Notes

In those days, we shared all of Hourani's views and assumptions, including the connections he made between unveiling, "advancement" and education.

Allusion: " Perhaps the post 9/11 atmosphere in the west, which led to intense criticism of Islam and its views of women..."
a reference to an event

Double entendre & Amplification : " I find myself nostalgic for the Islam of my childhood and youth, an Islam without veils and far removed from politics.

veil is used in both meanings: as a clothing and as a cover that obscures things(in this case Islamic values)
Islam is repeated to emphasize

Vocabulary
far cry
imbibed
patriarchal

Leila Ahmed's essay " Reinventing the Veil" questions the reasons behind the return of the iconic islamic value: the veil. Ahmed initially describes her childhood experience of Egypt as advanced and modern due to the fact that it was being stripped of the old and provincial habit of wearing a veil. She tells that woman back in her childhood believed that veil was merely a cultural thing and of no relevance to Islam. Subsequently she talks about her frustration when the veil started to return to Egypt in the late 1990s. She however later on realizes that veil was a far cry from submission to patriarchy. It was now worn as a political statement. It was about raising consciousness about the sexist disorientation of their society.

DQ:
Is there a commitment to gender justice in your society?
Is wearing hijab an effective way to protest sexism? In England females do the opposite and take off their clothes rather than wearing more? Is hijab truly a religios thing or a cultural thing.(or maybe not distinguishible)

AOP

The first 3 paragraphs not only work as an introduction to the veil problem but also describes How Egypt was used to be in order to compare it later on in the passage. The claim is simply that hijab was seen more as a cultural thing and not a requisite of Islam and as a result it was being cast aside. This works as a juxtaposition to the final statement of the essay in which the author admits that her view on the return of the veil was misplaced initially.

13th paragraph of the essay works as a transition to the authors final state of mind. She reports that her interviews with veiled woman revealed that the intention behind is not religious or any kind of submission to patriarchy but it was the opposite. It was a statement to sexist messages of their society. In the conclusion she will state that her initial view was faulty as they used to label people with veils "backwards" but now the very ground the veil stood on is fundamentally changed.

17th paragraph states her conclusion on the matter. She says the in the west hijab can have meanings that they cant possibly have in countries that are not subscribed to the idea of equality. Author is making a comparison between America and her society. She is trying to tell that the bans imposed on the veil may backfire but she is optimistic about a possiblity of an unveiling movement for the 21 century as she has seen woman cast veil aside because they realized veil was irrelevant to Islam.