解放妳的頭髮：閱讀〈頭紗〉和〈二月〉中的頭紗

＂Take off that heavy thing hiding your hair＂: Veiling in ＂The Veil＂ and ＂February＂

This paper intends to seek dialogues between Egypt and Taiwan, concentrating on the adoption of the veil on the rise of the ever-expanding global Jihad in modern-day world mainly through two Egyptian short stories. With a discussion from Egyptian context, this paper shows that the veil, as an ever-changing signifier and bodily practices, reveals how Han-speaking Muslim women participate in creating personal and collective identities in Taipei and beyond. Veiling, an important symbol of women's liberation in Islamic feminism in Egyptian women writers' short stories, ＂The Veil＂ (1978) and ＂February＂ (1995), calls for a contextually sensitive reading to the complicated signifier in today's trans-cultural encounters. In ＂The Veil,＂ El Saadawi (1931-) describes the genderized power of the veil that alienates Arabo-Islamic women from their own bodies. In ＂February,＂ Ibtihal Salem (1949-) makes the claim that the small piece of cloth is fraught with overbearing power and authority that come to suppress women's emotion and creativity. This paper addresses the complex translations of the veil, not necessarily as a traditional symbol representing coherent national identity, but as insertions of the female bodies into global sisterhood with interruptions at the local, national and transnational levels.