229 Chapter 14 Veiling and Revealing Identity: The Linguistic Representation of the Hijab in the British Press Ghufran Khir Allah © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 MC. La Barbera (ed.), Identity and Migration in Europe: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, International Perspectives on Migration 13, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-10127-9_14 G. Khir Allah () Department of Linguistics, Autónoma University, Madrid, Spain e-mail: g.khir.allah@gmail.com 14.1 Introduction Several studies have been conducted by sociologists, anthropologists, and politi- cal scientists on the issue of the hijab (Islamic veil), particularly focusing on the French ban of religious symbols in public schools (Fetzer and Soper 2005; Scott 2007; Read 2007; Killian 2007; Joppke 2009; Ahmed 2011). The French debate on weather Muslim girls should or not wear the headscarf in public school started in 1989. In 2004, the French government passed a law that banned wearing “conspicu- ous” religious signs in public schools, such as the Islamic veil, large crosses, and Jewish kippot 1 . According to this law, French public schools have the right to expel any female student who wore the headscarf (Read 2007). Finally, in 2010, another ban has been approved, targeting the use of full-length veil in public places within the French territory (Lichfield 2010). On the other hand, various works have dis- cussed metaphor within-culture variation (Kovecses 2006; Shore 1996; Lakoff and Johnson 1999; Richard 1936). However, little research has been done to investigate metaphorical variations in representing the hijab and its ban in European countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate this variation within the British main- stream culture and the British Islamic subculture. In order to accomplish this goal properly, the analysis will focus on three main controversial issues—identity, fe- male body, and cultural integration– as they appear in British newspapers, specifi- cally in articles, interviews, and readers’ comments. This paper argues that the col- lected data from the online version of British newspapers show relevant differences between the British mainstream culture and British Islamic subculture. This chapter intends to answer the following research questions: what does the hijab mean for those who wear it? To what extent the British newspapers reflect 1 The text of the law is available at http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORF TEXT000000417977&categorieLien = id [last accessed January 5, 2014].