Anti-Veiling Campaigns in the Muslim World

The controversy about the veiling of women, particularly pronounced in recent times, and the deeper issues it represents are not new. This book examines the state-sponsored anti-veiling campaigns which took place across wide swathes of the Muslim world in the interwar period. It shows how veiling was officially discouraged and frequently ridiculed as backward, but how the anti-veiling campaigns were flawed, mostly promoted by male dominated authoritarian regimes, which, in politicising the issue, empowered opponents who used veiling as a symbol of resistance. Throughout, the book relates the significance of interwar unveiling campaigns to present day debates.