Frankly Magazine

Removing the hijab: choice or taboo?

Long before the death of 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini sparked a nationwide protest and global outrage against the Islamic republic’s strict and mandatory dress code, women across the Middle East have been quietly leading their own rebellions at home: they want the right to take off – or put on - their hijab. “Taking my hijab off was really a taboo thing, and a big ‘no’ - not only in our family, but in our entire culture… It was like converting from Islam,” a 39-year-old Arab resident of Dubai tells me on condition of anonymity. She put on her hijab…