women who covers her head is making a statement about her identity. Anyone who sees her will know that she is a Muslim and has a good moral character. Many Muslim women who cover are filled with dignity and self esteem; they are pleasedto be identified as a Muslim woman, she does not want her sexuality to enter intointeractions with men in the smallest degree. A woman who covers herself isconcealing her sexuality but allowing her femininity to be brought out.24 An increasingly large number of women are beginning to see the rules of dress depictedby hi'jab as a way to express their Islamic feminism. In Turkey, women are opposingMustafa Kemal Ataturk's25 ban on the head scarf. Ataturk was influential in convincingthe government to ban the scarf starting in 1989, because he saw it as a " a symbol againstwomen's rights." Ironically, Turkish women are fighting to uplift this ban. Philip G.Smucker says that, "Turkish women remain determined to cover their heads, which theyincreasingly view as an act of self-assertion and female empowerment."26 Despite this risein the view of the dress code as liberating, Ataturk's view is just as strong:...women see Islamism as still representing--at heart--a form of Islam repressive towomen and buttressed by the patriarchy that they want to dispel. They feel that theIslamist insistence that equality is based on essential differences between men andwomen is simply a ploy to keep women under the dominance of males. For the mostpart, these women are not enthusiastic about Islamic dress... 27Although Muslim women are divided on their view of the dress code that hi'jabcalls for them to follow, they are united in the fact that they see the Western woman's'style of dress as demeaning. They have been brainwashed into believing that "Westernexhibitionism" is not the solution:Central to such contemporary ideology is a general rejection of the West and Western"freedoms," especially those in which women's bod...
