to the city of Medina, Saudi Arabia.

To a time when Prophet Mouhammed was given the task

of finding a solution to women in the city being attacked and molested.

The situation was this:

It was around the year 680,

long before the modern convenience,

of plumbing.

When a woman awoke in the middle of the night

with the urge to relieve herself,

she would have to walk out,

past the outskirts of the city, and into the wild by herself,

for privacy.

Believe it or not,

a group of men actually began to see an opportunity

in women's nightly tracks,

and started to linger at the outskirts of the city -

their identities hidden in the dark, watching.

If a woman walked by,

and she happened to be wearing a jilbab,

which was a garment like a coat,

the men knew to leave her alone.

A jilbab of centuries ago was a status symbol,

like a Burberry trench or a Chanel jacket.

It announced that the woman was free,

and a free woman was protected by her clan.

She would have no problems speaking out against the attacker

and identifying him.

But if the woman walking out at night wasn't wearing a jilbab,

if she happened to be dressed a bit more freely,

then the men knew she was a slave,

and they attacked her.

Concerned members of the community brought the situation to the Prophet,

and like so many other social, political, and familial issues

that Muhammed faced during his Prophethood,

he turned this particular matter over to God,

and a verse was revealed for the Quran,

the Muslim holy book.

"O Prophet," it reads,

"tell your wives, your daughters, and the women of the believers

to draw upon themselves their garments.

This is better, so that they not be known and molested."

Basically, the verse advises that all women dress similarly,

so that they can't be picked out from one another,

zeroed in on, and attacked.

Now, on the surface,

this may seem like a relatively easy solution to the problem,

but turns out it wasn't.

The early Muslim community was tribal, and so deeply entrenched in social status,

and the idea that a slave would look like a free woman,

that was almost insulting.

And then there was the matter of practicality.

How would a slave do her work?

How would she function, if her body was constricted by a coat?

How would she cook, clean, fetch water?

In the end, the early Muslim scholars ruled

that a woman's way of dress should be based on two considerations:

a woman's function in society -

her role, what we might consider her job -

and the society's specific customs.

Or, in another way: when in Rome.

Muslims like to take historical rulings and apply them to the modern era.

So, let's do that.

A woman's way of dress should be based on custom and function.

So, what does that mean for a Muslim woman living in America today,

for someone like me?

First, it means that I have a function, a role in society, a contribution

that I can make.

Second, it means

that while I'm making that contribution,

and living in a society where veiling is not the custom,

and where, in fact, if I veil it might actually lead to harassment,

then wearing what is the custom,

such as a dress, a pair of jeans or even yoga pants,

is not only acceptable,

it's recommended.

But wait, could that be right?

After all, haven't we all come to assume

that a Muslim woman must veil,

that veiling is a requirement of her faith?

There is even a term

that we've all come to associate with the Muslim woman's veil,

an Arabic term that we've all heard use,

whether or not we've been aware of it:

"Hijab."

So, maybe I missed it.

Maybe the requirement that a woman veil is in a different part of the Quran.

For those of you who don't know, the Quran consists of 114 chapters,

each chapter is written out in verses, like poetry.

There are more than 6,000 verses in the Quran.

Out of the 6,000 plus verses,

three refer to how a woman should dress.

The first is the verse I've already told you about.

The second is a verse that directly speaks to the Prophet's wives,

asking that they begin to dress a bit more modestly

because of their role, their function in society as his wives.

And the third verse is similar to the first,

in that it was revealed in direct response to a historical situation.

Early records show that the custom,

the fashion during the pre-Islamic era,

was for women to wear a scarf on the head, called a khimar,

which would be tucked behind the ears and allowed to flow behind the back.

In the front, a woman wore a tight vest or a bodice,

which she left open exposing her breasts -

sort of like the images you've seen in Game of Thrones.

(Laughter)

When Islam spread through the Arabian Peninsula,

a verse was sent down asking that women use this scarf,

or any other garment,

to cover the breasts.

And that's it.

That's basically all there is in the Quran concerning how a woman should dress.

Turns out, God doesn't give a bullet point of all the parts on a woman's body

that he wants hidden from view.

And in fact, it might be argued, and it is argued,

I cannot stress enough that it is argued by many Muslim scholars

that the reason these verses were left intentionally vague

is so that a woman could choose for herself how to dress

according to her specific culture

and the progression of time.

And that the term "hijab,"

guess what?

It's not in any of these three verses.

In fact, it's nowhere in the Quran, directly meaning a woman's veil.

That's not to say that the word doesn't appear in the Quran

because it does appear.

But when it appears, it's actually used correctly,

to mean a barrier or a divide.

Such as the barrier or divide that exists between us humans and the divine,

or between believers and non-believers.

Or it means a barrier, like a physical screen,

that men during Muhammad's time were asked to stand behind

when speaking to his wives.

Or it means the seclusion, the separation that Mary sought

when she was giving birth to Jesus.

That separation and seclusion,

that means hijab;

that physical screen,

that means hijab;

that barrier, that divide,

that means hijab.

Hijab doesn't mean a woman's veil.

And yet, isn't it strange that what the term actually means,

being screened off, divided away, barred, separated out,

these are the very terms that come to our minds

when we think of a Muslim woman?

Why shouldn't they?

We have all seen the way some Muslim women are treated around the world:

if she attempts to go to school,

she's shot in the head;

if she attempts to drive a car,

she's jailed;

if she attempts to take part

in the political uprisings happening in her own country,

to be heard, to be counted,

she is publicly assaulted.

Forget about hiding out in the dark at the outskirts of the city,

some men now feel comfortable enough to assault a woman on the sidewalk,

for the world to see.

And they don't care to hide their identities,

they're more interested in making international headlines.

They're too busy making videos and uploading them onto YouTube,

bragging about what they've done.

Why don't they care to hide their crimes?

They don't feel like they've committed any crimes.

It's the women who've committed the crimes.

It's the women who got these funny ideas in their heads,

ideas that actually led them out of the house,

led them into society,

believing that they can make a contribution,

and we all know,

honorable women, they stay at home;

honorable women stay invisible.

Just as it was the custom for honorable women to do

during the Prophet's time.

Is that true?

1400 years ago is long before feminism.

Were women locked away behind doors, screened off by veils?

Well, it turns out that the Prophet's first wife

was what we would define today

as a CEO.

She was a successful merchant

whose caravan equaled the caravans of all the other traders put together.

She essentially headed up a successful import-export company.

When she hired Muhammed to work for her,

she was so taken with his honesty

that eventually she proposed.

(Laughter)

I'm not sure how many women feel comfortable

proposing marriage to a man today.

And Muhammad's second wife?

She was no slacker either.

She rode into battle on the back of a camel,

which is equivalent to a woman riding into battle today

inside of a Humvee or a tank.

And what of the other women?

Early records show that women demanded to be included

in the Islamic revolution taking place around the Prophet.

One woman became famous as a general

when she led her army of men into battle and crushed a rebellion.

Men and women freely associated with one another, exchanged gifts.

It was custom for a woman to select her own husband and propose.

And when things didn't work out,

to initiate divorce.

Women even loudly debated with the Prophet himself.

Seems to me that if fundamentalists

want to return current Muslim society to 680 AD,

it might be a huge step forward.

(Laughter)

Progress.

(Applause)

But we still have to answer an important question.

If not from Islamic history, and if not from the Quran,

how is it that we, in the modern era,

have come to associate Muslim women with hijab?

With being separated out from society,

secluded and isolated,

barred from the most basic human rights?

I hope it's not any surprise to you that this isn't by accident.

For the past few decades, the very people who have been given the important task

of reading and interpreting the Quran

in a variety of different Muslim communities,

certain clerics have been inserting a certain meaning

into those three verses concerning women.

For instance that verse I told you about earlier:

"O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters,

and the women of the believers to draw upon themselves their garments,

this is better, so that they not be known and molested."

Some clerics, not all, some clerics

have added a few words to that,

so that in certain translations of the Quran,

that verse reads like this:

"O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters,

and the women of the believers, to draw upon themselves their garments,

parentheses, a garment is a veil

that covers the entire head and the face,

the neck and the breast all the way down to the ankles

and all the way to the wrists.

Everything on a woman's body is covered except for one eye

because she must see where she is headed,

and the hands must be covered in gloves.

Because, of course,

there was certainly a lot of gloves back in the desert of Saudi Arabia.

(Laughter)

Etc., etc., etc., etc., on, and on, and on,

end of parentheses,

so that she not be known and molested."

And what these so-called clerics

have concluded based on these types of insertions

is that a woman only has one function.

To understand what that function is,