A somewhat invasive article published on September 15th 2014 by NPR entitled “Covering Up With The Hijab May Aid Women’s Body Image” appears to scientifically endorse what has long been one of the more obviously enforced religious ideologies, to be of possible benefit to women who are subjected to said ideology. NPR columnist Michaeleen Doucleff writes on behalf of British psychologist and University of Westminster in London professor, Viren Swami, who in 2013 conducted a survey that accounted for nearly 600 Muslim women living in Britain. The goal of professor Swami’s survey was to discover how many Muslim women living in Britain wore such articles of clothing as hijabs or burkas, as well as how many Muslim women did not. The following is an abstract from Doucleff’s article pertaining to what Swami and her graduate studies colleagues found:
So the team surveyed nearly 600 Muslim women in Britain. About 200 said they never used the hijab. The others said they wore it at least sometimes. Swami and his colleagues also asked the women a whole slew of questions to measure how they felt about their bodies.
The difference between the two groups was small. But across all parameters, the women who wore the hijab, at least some of the time, had more positive views of their bodies on average. They had less desire to be thin. They appreciated their bodies more. And they weren’t as influenced by media messages about beauty standards.
Since the actual study itself is available only by way of relatively costly purchase through online library resources (ranging from $30 – $50), we are, at the moment, confined to the limitations of secondary resources, such as Doucleff’s general report. With that in mind, it is important to note that any critical analysis that follows has been obtained only through what has been freely reported. At the moment, we will critically analyze was Doucleff has reported in attempt to keep the order of things relatively simple.
There are positives and negatives to be found in Swami’s study. The positive beginning with Swami’s acknowledgement that articles of clothing such as the hijab or burka (or other variations of a similar nature) are in no way innately beneficial to a woman’s body image, and in fact said benefit only pertains to certain countries, such as Great Britain and the United States, where Muslim women have the choice to where said clothing, opposed to being forced by cultural expectations or law, as is the case in the Middle-East. Swami also keenly recognizes the inapplicable circumstance of the hijab or burka applying to countries such as France, where as Doucleff mentions, it is illegal to wear face covering veils. 
However, there are many more negatives presented by Swami that lead to an extremely inconclusive and significantly narrow-minded conclusion that pertains only to an extremely minute population of people. This begins with Swami’s distinct liberalized point of focus regarding said article of clothing, in that there is no significant time spent to regard the hierarchical and extremely misogynistic origins regarding the burka and hijab. For instance, the issue that is Muslim women being indoctrinated for centuries to believe that wearing the burka is of sacred order and commandment enforced by God to fulfill a woman’s role of modesty, is one that is not openly expressed, nor is the issue of historically accounted for barbaric punishment inflicted upon women who have chosen to deny this questionable commandment. Secondly, Swami fails to recognize (ironically we may add) the severe psychological dilemma that is any woman belonging to this particular culture and belief to have likely been forcefully taught, once again due to a dogmatic and hierarchical system, to believe that this is a matter of choice, when in actuality it is not. By this we mean the notion of “Big Brother,” in which some Muslim women living within free societies, such as Great Britain, may indeed have no humanly overseer to fear in choosing to wear or not wear said article of clothing, but it has most certainly been ingrained within many of them that an all-mighty deity, in this case Allah, is still moderating their conviction to his supreme order.
The notion that something which was birthed from archaic and ritualistic doctrine, one that wholly endorses the practice of misogyny, has somehow evolved into a mechanism for promoting positive body image, is a wholesomely ignorant idea that excludes a numerous amount of variables that would counter Swami’s conclusion.
Neither Swami or Doucleff care to acknowledge the fact that the negative body image women often obtain can likely be equated to (not to mention a more valuable and concrete scientific survey could be formed from) the fact that said concept of body image is derived from the cultural expectations enforced on women in both progressive and traditionalist societies that are operated under hierarchies of extreme prejudice. Doucleff also includes what is an extremely ignorant and laughable point of view made by Tabassum Ruby, a Western Michigan University student involved in Women’s & Gender Studies, who states that “Wearing the hijab eliminates many of the hassles women have to go through — such as dyeing their hair,” she says. “For example, you’re getting old, and gray hairs, when you wear the hijab, you might not think about dyeing your hair because nobody sees it anyway.”
If one were to wear black gloves over their hands for a large percentage of their life, surely said person would not have nearly as great of a concern as to the cleanliness, order, or shape of their nails as someone who does not. However, this should in no way conclude that one’s absent-mindedness of “cuticle cleanliness” to be of great benefit to their overall health. Swami’s study, at least from what Doucleff has presented to us, fails to consider having a negative perception of the body to actually be of benefit to the overall health of an individual. In no way does this claim that any man or woman burdened by years of chronic negative self-perception is to reap some kind of benefit from said suffering, however, the perception presented by Swami’s research is one of Utopian-like characteristics, in that all individuals have acquired a perfect conception of their selves based on one particular form of cultural identification, therefore there is no longer a need to progress or change in any way. Of course, this is an example taken to the extreme. To some extent the overall health and appearance of an individual, be it man or woman, is certainly of significance to a long-term benefit. However, Swami appears to be in much greater favor of purely one’s psychological health, as well as wholesomely rejecting the much supported notion of beauty being entirely subjective, rather than finding a certain amount of significance that is the inclusion of one’s own physical and biological health. Perhaps though, we should follow from Swami’s example, wrap ourselves in hooded sweatshirts or even some kind of modernized burka, lest we discover a gray hair lurking in the midst of our unwavering beauty….
Aether of Infancy 