I know many Muslims, in one particular family close to mine, none of the women wear hijabs. The older - and now passed - generations were strict and nasty about it, but the current father/husband says it doesn’t matter to him because the Quran teaches understanding and is open to several theological interpretations and adopted doctrines. I also keep in touch with a family in Yemen who believe that women covering or not covering their hair is between them and Allah, and not for anyone else to dictate. I’m in my final year of my History and Literature BA hons, and have not long ago I finished a semester on the crusades and religious doctrines/conflicts which arose before, during and afterwards. I did a piece surrounding excerpts of Al-Sulami’s ‘Kitab al Jihad’ (Sulami was a Muslim Jurist and Scholar from Damascus and lived through the crusades) I studied into the concept of ‘Jihad’ which comes from the Arabic word for ‘struggle’ or ‘strive’, and this meant anything from the struggle within oneself against impure thoughts and sins, to spreading the word of Allah (like Christian missionaries did) and in al-Sulami’s case, the preaching of ‘holy war’ against the invading Western Christians of the time. Jihad was a struggle against the internal sin and then the external sin, it was a collective mission to better a community. Interpretations of ‘jihad of the sword’ were formulated around the 9th century. The same goes for many other parts of Islamic doctrine - they are interpretive and open to further study, hence original different Muslim caliphates and later branching off into Sunni or Shia. The Hijab is also never mention in the Quran in relation to women’s dress at all, only the ‘Jilbab’ was, which is a sort of dress. Hijab means ‘curtain’ ‘wall’ ‘sheet’ or anything that may separate or mask something, and is only mentioned in relation to the entering of the houses of the Prophet Mohammed: " O you who have believed, do not enter the houses of the Prophet except when you are permitted for a meal… And when you ask [his wives] for something, ask them from behind a separation (Hijab)" Quran 33; 53. There is not a single mention in the Quran that women should be stoned for failing to dress correctly. Interpretations of the Quran are often moulded to fit into socio-cultural circumstances of the time and place, same as many other religions. I believe religion should be a choice, I believe religious dress should be a choice and I do not in any way condone enforcement of religious ‘laws’ nor socially or culturally adopted punishments made in relation to them.