“My Hijab Is Like My Skin Color”: Muslim Women Students, Racialization, and Intersectionality

Abstract

During the past several years a growing body of literature has encouraged sociologists to examine the intersection of race and Islam as a distinct form of racialization. What is further needed is an understanding of the experiences of racialization of Muslims through the prism of intersectionality. Applying and expanding Selod’s (2018a, 2018b) conceptualization of “gendered racialization” we argue American and international Muslim college women in the United States experience racialization at the intersection of nationality-culture; how their corporeal bodies are gendered and racially signified; religious-political expression; and legal-political policies and practices. Using data from 34 Muslim women college students we argue, first, that they are being racialized in similar practices and feel un-American and that they do not belong but how they mitigate racialization differs based on their intersecting identities. Specifically, the intersecting forces of nationality, gender and racial body signification, and religious-political expression are pertinent. Second, Muslim women college students negotiate their racialization with different coping strategies informed by their intersecting identities, notably their nationality and how they are bodily signified. These findings expose how whiteness is a malleable process for Muslim college women and choosing how to navigate racialization is determined by competing identities.

Identity Construction and Classroom Participation Of An Indonesian Graduate Student In An Australian University

“…She was marginalized for her long hijab and a stereotype view that Muslim women are prohibited to go out home for a study. This analysis indicates consistencies in the previous research on Muslim women in general studying in western universities (see Hass, 2020;Karaman & Christian, 2020;Leet-Otley, 2020), despite the fact that scant attention is directed to female L2 learners. Such a discrimination hampers Andin's participation in the first year of her study.…”

Actions to Promote the Employment and Social Inclusion of Muslim Women Who Wear the Hijab in Catalonia (Spain)

“…In response to the challenge of accommodating the religious diversity faced by various European countries and countries worldwide [4,6], the study has not only helped illustrate the specific situations of exclusion experienced by Muslim women in Catalonia (Spain) who decided to wear the hijab in the public arena, including the workplace, thus contributing to the body of existing studies on the field [13,14,17], but also created new knowledge on ways to improve the professional opportunities for this social group. Consequently, our findings complement those of earlier studies [36,42] which pointed out that, while the management of religious diversity in the workplace is complex and may generate resistance among the different actors involved, it can also become an opportunity to improve organizations, since incorporating issues of diversity in the workplace can afford ground for accommodating and recognizing a wide range of individual, cultural and social aspects of the lives of the different people who share the workplace.…”

“…Furthermore, those Muslim women who wear the hijab are more exposed to prejudice due to multiple discrimination [9,13]. As pointed out by Karaman and Christian [14], Muslim women who wear the hijab experience a unique form of racialization, not only due to their gender, but also to the fact that by wearing an externally visible symbol they are easily identifiable as Muslim. Likewise, Muslim women who wear symbols such as the hijab are often subject to stereotypical images.…”

“…Likewise, Muslim women who wear symbols such as the hijab are often subject to stereotypical images. One the one hand, the Muslim headscarf as a symbol is frequently identified with forms of female oppression [14,15]. Along this line, Heiss and Herzog [16] drew on the contributions of decolonial theory and the concept of invisibility to analyze what is visible and invisible in public space.…”

“Should I Wear a Headscarf to be a Good Muslim Woman?”: Situated Meanings of the Hijab Among Muslim College Women in America

“…After 9/11 Muslim women were perceived as potentially dangerous and a threat to national security and American identity (Aziz 2012;Beydoun 2013). This would only increase during and after the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump who stoked and weaponized Islamophobia for electoral victory (Karaman and Christian 2020). Visually, the headscarf, and therefore Muslim women, became a perceived symbol of anti-Americanness (Aziz 2012;Beydoun 2013;Galonnier 2015).…”