Purpose Using Pakistan, a non-Arab, Muslim-majority country, as a context, this research aims to examine the hijab’s role in managing (in)visibility in the workplace. (In)visibility in this research refers to experiences that include invisibility, visibility and hypervisibility. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a qualitative approach with 25 semi-structured interviews of educated women office workers who choose to wear the hijab. Findings Their narratives reveal the perceptions and experiences of wearing the hijab. The study demonstrates the structural embeddedness of the “male gaze” within organisations and women’s agency. When gendered structures appear impermeable, women’s agency can draw on religious resources like the hijab to alter the male gaze and deflect unwanted attention from men, using the hijab to create “strategic invisibility”. Originality/value The (in)visibility framework has not been used to examine the hijab as a “choice” for professional attire. While the use of the hijab in a non-Arab context adds another layer of visibility to the already visible working woman, this study demonstrates that the hijab is used as an agent of power because of the silencing processes concealed within norms, customs and values. It demonstrates that processes around (in)visibility are highly complex and dependent on gender, religious, societal and organisational contexts.
Shehla Riza Arifeen (Fri,) studied this question.