Veil, Women and Warfare

Policies—whether in the West or in the Muslim world—are imposed on women, not developed with them or for them. How they dress becomes shorthand for community honour, nationalism or piety

- Pragya Singh IS SENIOR ASSISTANT EDITOR, OUTLOOK. SHE IS BASED IN DELHI

“WHEN you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything... Grab 'em by the pussy.” “There has to be some form of punishment [for abortion].” “Women, you have to treat 'em like shit.”

THESE aren’t soundbites from an old imperial handbook—they’re the words of a United States president, before and after Donald Trump became one. And yet, from Tehran to Rafah, Washington still lectures the world on women’s rights. In the shadow of bombs and broken treaties, it doubles down on the language of liberation—but behind it lies a familiar playbook: colonial feminism dressed up in drone strikes and double standards. In the long story of empire, fashion has never been just about fabric or style—it’s been a battlefield for power. For women, the question isn’t simply what you wear, but who gets to decide. For Muslim women in particular, clothing like the hijab or purdah has been a potent political symbol for long—first manipulated by colonial powers, now by modern states, the media and even armies.

After all, Western empires didn’t just conquer land—they policed culture. “In colonial Algeria, the French saw hijab and purdah as signifiers of Muslim regression, ‘uncivilisability’ and resistance... French efforts to unveil Muslim women were symbolic gestures: aggressive assertions of Western modernity and cultural ‘superiority’,” says Prof PK Yasser Arafath, who teaches history at Delhi University and co-edited, with G Arunima, The Hijab: Islam, Women and the Politics of Clothing, published by Simon & Schuster India in 2022.

Similarly, Arafath points out, in British-controlled Egypt, the veil was treated as visual proof that Islam oppressed women. And, therefore, that colonial intervention was posited as necessary, even salubrious. This logic helped birth what we now call imperial feminism: using the language of women’s rights to advance empire.