The Islamic Head Covering

This chapter examines the religious, social, and political meanings behind Islamic head covering among Muslim-American women. It highlights how head covering functions as a symbolic boundary marker, shaping identity while allowing women to express agency in negotiating piety, modesty, and personal autonomy. Drawing from focus groups and surveys, the authors explore motivations ranging from personal piety and political expression to fashion, identity, and protection from harassment. The chapter situates head covering within a global and historical context while emphasizing how American Muslim women reframe it as a personal, embodied practice that reflects choice, generational shifts, and cultural hybridity. Finally, the chapter reveals that head covering in the United States reflects a complex act of religious agency, not reducible to resistance or submission, but one that embodies evolving expressions of faith, feminism, and minority identity in a pluralistic society.