When Veils Fall: Portraits of Women

Driven by an insatiable fascination for modern Islam, journalist Nadia Dala wants to find out what the symbolically loaded headscarf covers. Who are these usually silent women in Flanders and the Netherlands? Where do they come from? How do they live? What do they really think? These women have nothing in common, except for the controversial hijab. Some fought against it, others for it. While a die-hard Islamist from Brussels loudly advocates the establishment of Sharia courts, a free-spirited Palestinian searches for a modern interpretation of the Koran. A Chechen asylum seeker is prepared to take off her headscarf, but for the hip Moroccan politician in the hijab that is unthinkable. Meanwhile, the rigorous Muslim woman with a face veil dreams of far-reaching segregation between the sexes. The women do not give clear answers. There is talk of oppression, but also of self-development, generational differences, unpretentious tradition, fashion, political Islam and rejection. This book offers insights into an unprecedented heaven and hell.