The word "왜냐하면" is an conjunctive adverb, literally meaning "if it were asked (by someone) of why it is so".
"왜냐하면" is contraction form of the word"왜 그러냐 하면", or "왜 그런가 하면", and it can be again contracted to "왜냐면".
As far as I know, there is also similar expressions In English, like this. For examples, "if (it is) so", "if (it is) possible", etc.
And Its function is similar to the function of the conjunctive adverbs in English, such as "hence", but its meaning is a little bit different from "hence".