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Political events can serve as an impetus for civic engagement or disengagement. The events of 9/11 have directed attention toward US Muslim communities and occasionally inflamed anti-Islam and anti-Muslim sentiments. This article explores the impact of the 11 September events on hijab-wearing Muslim American women. These events and the negative perception of Islam have paradoxically given rise to Muslim women's public presence and paved the way for their political engagement. Their efforts, however, have been hampered by Orientalist and Islamic fundamentalist ideologies, each advancing its own constructs of Muslim women; one seeking to ‘save’ them and the other to ‘protect’ them. Muslim women have found both ideologies oppressive. As a result, they have been actively challenging these ideologies in American society at large and within their own Muslim communities. Through civic engagement and participation in Muslim organizations, these women have been making efforts to redefine themselves, claim their sp...

This article examines the history of the veil and its changing social meanings in Iran. Embedded in the meaning of the veil is the erotic meaning of female hair. The symbiotic relations of the “cover” (the veil) and the “covered” (female hair) are central to this history. Iranian political regimes have assigned to the veil meanings corresponding to their own ideologies. Through imposed unveiling and re-veiling, these regimes have constructed an ideal image of Iranian women and in turn of Iran as a modern or an Islamic country. This essentialized singular image has led to the empowerment of some women while marginalizing others and violating their rights. Re-veiling has served as an impetus for the politicization of Iranian women, and they continue to contest the social meaning of the veil and protest its imposition.

Imbedded in widowhood are emotional loss and change in personal life. For women, depending on social constructions of gender relations, widowhood can also lead to identity change, role adjustment a...