No area is as sensitive as that of the treatment of women, women’s roles, women’s sexuality, dress and ambitions. I began to feel that as a religious person I needed to realize that some things are bigger than me. I got different responses from men when I chose to wear a head scarf rather than a short skirt. What follows are accounts by two women, an Egyptian and an American, of their experiences with the hijab. My mom doesn’t wear a head scarf and when I began to at the age of 19, five years ago, she said, “What the hell are you doing?

Source: New York Times August 11, 2016 09:42 UTC