are products of social coercion. Even when a woman willingly embraces modesty or ḥijāb, it is still interpreted as internalized societal pressure.
Ironically, this logic is not applied to immodesty. When a woman walks the ramp in front of thousands of men, it is celebrated as an expression of her “natural” self. Meanwhile, modest clothing and ḥayā are dismissed as imposed constraints.
❖ Defining the Boundaries of Nature and Social Pressure
This raises a fundamental question:
▪ Who determines what is natural and what is coercion?
▪ Is every human tendency inherently natural?
▪ Is everything that society promotes necessarily oppression?
If nature is truly self-evident, why must it be reinforced through academic or societal machinery? And if certain values are shaped by social structure, why are they automatically branded as oppressive?
❖ Who Gets to Decide?
At the heart of the matter lies the authority to define norms:
◈ If prophets set moral standards, they are labeled biased and patriarchal.
◈ But if modern anthropologists and sociologists do it, they are regarded as objective and scientific.
This is despite the fact that these “experts” are also products of ideological conditioning, molded by specific academic trends and biases. Yet their views are accepted as “neutral truths”, while religious values are accused of being inherently coercive.
❖ Intellectual Monopoly in the Name of Sociology
Today’s educational institutions and universities have become tools of ideological enforcement:
✔ If religion promotes morality, it is called coercion.
✔ If modern academia enforces secular ideologies, it is labeled “knowledge”.
This is, in effect, the doctrine of: “Who owns the universities, owns the truth.”
❖ The Islamic State: A Model of Intellectual Freedom
Islam does not merely claim individual relevance, but asserts its collective intellectual authority over society.
▪ Every society is built upon some ideology—whether Islamic or secular.
▪ The notion of neutrality is a myth; no civilization is truly “value-free.”
This forms a strong foundation for the necessity of an Islamic state, wherein truth, morality, and knowledge are defined by divine revelation, not Western ideological pressure.
❖ Conclusion
Modern sociologists and anthropologists claim the exclusive right to define reality, dismissing all opposing perspectives as social constructs or coercion. But in doing so, they are enforcing the most pervasive form of coercion—through education, media, and academic narratives.
The real intellectual oppression lies not in religious values, but in the imposed secularism of modern academia, which silences any divine alternative under the guise of objectivity.
