Hijab in Twitter: Advocates and Critics: A Content Analysis of Hijab-Related Tweets

One of the disputed topics in Islamic countries is the hijab, a veil that covers the head and chest, which is sometimes worn by some Muslim women. This study reports how Twitter users regard the hijab. As part of our investigation we collected hijab-related tweets from between August 28 and September 3, 2015, using NodeXL. We programmatically detected tweet languages using Language Detection API and categorized contents into eleven topics. Ninety percent of all tweets were in Arabic, seven percent in Persian and three percent in Urdu. Anti-extremism and hijab advocates were the most frequently identified topics. Topics related to hijab and corresponding business goals, were infrequent, and rarely retweeted. We also calculated the impression to identify the most influential users, such as religious leaders, news agencies, and journalists.