On veiling, vision and voyage

This article is concerned with the changing significance of the veil in Turkey in the early years of the twentieth century. Its discussion of the political significance of women's dress in a period of accelerated social change is conducted through the analysis of two illustrated books, one by a visiting English feminist and one by a Turkish woman who writes about life in Turkey and her travels in Europe. In this way, the debate about the veil is examined through an analysis of cross-cultural dressing which takes into account the different significations of seclusionary mechanisms for women constructed as Oriental and as Occidental. The study engages with recent theories about cross-dressing and transgression but argues that such theories are often unthinkingly Eurocentric in their valorization of transgression. Its analysis of the photographs and written elements in its primary sources suggests that cross-cultural dressing is a practice unevenly open to differently racialized social subjects. To this end,...