Forced unveiling in colonial Algeria backfired by politicizing the veil

Evidence

The French have a long history of unveiling Muslim women as part of their projects of colonialism. In Algeria, sociologist Marnia Lazreg points out that poor and working class Algerian Muslim women were coerced to be part of a well-choreographed event in 1958 where their veils were publicly removed by French women in a purported demonstration of their liberation. In response, many women who did not previously veil adopted the veil as a symbol of protest. From that point on, the veil was no longer an article of religious clothing but became a “strategic devise, under which and out of which women and men alike carried out paramilitary action.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 302

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ article with the 1958 forced unveiling counterexample.
• XREF: connects to: Forced unveiling campaigns backfire by driving women to adopt the veil; Algerian women who had abandoned the veil re-donned it in response to forced unveiling; Anti-veil campaigns served to weaken Algerian national liberation movements (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Colonial unveiling campaigns backfired, turning the veil into a protest symbol #corroborates (0.96)
• Algerian women who had abandoned the veil re-donned it in response to forced unveiling #exemplifies (0.95)
• Enforced unveiling converts the veil into a symbol of anticolonial resistance #corroborates (0.95)
• France’s 1958 forced unveiling drove Algerian women to adopt the veil as protest #corroborates (0.93) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 302
• Forced public unveiling drove Algerian women back to the veil in solidarity #exemplifies (0.93) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 212
• Algerian women turned the veil into a weapon of anticolonial warfare #expands (0.90) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 846
• Anti-veil campaigns served to weaken Algerian national liberation movements #contradicts (0.85)
• Colonial discourse assigning the veil a key role drives its political salience #expands (0.85) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 391
• Algerian women’s veiling practices changed without being part of the revolution’s program #qualifies (0.75)
• Muslim girl’s hijab ban echoes colonial Algeria’s obsession with the veil #qualifies (0.72) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 404