Modesty as defiance: Hijab and isdal in the resistance of Palestinian-Muslim women

Palestinian identity and resistance are deeply tied to traditional clothing, especially embroidered thobes and the keffiyeh . For Palestinian-Muslim women, items like the hijab and isdal represent unique and gendered forms of resistance. The isdal , which is a one- or two-piece modest covering, is commonly worn during prayers, when meeting unexpected visitors or for short trips outside the home. Moreover, the isdal has become a familiar image in media portrayals during times of crisis, where women wear it consistently to shield their bodies from exposure in the event of physical harm or death. Amid recurring genocidal violence, displacement and uncertainty, hijab and isdal offer Palestinian women a way to preserve modesty in moments of abrupt flight. Even though the tradition of veiling predates Islam, it is nevertheless controversial worldwide, because the West considers it oppressive. Drawing on Frantz Fanon’s assertion, ‘this woman, who sees without being seen, frustrates the colonizer’, this article argues that the hijab and isdal disrupt the colonial gaze that seeks to dominate, expose and dehumanize. Through this process of disruption, these garments transcend Orientalist and Islamophobic associations and are reconfigured into manifestations of agency and defiance. By analysing media representations and relevant literature, this article examines how Palestinian-Muslim women use veiling as a means of anti-colonial resistance, reclamation of narrative, identity and as a tool of social non-movement activism.