ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a theory of constituted subjectivities as a lens to analyse macrological and micrological features of power through the discussion of several parallel discursive examples of controversies over Muslim women's agency. Leila Ahmed's historiographical account of the first major debate on women and veiling in Egypt is illustrative of how an essentially new discourse on women emerges, in which issues of culture and class, and imperialism and nationalism, became vitally entangled with the issue of women'. Ironically, Cromer co-opted the language of imperial feminism in order to legitimise the process of colonisation, while concomitantly implementing policies curtailing women's educational opportunities in Egypt. In a French example, known as the Headscarf Affair', three North African-descended young women decided to cover their heads, which meant that they would be wearing veils at all times outside their homes, including at school.
