Can I see your hair: choice, agency and attitudes: the dilemma of faith and feminism for Muslim women who cover

Abstract

This paper argues that the current climate of Islamaphobia has burdened Muslim women who cover with additional problems in terms of their politics, their lived experiences and their life chances. It is the contention of this paper that the myths about the hijab have created a modern day form of Orientalism that objectifies the women who cover and otherises them as oppressed, perhaps exotic, and possibly dangerous. Such stereotypical views, at time articulated by Western feminists, create stumbling blocks that bar the way to the feminist ideal of respect unity and community of goals.