“I understand the need to defend one's headscarf -- I did it for years, even as I was privately struggling with it. It's an important defence in the face of Islamophobes and racists. I get that. But if it's done without cognisance of the lived realities of women who do not have the privilege of choice, then my interlocutors end up doing exactly what they accuse me of doing with my support of a niqab ban: silencing other women. Why the silence, as some of our women fade into black, either owing to identity politics or out of acquiescence to Salafism?” FeminismFree ChoiceBurqaFeminist DilemmasHijab BanNiqab Ban Book:Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution Source: Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution