Published on Apr 17, 2020
Eman Abdelhadi has been awarded a 2020 Faculty Seed Grant from the Social Sciences Research Center. Her project, "Unveiling: How and Why Women Stop Wearing the Hijab," investigates why individual women in the United States stop wearing the hijab (Muslim headscarf). Previously, research has primarily focused on women who chose to wear the hijab and how it impacted their identity. In this pilot study, Abdelhadi will conduct life history interviews of women in US cities with large Muslim populations who have removed the hijab. Abdelhadi will examine the circumstances that led to the removal of the hijab and the consequences thereof, in order to fill an empirical gap in the literature and extend or revise existing theories of role exit.