Well-intentioned unveiling campaigns backfire by turning the veil into a political symbol.

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 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Forced unveiling campaigns backfire by driving women to adopt the veil; Enforced unveiling converts the veil into a symbol of anticolonial resistance; Colonial unveiling campaigns backfired, turning the veil into a protest symbol (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Forced unveiling in colonial Algeria backfired by politicizing the veil #exemplifies (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 302