History Main / HidingInAHijab

* In ''Creator/RichardScarry's Busy, Busy World'', Couscous, the (male) Algerian detective disguises himself as a [[DisguisedInDrag female]] BellyDancer, covering his face with a Niqab, to infiltrate Pepe the Gangster's hideout.

* This was done by Luke Cage and Danny Rand in the 81st ''Power Man and Iron Fist'' issue; part of the gag was that the cover advertised "a bevy of beautiful dancing girls" without mentioning just who two of those "girls" were.
* ComicBook/{{Tintin}} and Captain Haddock sneak past [[{{Qurac}} Khemed]] guards while wrapped up and balancing urns on their heads in ''The Red Sea Sharks''. The captain trips, nearly swears, and manages to keep the urn balanced to the guards' unhidden admiration. Later at a well, they meet another robed woman who questions them in Arabic. When neither answers, she rips off the (bearded) captain's veil. [[SoMuchForStealth Who starts yelling at her as Snowy pops out of the urn and starts barking at her.]] Fortunately they escape before the guards can find them, but alarm is raised and they're saved only by their pursuers' [[FriendlyFire incompetence]].
* Used in ''[[ComicBook/NewMutants New X-Men: Academy X]]'', when ComicBook/{{X 23}} knocks out Dust and "borrows" her niqab, going in her place to what X recognizes as a trap. When a sniper shoots "Dust" and they bring in the body, Laura [[HealingFactor wakes up]] and takes them out.

--> "Is that a bloodstain?"

* In ''VideoGame/SyphonFilterTheOmegaStrain'', the female version of Cobra dresses in a burqa for the [[NoGearLevel Arms Bazaar]] [[StealthBasedMission mission]] in Yemen. As usual, certain guards can see through the player's disguise, although the others don't seem to notice when you're carrying a weapon and wearing night-vision goggles on the ''outside'' of the veil. Just don't walk around with the gun drawn.

[[caption-width-right:270:Creator/MichelleYeoh in ''Film/SuperCop'', using a hijab to pose as a local during the Malaysian stake-out.]]

* In France, the debates around interdiction of wearing burkha in the streets is partly inspired by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_secularism concerns related to the old French secularism principle]], and partly by this trope, to avoid thieves or burglars to hide their identity under this practical disguise.
* Michael Jackson once [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4650420.stm wore traditional Islamic women's garb to hide from paparazzi.]] He was found out when he used the ladies' restroom and someone walked in on him.
* During the War on Terror, this has been a legitimate strategy done by various military units to infiltrate terror groups by disguising soldiers as women in burkhas and attacking once they're deep within enemy territory. After a few successful attacks, some of the terror groups have gotten wise to this and have forbidden fully-cloaked people from getting close to their bases; making this strategy harder to do successfully today.

* In 2021, an Indonesian man with Covid-19 [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2021/07/21/man-covid-disguised-wife-plane/?sh=17546bb81ac9 used a niqab while (unsuccessfully) attempting to disguise himself as his wife when boarding a domestic flight]].

* A variation of this trope occurs in the ''Series/PartyDown'' episode "Not On Your Wife". The titular catering team is catering an opening night party at a community theatre, and at one point, Henry and Casey go backstage, and Casey puts on a burqa costume from the play. When she and Henry kiss shortly afterward, Lydia walks in on them, and Casey attempts to re-adjust the costume to hide her face from Lydia (as she knows that [[GossipyHens Lydia will tell everyone about Casey and Henry kissing if she finds out the truth]]).

* A variation of this trope is done in the ''Series/PartyDown'' episode "Not On Your Wife". The titular catering team is catering an opening night party at a community theatre, and at one point, Henry and Casey go backstage, and Casey puts on a burqa costume from the play. When she and Henry kiss shortly afterward, Lydia walks in on them, and Casey attempts to re-adjust the costume to hide her face from Lydia (as she knows that [[GossipyHens Lydia will tell everyone about Casey and Henry kissing if she finds out the truth]]).

* ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'': In one episode, Lupin and his gang steal burqas to hide from Inspector Zenigata. Zenigata tracks them to a well where women are doing the laundry. Finding the gang's discarded clothes, he forces the women there to remove their veils, and promptly subverts the trope when it's revealed the ladies are actual ladies, who promptly make their displeasure known with wooden laundry mallets. Later in the episode, it's played straight when the gang actually does disguise themselves in burqas. Afraid of getting beaten again, Zenigata lets them go without an inspection.
** In another episode, Zenigata himself dons this disguise as he and Lupin are on the run from the local Foreign Legion.

* Done in an early episode of ''Series/{{Community}}'' where Shirley's two children [[TotemPoleTrench hide in a burqa]] so that Abed's cousin can get in the bouncy-castle without Abed's disapproving father noticing that she's gone.

* {{Tintin}} and Captain Haddock sneak past [[{{Qurac}} Khemed]] guards while wrapped up and balancing urns on their heads in ''The Red Sea Sharks''. The captain trips, nearly swears, and manages to keep the urn balanced to the guards' unhidden admiration. Later at a well, they meet another robed woman who questions them in Arabic. When neither answers, she rips off the (bearded) captain's veil. [[SoMuchForStealth Who starts yelling at her as Snowy pops out of the urn and starts barking at her.]] Fortunately they escape before the guards can find them, but alarm is raised and they're saved only by their pursuers' [[FriendlyFire incompetence]].

* This is used a couple of times in ''Comicbook/YTheLastMan''. A trio of renegade Cuelper ring agents tracking 355 wore burqas until they caught up with her in San Francisco. Later in Australia, 355 decided that [[LivingMacGuffin Yorick]]'s gas mask & poncho getup was growing too implausible and provided him a... pre-owned one.

* [[http://browse.deviantart.com/art/The-Devil-s-Box-2-245334436 This]] {{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}} fic has Demona (in her human guise) attempt to hide from the police disguised as a Muslim housewife calling herself Dema Darwish.

* ''Series/TopGear'''s Middle East Christmas Special had the presenters take a meandering journey from Iraq to Bethlehem. Driving through Syria, the guys unexpectedly discovered that ''Top Gear'' is [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff extremely popular in Syria]]. Which posed a problem, because Israel doesn't allow entry to people who have been in Syria.[[note]]Having a second passport without evidence of travel to Syria is the usual workaround, but they feared "Top Gear Visits Syria" publicity might precede them.[[/note]] After their attempt to pass through the empty Syrian desert ended with James being hospitalised with a serious head injury, they then decided to don burqas instead to pass unnoticed. This cunning plan didn't work all that well, as three people in burqas driving bizarrely modified convertible sports coupes still tend to draw attention.[[note]]In any case, they eventually made it past the Israeli border crossing without incident.[[/note]]

Just how you're supposed to come by one of these is not important. How you find one in your size is even less so. The important thing is that you can hide your face without drawing the kind of attention a mask or hood would bring down on you, and make yourself harder to find than Literature/WheresWaldo. Often overlaps with DisguisedInDrag when done by a male character, where it's even more likely to be PlayedForLaughs than usual. MysteriousVeil may or may not include the full hijab but serves much the same purpose. A [[BadHabits nun's habit]] can fulfill a similar purpose in western settings. Contrast with BedlahBabe, the other stereotypical clothing for Middle-Eastern women.

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