TY - JOUR AB - This paper explores the confusion in values that underpin the stereotyping of ‘the Muslim woman’. From the point of view of the ‘woman who veils’, it addresses the idea of strategic self‐presentation geared by the logic of negotiation. Avoiding any uncritical celebration of such play of identities, it also engages with the internal struggle for self‐definition typified by feminist criticisms of the patriarchal control of women's bodies. It points out the limits of external criticisms, primarily because they rest upon a self‐aggrandizing view of the enlightened European. The paper concludes with the recommendation to listen to all the women who ‘speak’: the ones that adopt and the ones that abhor the veil from within the designated ‘non‐Europeans’ among the Europeans. It uses the idea of negotiation of identity to underscore the importance of such ‘listening’. VL - 1 IS - 2 SN - 1757-0980 DO - 10.1108/17570980200800021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/17570980200800021 AU - Dhanda Meena PY - 2008 Y1 - 2008/01/01 TI - What does the hatred/fear of the veil hide? T2 - Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 52 EP - 57 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -