Western women who choose the hijab are often the strongest people in the room.

Evidence

YASMIN IS A HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHTER stuffed into a tiny, ninety-five-pound frame. Like so many women who wear the hijab in the United States, she is far from the stereotype of the submissive and retreating female. According to popular perception, the hijab is the paramount sign of oppression, a small piece of cloth that holds the talismanic power to destroy Western civilization. It covers and silences, keeping women relegated to second-class status. Most people who believe this, however, have probably not encountered many of the women in the West who choose to wear the hijab. Far from seeking pity, they are instead often the strongest people in the room, and not by any divine decree. Because their headwear so often attracts attention, the women are frequently called upon to define and defend themselves in front of others. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 340

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’: hijab as a contested dress code where the wearer’s own claim to agency inverts the ‘oppression’ narrative, mirroring how sumptuary and modesty panics were always about identity and power signaling.
• XREF: Connects to the pattern in The Reluctant Fundamentalist of the racialized subject being compelled to constantly narrate and defend themselves.