Don't know if I've posted about this here before but on my website Ampbreia (before it became Ampbreia Reloaded) I sometimes commented on Islam and the Middle East because of my own experiences with both, though the site in general was and is devoted more to enjoyable things I'm interested in like art, music, books, the paranormal, and travel. In fact, at that time, I mentioned only in passing if at all. I'd begun the site as a place to host my recently published memoir, Lost in Foreign Passions. This being the case, I was surprised by an E-mail from a Muslim Iranian man one morning regarding something or other I had said about hijab, he didn't say what.
"I think you should do some research on pheromones especially gaseous forms of pheromones. You will see a link there between pheromones and why women in Islam wear a hijab. Maybe then you can change your comments on such issues."
What was it I could have said about hijab? I scanned my very few comments on the subject as well as my book blurb and found that I'd only told about how it was for me. It was uncomfortable, hot, and restrictive, I HATED wearing it, I'm certain it would drown me if I tried swimming in it, and it did not seem to improve the conduct of men in regard to my person. I had no intention of changing my perfectly truthful comments on the matter.
What I didn't say there - but should have - was the fact that, if anything, males behaved worse when all the women around them wore hijab. That was my personal experience. I have also compared notes with other women on the subject and they felt the pretty much the same way, all of us frequently experiencing cat calls and groping from orthodox Muslim males while we were in hijab. In comparison, such occasions were rare for us without hijab and among mostly non-Muslim males. Only a few of the women I've talked to say otherwise, and their particular circumstances have allowed for very little public exposure. They were kept almost exclusively at home.
It seemed to me as if those Muslim males were making no effort to control themselves at all. Whenever they behaved badly, they would blame it on a woman for somehow being too alluring, never themselves for lacking self-control in any manner, shape or form.
I didn't bother answering the audacious male directly though I did dutifully scan the Internet for any such articles. There were LOTS, but none of the actual research articles I saw in any wise supported the concept of hijab.
The only place I did find the reference of pheromones with that of hijab logic was solely in the form of Islamic rationalizations, not research. It seems they think that a layering of veils on a woman is essential to subduing the pheromones they would otherwise give off, thus causing men to loose all control. I spent quite a lot of time chuckling over this.
What I found about pheromones in the research papers in a nutshell was that they are a biochemical form of communication between members of the same species. They can project, fear, excitement, anger, or predatory intent. They are a comfort ("I'm with you") signal between loved ones/family. They are also used to signal between males and females both sexual attraction and repulsion (if the two are lacking in the essential "chemistry"), oh yeah, and male pheromones are far more potent than a female's so really, if should be the men who had to wear the hijab.
Oooooh....! I'm quite overcome with all male aroma, I'm going to go crazy or swoon or get all... *AHEM* How can I resist attacking you, tackling you right into the mud, when you waft that erotically enticing scent at me of eau de sweat and motor oil???
Oh my, is it just me or is it getting a little hot in here? LOL.
Seriously though, my own opinion is that anyone who trusts their own instincts will realize the value of paying attention to genuine biochemical signals. For instance, an acquaintance of mine is a trauma counselor who deals with victims of violent assault by strangers. Something she has repeatedly noticed is that nearly every single one reported having had the strong feeling they were being stalked and yet overrode their own impulses to run away or avoid a certain area because they thought they were being silly. This fact carries with it two clear messages to me:
1. They weren't being silly; they were sensing the pheromones of a predator.
2. Pheromones are no excuse for the behavior of an intelligent being. The victims mentioned above sensed the predatory pheromones and chose not to react to them... although, in this case, they ought to have. In other words, a woman without a hijab on to stifle her pheromones is no excuse for a human male to lose control.
Having written some knowledgeable friends for an opinion about this, I got the following funny and interesting answer from an ex-Muslim Middle-Eastern man who'd immigrated to the U.S.:
No source for this... I saw it on a TV documentary of fairly high quality... Apparently the more similar some of our genetic structure is the less we like how each other smell. Damn can't remember the details.
As someone who has spent many a day naked with other adults and non-adults I can't remember ever seeing anyone overcome with lust either by the sight or smell of women or men (or dogs, horses etc).
My impression is that the more covered and secret sex is the more likely rape and loss of control through desire becomes... but that's just my guess. Excuse me but there is a strange aroma and I am feeling very horny....
Giggling even more now, I agreed with that impression of his. Being female, I can only surmise how men actually feel about this, but I do get the impression that quite a lot of them are more impulsively attracted by mystique than by the bald facts of nature as it were.
Another friend of mine, this one an Iranian woman, wrote:
"Well don't you remember how they forced the veil on the women of Iran in the first place? The interim Prime Minister Bani Sadr (at that point Khomeini did not have an official title yet) came on national television and said that women had to wear the compulsory hijab because and I quote 'women's hair has harmful rays irradiating from it that entice men.' Needless to say that the next day Iranian women were on the street protesting the statements of Bani Sadr, but their protests were curbed when a bunch of fanatics splashed acid on the faces of some of the women. This guy's explanation is along the same lines. It is interestingly to note that Prime Minister Bani Sadr had obtained his doctorate degree from Sorbonne University in France. I think the phrase "idiots with PhDs" fits perfectly here.
Your observation (about Muslim males lacking the self-discipline they are capable of) is certainly true. But what do you expect from someone who think women are constantly trying to entice him? His idea of female nudity is women showing too much forehead. He thinks a single strand of hair will entice him. He is not allowed to talk to even have a conversation with girls of his age because he thinks they will entice him. Poor guy probably gets an erection every time he hears a female voice. All his life he has been told that women are out to entice him with their hair. He has never been told that he needs to control his sexual urges and not get aroused by the mere presence of a woman in a room. Rather, he has been told that women are the real problem and if they don't want you to grope them then they need to cover themselves up from head to toe.
That [pheromone hijab logic] is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. First of all, pheromones have only been proven to control the timing of mating in insects and invertebrates. Some animals use them to signal danger to others, while other use pheromones to mark their territory. The only conclusive report on pheromones is that in human females, pheromones make menstruation cycles synchronous (i.e. if you live with or work with other women, their pheromones has an effect on the timing of your menstruation cycle). Pheromones are useless in humans, unless you are a woman and other people's pheromones keep screwing up your monthly cycle. But even if they did find a class of pheromones that has something to do with sexual attraction, to think that a veil could protect you from a woman's pheromones is preposterous. Pheromones are tiny little molecules that travel from organism to organism, much like viruses. How can a piece of cloth possibly keep them from getting dispersed into the air? Plus, if women in Islamic countries secrete pheromones, so do women in the West. But Western men don't act like baboons every time they see a woman with hair. What Western men have been immunized against female pheromones?
I feel like I should add that not all men think or act like described. I lived in Iran until I was 15 years old and although there certainly were men like that in there, the boys that I knew were perfectly normal. We talked, watched movies, went to parties, played soccer, played cards, and did our homework with the neighborhood boys without ever "enticing" them or getting groped by them."
My own humble opinion is that pheromones are as useful to humans as to any other species as a means of sensing danger, the electric air of excitement, anger, a presence, or of having the right or wrong chemistry with another person, whether sexually or simply as a matter of trust in a partnership. Being that we are an intelligent species whose minds, after all, rule our actions and are fully capable of overriding instinct when social decorum requires it, the presence of pheromones do not in any way reduce us to animals and do not need to be subdued. In fact, they should NOT be subdued, IF that were even possible. It wouldn't be natural.
That was several years ago and I posted this response on my site at that time. Another long-since corrupted link. The response to that less politely worded response was a lot more Muslim men protests my dismissal of the value of hijab as well as outright scoldings that I took mine off with total disregard for male sanity and piety. That was When I decided to make a page on my site called About Women and Islam.
What? Did they think I'd say, "Oh you're right! I'll just go and put my hijab back on?" Silly men. That is not what is EVER going to happen.
Bite me. I will blind you with the rays shooting off my lustrous hair like laser beams into your brain!
I'm going to be thinking of you whenever I need either a good laugh or a stiffer spine. Either way, it works.