In this paper, we draw from comparative research on how wearing the headscarf is regulated in policy and media debates in France, Turkey, the Netherlands and Germany. We analyze two sources of data: 1) newspaper articles that interpret the meaning of the hijab and niqab and outline preferred modes of their regulation, and 2) the formal political processes surrounding policy and law-making directed at head- and face-coverings. Based on our analysis of these sources, we argue that there continue to be nationally distinct ways in which the apparent universal of “gender equality” gets mobilized to restrict Muslim women’s religious expression. However, these mobilizations are not static. Instead, they are contingent in ways that currently point towards increased restriction and exclusion but that contain possibilities for reimaging the link between gender equality and religious expression in more expansive ways.
