In the Islamic world over the last two centuries, the biggest boundaries crossed have been territorial, in the form of Western imperialism. But these incursions into Muslim lands frequently led to skirmishes over more intimate boundaries: those related to women, and how they covered, or didn’t cover, their bodies. From the French in nineteenth-century Algeria to the Americans in twenty-first-century Afghanistan, Western military invasions of Islamic countries have been accompanied by rhetoric about liberating Muslim women from their hijabs. To “modernize” or subdue a country meant to unveil
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