| Bild: | In the West and the Islamic world alike, the headscarf is the subject of heated discussions. We take a closer look at various aspects of the debate and highlight its background and social reality.

| Bild: | Egypt's highest-ranking imam at the renowned Al-Azhar mosque has banned girls from veiling their faces at religious schools – causing a public scandal. Alfred Hackensberger has the details

| Bild: | The 44-year-old US writer Asra Nomani is viewed as a prominent representative of "Gender Jihad". For the former Wall Street Journal reporter, there is no contradiction between Islam and feminism. She spoke to Alfred Hackensberger

| Bild: | The so-called "debate on national identity" launched by the French government is causing feelings among the public to run high. At the centre of the storm lies the controversy of a ban on the burka and relations with Muslims in general. By Bernhard Schmid

| Bild: | In Turkey, the recent parliamentary vote put an end to the headscarf ban, but not to the public controversy that has severely divided and deeply polarized Turkish society since the post-1980 period. Nilüfer Göle assesses the situation

| Bild: | Headscarves are often considered retrograde and repressive in the western world. However, the significance of the hijab has repeatedly undergone radical change over the years. Sabine Enderwitz provides an overview of the history of the hijab

| Bild: | The legislation on banning the headscarf from schools and public offices in France has provoked a storm of protest. In our article, Muslim intellectuals as e.g. Nasr Hamid Abu Zeid, Tahar Ben Jelloun and Navid Kermani are taking their stance

| Bild: | The Egyptian Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, recently asserted that the growing number of headscarf wearers in Egypt must be taken as a sign of backwardness. An interview with Nabil Abdel-Fattah on the background behind the headscarf debate

| Bild: | Emel Abidin-Algan got to know arranged marriage and the headscarf from personal experience. Here, the daughter of the founder of the Turkish Milli Görüs movement argues for an end to the Turkish government's headscarf ban

| Bild: | The question of the Muslim headscarf is not pivotal for the development of the Islamic community. This is why it should not be treated as a priority issue, writes the Bahrain-based publicist Muhammad Djabir al-Ansari.

| Bild: | Lale Akgün, member of the Bundestag for the Social Democrats, criticises the political exploitation of the headscarf in Germany by Islamist associations that would like to see religious and cultural differences taking precedence over basic democratic rights

| Bild: | The UK gives female police officers the option to wear the hijab on duty. With the government and British Muslims joining ranks against a ban on the headscarf, Britain prefers integration to assimilation. Tareq Al-Arab reports

| Bild: | The headscarf is the battleground for legal, political and cultural conflicts worldwide. In Beirut, however, as Firas Zbib writes in his personal account, some women are wearing it lightly, not feeling the ideological ballast of the hijab at all

| Bild: | The Islamic headscarf is seen by the German media as a symbol of the oppression of Muslim women by their religion. Sabine Schiffer argues that this perception is often linked to stereotypes, and that the media often try to read too much into the headscarf.

| Bild: | In France an argument has been raging in recent months on the wearing of the Muslim headscarf. The French government has finally passed a new law banning the headscarf. Bernard Schmid on the "preservation of secularism".

| Bild: | The debate on the Muslim headscarf is becoming increasingly tainted by ideology, and not only in Germany and France. In Turkey, too, the controversy increasingly threatens to divide public opinion, as Dilek Zaptcioglu reports from Istanbul.

| Bild: | The wearing of the headscarf is not only a controversial issue in the West. A number of women television presenters in Egypt have been banned from the screens of the public broadcaster because of their decision to wear the hijab. Nelly Youssouf reports

| Bild: | In Indonesia, the headscarf has gained popularity since the 1980s, but although Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation, it is the political sphere that largely defines the meaning of the "hijab". Lies Marcoes-Natsir reports