ABSTRACT
The intellectual challenge thrown down by Edwards Said in his now legendary volume Orientalism (1979) was sufficiently provocative to cause a number of stereotypes and assumptions to be re-examined in a new light. The situation becomes uncomfortable when the 'other' rejects the established concepts and framework and 'conventional wisdom', and, on grounds of discrimination or misrepresentation, speaks out and back, as did Said the disaffected Palestinian. In Malaysia, the strongest manifestation of voluntary veiling and commitment to Islamic values and lif estyle has occurred within that cohort of women who underwent their secondary and/or tertiary education between 1970 and the mid-1980s, and whose principal social networks revolved around educational and professional institutions, both in Malaysia and overseas. A new generation of Malay women arose out of the confluence of events, internal and external, that charted new directions for Malaysia after independence.
