It’s an epic struggle that continues to this day, not just in the Muslim-majority countries but also in Europe. The judgments—for wearing a hijab, for not wearing a hijab—rain down on women as well as nation-states. Too often the meaning of the hijab is taken as clear and unequivocal, like an on-off switch, a neat binary code. A Muslim woman is “traditional” if she wears one, “modern” if she doesn’t. “Oppressed” if she wears one, “liberated” if not. Scarf on: “devout.” Scarfless: “moderate,” or, who knows? Perhaps even “secular.” Much like my efforts to locate the Sheikh on a spectrum modeled
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