ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a range of perceptions, interpretations, and practices relating to the use of the 'hijab' in Brazil by immigrant Muslims and converts to Islam. When moving to another country, immigrants undertake and exhibit their religious practices and beliefs in a new context filled with challenges and opportunities. Islam is today practiced in Brazil mostly by Arab immigrants and their descendants. Nevertheless, individuals of other ethnic-national descent are also part of this religious minority, but in significantly smaller numbers. The experiences of those wearing the hijab in Brazil indicate that non-Muslims respond to its use in a variety of ways. Though embodying varying kinds of response, non-Muslim perceptions of the hijab in Brazil in some way reflect a prevailing tendency to regard the female form as something to be celebrated, exhibited, and shown off. The perceived responses to and interpretations of the hijab by non-Muslim Brazilians directly influence Muslim women's decision to wear or not to wear the veil.
