The Veil and Modernity

Women’s Unveiling in the 2011 Egyptian Uprising: Political Opportunities and Modesty Politics

“…As the colonial powers advocated the importance of unveiling women as part of the modernizing process, feminists documented how the veil was put forward by some nationalist movements in the region as a symbol of resistance. For example, the traditional North African white veil known as sefsari in Tunisia and haik in Algeria functioned as a powerful political symbol against French colonialism and the obsession over unveiling as a symbol of modernity (Fanon 1963;Ghumkhor 2012). However, scholars have noted how, following independence, the veil was transformed from a symbol of anticolonial resistance to a signifier of cultural backwardness in the new postcolonial regimes (Charrad 1997(Charrad , 2001Ghumkhor 2012).…”

“…For example, the traditional North African white veil known as sefsari in Tunisia and haik in Algeria functioned as a powerful political symbol against French colonialism and the obsession over unveiling as a symbol of modernity (Fanon 1963;Ghumkhor 2012). However, scholars have noted how, following independence, the veil was transformed from a symbol of anticolonial resistance to a signifier of cultural backwardness in the new postcolonial regimes (Charrad 1997(Charrad , 2001Ghumkhor 2012). For example, former Egyptian president and nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser mocked the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in a 1958 speech for asking him to make the tar _ ha, a piece of cloth used to cover women's hair, mandatory for women in Egypt.…”