What is Niqab

In the chapter, the author briefly analyzes the turbulent semantic and semiotic confrontation that accompanies the process of decoding the significances of the hijāb. The current mythologization of the hijāb unveils diverse mechanisms of constructing and regulating Muslim women's bodies and their right to autonomy. In the first part of this chapter, eight meanings attributed to the hijāb by Muslim interpreters are discussed: a local social convention, a symbol for and a protection from the fitnah of women's bodies, a manifestation of religiosity, a feminist practice, a political statement, a cultural tradition, a subversive strategy of regaining autonomy, an artistic expression. The second part of the chapter is dedicated to some peculiar translations of hijāb that are usually validated by non-Muslim interpreters: hijāb as a religious symbolic object, a symbol of alterity, a sexist cultural manifestation, a reminder of terrorism. The chapter ends with a succinct analysis of the transformation of hijāb into a condensation symbol that manifests a mobilizing emotional power.