"The Veil: Visible and Invisible Spaces" is a special exhibit that will be on display for about two months in the Fine Arts Center Gallery. Special programs related to the exhibit will also take place in the gallery. Visiting artist Sara Rahbar will give a lecture and presentation Oct. 7; art educator Themina Kader will present a lecture on the topic of contemporary Islamic artists Oct. 9; and Kahf will give a reading in the gallery Oct. 15, according to a press release.

Different interpretations and manifestations of the veil have occupied the walls of the Fine Arts Center Gallery. "The Veil: Visible and Invisible Spaces" is a traveling exhibition of about 35 works of art, each of which ponders the meaning of the veil.

The veil has always been momentous, said exhibit curator Jennifer Heath, from Boulder, Colo. "[It is] a symbol of mystery, of nature, of the divine, of many things."

As much as the veil is a fabric or a garment, it is also a concept, according to a press release about the exhibit. The title of the exhibit comes from the hidden and veiled aspects everyone has "within our families, in our cultures and spiritual practices," Heath said.

The veil, however, has become significant among non-Muslims, particularly Westerners, "as a symbol of Islam, of political dissension, of oppression. It's very big stuff and highly misinterpreted," she said.

"[It] means much more than the political stereotypes we ascribe to it today," she said. "It is ancient and deeply meaningful."

The exhibit is a visual companion to Heath's edited volume, "The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics," which was published this summer. The volume explores and examines the cultures, politics and histories of veiling. Twenty-one writers and scholars, who all represent a wide range of societies, religions, ages and races, contribute to the volume. Additionally, author and UA English professor Mohja Kahf contributed to the first chapter, Heath said.

Similar to the exhibit, the essays are arranged in three parts: the veil as an expression of the sacred; the veil in relation to the emotional and the sensual; and the veil in its sociopolitical aspects, Heath said.

"Today, veiling is a globally polarizing issue, a locus for the struggle between Islam and the West and between contemporary and traditional interpretations of Islam," she said. "But veiling was a practice long before Islam and still extends far beyond the Middle East.