Various styles of head coverings, most notably the khimar, hijab, chador, niqab, paranja, yashmak, tudong, shayla, safseri, çarşaf, haik, dupatta, boshiya and burqa, are worn by Muslim women around the world, where the practice varies from mandatory to optional or restricted in different majority Muslim and non-Muslim countries.
Wearing the hijab is mandatory in Islamic Republic of Iran and the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Gaza school officials have also voted to require young girls to wear hijab, though the Palestinian Authority (in 1990) considered the hijab optional.
The hijab is traditionally associated with Islamic principles of modesty, privacy, and spiritual awareness. In addition to its religious significance, it has also become a marker of cultural identity and, in some contexts, a form of personal or fashion expression. Surah An-Nur (24:31) in the Qur'an states: "And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their head covers over their chests and not expose their adornment...". Surah Al-Ahzab (33:59) in the Qur'an further instructs: "O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused."
In some Muslim majority countries (like Morocco and Tunisia) there have been complaints of restriction or discrimination against women who wear the hijab. Several Muslim-majority countries have banned the burqa and hijab in public schools and universities or government buildings, including Tunisia (since 1981, partially lifted in 2011), Turkey (gradually lifted),Turkey headscarf ruling condemned Al Jazeera English (7 June 2008). Retrieved in February 2009. Kosovo (since 2009), Azerbaijan (since 2010), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Muslim-majority Tajikistan banned the hijab completely on 20 June 2024. Many of these nations, primarily those in Central Asia and former constituents of the Soviet Union, are autocratic in nature and have witnessed substantial democratic backsliding, with critics pointing out how these measures imposing restrictions on the ability of women to don the hijab were carried out in the name of "upholding traditional values," even though the actual reason for such curtailment stemmed from the desire of security services to be able to identify people in public. Instances of police forces in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan arbitrarily rounding up men donning long beards and forcing them to shave them are also ubiquitous.
In several countries in Europe, the wearing of hijabs has led to political controversies and proposals for a legal ban. Laws have been passed in France and Belgium to ban face-covering clothing, popularly described as the "burqa ban", although applies not merely to the Afghani burqa, but to all face coverings ranging from the niqab to bodysuits, and does not apply to hijab which do not conceal the face.
Legal restrictions on the burqa and niqab are more widespread than restrictions on hijab. There are currently 18 states that have banned the burqa, including Tunisia, Austria, Denmark, France, Belgium, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria,Bulgaria the latest European country to ban the burqa and niqab in public places , Smh.com.au: accessed 5 December 2016. Cameroon, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Netherlands, China (in Xinjiang Region), Morocco, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Portugal and Italy.Reutrrs: New Italian bill targets Islamic face coverings and religious funding, 8 October 2025 Similar legislation or more stringent restrictions are being discussed in other nations. Some of them apply only to face-covering clothing such as the burqa, boushiya, or niqāb, while other legislation pertains to any clothing with an Islamic religious symbolism such as the khimar. Some countries already have laws banning the wearing of masks in public, which can be applied to veils that conceal the face. The issue has different names in different countries, and "the veil" or hijab may be used as general terms for the debate, representing more than just the veil itself, or the concept of modesty embodied in hijab.
Africa
Algeria During the Algerian War of 1954–1962, it came to be seen as legitimate for Algerian women to break seclusion and participate unveiled in society, when women participated actively in the struggle for national independence.Valentine Moghadam: Gender and National Identity: Women and Politics in Muslim Societies
In 2018, the government passed a law banning the wearing of full face-veils for female public servants while at work. The prime minister at the time, Ahmed Ouyahia, pushed the ban because of his belief that women should be identifiable in the workspace.
Cameroon On 12 July 2015, two women dressed in religious garments detonated suicide bombs in Fotokol, killing 13 people. Following the attacks, since 16 July, Cameroon banned the wearing of full-face veils, including the burqa, in the Far North region. Governor Midjiyawa Bakari of the mainly Muslim region said the measure was to prevent further attacks in this Christian majority country.Cameroon bans Islamic face veil after suicide bombings , 16 July 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
Chad Following a double suicide bombing on 15 June 2015 which killed 33 people in N'Djamena, the Chadian government announced on 17 June 2015 the banning of the wearing of the burqa in its territory for security reasons. The 2015 prime minister, Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet, called the burqa "camouflage". Women who violate this ban are subject to jail time.
Republic of the Congo The full-face veil was banned in May 2015 in public places in Congo-Brazzaville to "counter terrorism", although Muslims make up only a small minority in Congo.
Egypt
The hijab became less popular among educated religious women who sought positions of power in the early 20th century when it was frowned upon politically to don one. After returning from the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Congress in Rome in 1923, the feminist Huda Sha'arawi removed her veil and mantle, a signal event in the history of Egyptian feminism. Women who came to greet her were shocked at first, then broke into applause and some of them removed their veils and mantles.On This Day She: Putting Women Back Into History One Day at a Time, p. 5Kristen Golden, Barbara Findlen: Remarkable Women of the Twentieth Century: 100 Portraits of Achievement.Friedman/Fairfax Publishers, 1998R. Brian Stanfield: The Courage to Lead: Transform Self, Transform Society, p. 151Emily S. Rosenberg, Jürgen Osterhammel: A World Connecting: 1870–1945, p. 879Anne Commire, Deborah Klezmer: Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia, p. 577Ruth Ashby, Deborah Gore Ohrn: Herstory: Women who Changed the World , p. 184 Her decision to remove her veil and mantle was perceived as part of a greater emancipation movement of women, and was influenced by French-born Egyptian feminist named Eugénie Le Brun, though it contrasted with the feminist Malak Hifni Nasif, who believed that those advocated for unveiling had a fixation with European fashion, and that they were not driven primarily by the desire for freedom. Nasif further argued that unveiling was also partly the result of an imposition of colonial narratives onto the Egyptian hoi polloi.
In 1953, Egyptian leader President Gamal Abdel Nasser was told by the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood that they wanted to enforce the wearing of the hijab, to which Nasser responded: "Sir, I know you have a daughter in college—and she doesn't wear a headscarf or anything! Why don't you make her wear the headscarf? So you can't make one girl, your own daughter, wear it, and yet you want me to go and make ten million women wear it?".
The veil gradually disappeared in the following decades, so much so that by 1958 an article by the United Press (UP) stated that "the veil is unknown here." However video footage from the period shows the hijab was still very common.
The veil returned after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, concomitant with the global Muslim revival. According to The New York Times, , about 90 percent of Egyptian women currently wear a headscarf. Women chose to adopt the veil in the post-1970s period despite relatives who were against it. In 2018, Ola Salem, writing in the Washington Post, described widespread veiling of women as "a relatively new phenomenon."
Small numbers of women wear the niqab. The secular authoritarian government does not encourage women to wear it, fearing it will trigger an Islamic political opposition to its dictatorial rule. In the country, it is negatively associated with Salafist political activism. There has been some restrictions on wearing the hijab by the government, which views hijab as a political symbol. In 2002, two presenters were excluded from a state run TV station for deciding to wear hijab on national television.Ranyah Sabry (17 April 2007) Egypt anchorwomen battle for hijab BBC News (BBC). Retrieved on 13 February 2009. The American University in Cairo, Cairo University and Helwan University attempted to forbid entry to niqab wearers in 2004 and 2007.
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, Grand Imam of al-Azhar, issued a fatwa in October 2009 arguing that veiling of the face is not required under Islam. He had personally tried to take off a student's niqab when he spotted her in a classroom, and he told her that the niqab is a cultural tradition without Islamic importance. Government bans on wearing the niqab on college campuses at the University of Cairo and during university exams in 2009 were overturned later. Minister Hany Mahfouz Helal met protests by some human rights and Islamist groups.
Many Egyptians in the elite are opposed to hijab. In 2012, some businesses established bans on veils.
In 2016 and 2017, the Government of Egypt and parliament made moves to ban the burqa with leading politicians arguing the full-face veil was neither an Islamic tradition nor required in the Koran.
In 2023, the Egyptian government mandated a full niqab ban in schools, requiring parental consent for wearing the hijab.
Gabon On 15 July 2015, Gabon announced a ban on full-face veils in public and places of work because of the attacks in Cameroon. Since Muslims are a minority in the country, there were no significant tensions.
Libya
In the 1950s, Nel Slis reported that most Libyan women wore headscarves in public, often the type of veiling known as barracan. The queen Fatimah el-Sharif was expected to live in seclusion and only appeared unveiled and dressed in modern clothing in the company of women or when she was abroad, though she had belonged to the small percentage that had appeared unveiled in public prior to becoming queen.Caroline Studdert: Hellcat of The Hague: The Nel Slis Story, p. 96–100