Listening to the voices of hijab

SynopsisThis article illustrates the ways in which immigrant Muslim women in Canada perceive the hijab and associate it with diverse meanings. The article reveals a gap between dominant understandings of the hijab as a symbol of Muslim women's oppression, and the self-expressed sense of women participating in the study that the wearing of the hijab is a positive experience in their lives. Through focus groups, the participants stated that the hijab confirms their Muslim identities, provides them a chance to take control of their lives, and offers them the status of “respectable person.” The meaning of the hijab, nonetheless in this study, is not limited to attire and most participants described modesty as being an important dimension of the hijab. The concept and deeper meanings of the hijab as expressed by the participants of the study, however, are not woven into larger Canadian society, and this article argues that the hijab in the form of Muslim woman's clothing emerges as a device to negotiate spaces within the Muslim community, as well as in the dominant western culture.