As Britain tangles with the issue of the veil, I remember wrestling with my own. It was the sound of polyester muffling my ears that I most detested. Traipsing around the Al-Faisaliah Mall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the turn of the millennium, keeping my standard-issue hijab (or headscarf) secured while managing my floor-length abaya (an all-covering black gown) was my prime anxiety in public.

Too often, my nemesis – the hijab – would not stay. It would slip off silently, only for the ever vigilant religious police to ambush me with the admonition: “Cover your hair!”. There were even “Cover Your Hair!” fridge magnets back then.

Yet, 20 years later, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is calling for the kingdom to adopt a more moderate form of Islam, going so far as to announce that women no longer need to wear traditional black abayas or headscarves.

His country is not alone. Within days of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, newly elected President Sisi of Egypt addressed the clerics of Al Azhar University, the oldest seat of learning of Sunni Islam, demanding a need for “religious revolution” and the rescue of Islam from “ideology”. Sisi was referring to Islamism. Morocco is sealing shut the factories which weave the fabric to make burkas. Turkey strictly forbids the niqab (the veil that leaves all the face covered apart from the eyes) and even the hijab among its judicial and military personnel.