Listening to the voices of hijab

This article illustrates the ways in which immigrant Muslim women in Canada perceive the h ab and associate it with diverse meanings. The article reveals a gap between dominant understandings of the h ab as a symbol of Muslim women's oppression, and the self-expressed sense of women participating in the study that the wearing of the hujab is a positive experience in their lives. Through focus groups, the participants stated that the hijab confirms their Muslim identities, provides them a chance to take control of their lives, and offers them the status of "respectable person." The meaning of the h ab, nonetheless in this study, is not limited to attire and most participants described modesty as being an important dimension of the h ab. The concept and deeper meanings of the hijab as expressed by the participants of the study, however, are not woven into larger Canadian society, and this article argues that the h ab in the form of Muslim woman's clothing emerges as a device to negotiate spaces within the Muslim community, as well as in the dominant western culture. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.