JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Feminist Studies, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Feminist Studies.OVER APPROXIMATELY THE LAST fifteen years, in countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Turkey, Algeria, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Canada, the hijab and other aspects of Islamic female attire and the interpretation and application of Islamic personal law have increasingly become the focus not only of political debate and legal battles but also, in a number of cases, of political violence. Examples of the latter include not only ongoing Islamist attacks against women in countries such as Afghanistan and Algeria but also the taking of French hostages in Iraq in August 2004, ostensibly in protest against the new French law banning "conspicuous" religious insignia in schools, and the November 2004 assassination in the Netherlands of filmmaker Theo van Gogh and threats against Somalian refugee and (then) Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who together had made a documentary about Islamist vio lence against women.' I am using the term "Islamist" here to refer to fun damentalist extremists who impose or attempt to impose ultraconservative interpretations of the Qur'an and the Shari'a, particularly on women, and whose tactics include the use of some level of physical or psychological vio lence, not to mention political blackmail (using antiracism or anti Westernism as a vehicle).2 Feminist Studies 32, no. 2 (Summer 2006). C) 2006 by Feminist Studies, Inc. 279 This content downloaded from 91.229.229.89 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 00:21:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Bronwyn Winter In the West, young women wearing the hijab have become the walking symbols of these controversies and in some cases, like the French one, have been at the center of them. To explain exactly what we are talking about: in modern usage, the term "hijab" denotes a headscarf that fully covers the hair and the neck of Muslim women. It originally meant "cur tain" and is supposedly to be worn once women reach puberty, although prepubescent girls are often dressed in some form of headscarf in more conservative communities. The term "veil" is often used as a synonym for hijab in the West, in both French and English, although this is technically inaccurate. "Veil" would more appropriately translate the term niqab, which is a piece of cloth attached at either side of the face and covering the face from the eyes down. More religious or conservative women may also wear the jilbab, which means "outergarment." This is a long loose tunic like or coat-like garment that covers the whole body except for the face and hands. The term chador, more well-known in the West, orginated ...