“I would argue that the use of these images [of Muslim women in religious attire] has also been bad for us, in the countries of the West where they circulate, because of the deadening effect they have on our capacity to appreciate the complexity and diversity of Muslim women’s lives—as human beings,” said Professor Abu-Lughod. “Did we expect once ‘free’ from the Taliban that they would go ‘back’ to belly-shirts or dust off their Chanel suits?”

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 394