Abstract

Democracy and freedom are valuable principles and main constituents of the American “way of life” which many countries aspire to. This may be true, but when such a freeing democracy is exported in a standardized western style and imposed on other nations, it becomes oppressive, debilitating, and uninspiring. This paper examines the double standards used in relation to issues of democracy and veiling within US rhetoric and hegemonic discourses. It also highlights what US democracy means to nations like Afghanistan, Egypt, and Iraq. It aims to underline the impact of the rhetoric of freedom and democracy on the Muslim world. This argument has important implications for theory and practice directed at disturbing dominant discourses of democracy and veiling.

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