Hijab is a social phenomenon shaped through interactions, actions, and reactions, and can be examined from cultural, social, political, economic, identity-based, religious, spiritual, status-related, and behavioral perspectives. This study aimed to qualitatively analyze the meaning system of Hijab among female undergraduate students at the University of Hormozgan. A qualitative approach with Grounded Theory was employed. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 30 students using purposive sampling until theoretical saturation. Data analysis via open, axial, and selective coding yielded fourteen central categories and one core category: "conflicting symbolic capital." Causal conditions included institutional and familial compulsions, conflicting expectations of the ideal Muslim woman, and multiple religious and cultural interpretations. Intervening conditions comprised appearance management through cultural capital and education, navigating veiling among intersecting expectations from networks and peers, and differing representations of hijab at higher social levels. The contextual background included fragmented social spaces and hierarchies of legitimacy across fields. Participants' main strategies were situational adaptation and creative boundary redefinition. Consequences included a gap between actors' values and existing norms, conditional reproduction of structures, formation of fluid and hybrid identities, and consolidation of a bottom-up discourse of resistance. Results indicate that hijab is no longer merely a religious duty or individual choice rooted in internal values, but has become a complex arena of agency, negotiation, resistance, and identity redefinition.