Modernity claims a rupture between past and present; civilized and uncivilized. The European Enlightenment, nationalism, intellectualism, in addition to technological advancement and economic property are the main sources of modernity. It doubtlessly has caused a lot of changes in the everyday lives of people like their dress codes, languages, social customs and more importantly, their worldviews. Among others dress was particularly associated with modernity as it was the most conspicuous aspect of the citizen and it was thought that when a woman "modernizes," the rest of the society would follow her. The logic was very simple; when a woman covers her hair and some parts of her body she would be considered as backward and therefore uncivilized.On the other hand, visible hair and a particular style of clothing would disassociate her from the less civilized past. The female body, therefore, was made the subject of state power through the modernizing project of republicanism. However, making women the subjects of the state power openly contradicted the so-called liberalization of society. Claiming the emancipation of women would also mean restricting their freedom of choice by putting constraints on their free will of controlling their bodies. Under the influence of the Enlightenment, the project of modernity assumes the intellectual advancement in all kinds of human actions and when a woman choses to veil herself, modernity accuses her of lacking the ability of reasoning. She is considered to have abandoned her freedom and submitted her will to Muslim men. In this imagined scenario, it is the Muslim men who control women - especially their outward appearance. So, the state assumes the role of a protector and tries to liberate and rescue the Muslim woman.The Western reader would remember two Hollywood movies in whose plots the hero tries to rescue the woman he thinks has to be saved. John Ford's 1956 movie "The Searches" deals with native American tribe Comanche during the Civil War who are depicted as ruthless and a threat to the modern, civilized white men. Ethan Edwards (played by John Wayne) tries to rescue his niece (Debbie Edwards, played by Natalie Wood) who was abducted from the tribe without asking her opinion. Yet, she refuses and decides to remain with the Comanche as one of the wives of the chief. In another movie, Martin Scorsese portrays a Vietnam war veteran who, upon returning the U.S. becomes a "Taxi Driver" (1976). The American society appears to be in an imminent collapse due to various ideological and radical movements of contemporary culture. Feminism, black activism, gay rights, student movements and anti-war campaigns all have contributed to an emerging social hysteria.The bourgeois patriarchal capitalism is the dominant ideology and in such a context a redeemer (Travis Bickle, played by Robert de Niro) becomes a cowboy like in earlier Western movies and tries to save the innocent people from the villains. In the movie the hero tries to emancipate two women, one from the corrupt political order (Betsy, played by Cybill Shepherd) and the other one from prostitution (Iris, played by Jodie Foster). These two women refuse to be saved exactly in the same manner and for reasons like in the Ford's movie. Western ideology in general and the American one in particular has assumed the role of emancipating other, so-called uncivilized, people and they believe they were given the task of civilizing others which is a - white man's - burden. They have gone to the continent of America, deserts of Africa and steppes of Asia in order to rescue indigenous people from the slavery in their undesirable life styles and ignorance. The new cowboys transferred from John Wayne movies are now all around the world and they are trying to accomplish the task of modernizing the rest. They are rescuing the Middle Eastern people from ruthless dictators. They are saving Muslim women from their brutal fathers, husbands and brothers. It never occurs to them that these people whom they are trying to save might not wish to be saved by them. As many of them have seen the arrival of democracy with bullets and tanks made in the West!Recently, France, another Western cowboy, has attempted to rescue the French Muslim (native or immigrant) women from the brutality of their men. The French Republican tradition and legacy rooted in the principle of laïcité (à la française), which is an extreme militant secularism that attempts to create a society in which religion is imprisoned in the private life of citizens. Along with the language, this militant laïcité à la française defines the French citizenship and in the cases of violation of this principle it is feared that the "values of the Republic" are under threat. In order to overcome this threat some small communities on the southern shores of France have tried to ban the burkini - a full-body-covering swimwear for women that adheres to the Islamic dress code. Some French politicians who regard themselves as the standard bearers of modernity and women's emancipation have argued that the burkini was a symbol of oppression and they would not allow it on the beaches as it threatens the social integrity of the French society. In their anti-burkini crusade, again it never occurs to them to simply ask whether these Muslim women have freely chosen their clothing styles. It does not occur to them that these women are being robbed of their free choice. As it was stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, various basic human rights such as the right to life, religion, expression, liberty, security, privacy, marriage and fair trials are guaranteed by the states. There are additional articles concerning the protection of individuals from slavery, torture, and most basically discrimination according to their ethnicity, religion, color of skin or gender. As per with these basic rights, freedom of clothing or even freedom of fashion is easily derived and needs to be offered to all citizens regardless of their gender.The modernist theory also needs to give up the assumption that the subject is coherent and integrated; rather, subjectivity must be accepted through signification which is externally driven rather than an internal process. Accordingly, the concept of freedom needs to be defined anew as an active process of the individual who asserts herself or himself concerning the various aspects of everyday life be it practicing her/his religion or clothing in this or that fashion. Freedom should no longer be treated as the absence of coercion simply, on the contrary, freedom is an active participation in the public space with the preferences chosen by the self which requires the respect of others sharing the same space.