As a young girl growing up in colonial Algeria, Marnia Lazreg was enjoined by her grandmother to wear a veil, to “protect” herself.
Ms. Lazreg refused.
She didn’t feel the need for such protection, and the veil wouldn’t provide it anyway.
The answer she came up with in a collection of five essays, “Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women,” published in 2009, was the same she had given her grandmother so many years before: a firm negative.
Her death, in a hospital where she was being treated for cancer, was confirmed by her son Ramsi Woodcock.
Persons:
Marnia Lazreg, ”, Lazreg, Ramsi Woodcock
Organizations:
Hunter College
Locations:
Algeria, Manhattan