In the early eighties, Iran imposed the hijab on its female citizens, while Syria banned it from schools during the same period. Syria gradually came to terms with the hijab, as the number of Syrian women who chose to wear it increased drastically during the nineties.

The hijab is enforced today in Iran and Saudi Arabia, and banned in Tunisia [...]. France banned the hijab in 2004, and far right politicians and pundits are calling for similar bans in other European countries [...].

The Turkish parliament passed [...] a constitutional amendment that practically repealed early constitutional provisions that allowed the Turkish government to ban [...] the hijab from government buildings, universities, and schools. Although the lifting of the ban is not in force yet, the confrontation over this issue with secularists who control the military and the courts has already started. Secularist Turks are up in arms, protesting the new amendment [...].