Navigating Islam: The Hijab and the American Workplace

Abstract

The United States Constitution allows individuals to practice any religion they choose. However, the austerity of this right is tested when an individual's belief is publicly displayed. For Muslim women wearing the hijab, or headscarf, the intersection between private religious practice and its social expression is explored on a daily basis. To fully understand the manifestation of public religious expression, this paper examines a series of interviews with 35 hijab-wearing Muslim women living in the United States. By exploring the lived experiences of Muslim-American women, this paper highlights the broader issues of the media's influence on perceptions of Muslim culture, the complex and often unclear legality of religious symbols in the workplace, and the barriers that exist for hijab-wearing women in the workplace. With the rise of Islamophobia, the participants found a stronger sense to exert their right to express their religious identities. Moreover, the women interviewed demonstrate their agency by continuing to embrace their religious practice despite intersecting forms of discrimination.

Using Narrative Inquiry to Understand Anti-Muslim Racism in Canadian Nursing

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Mental Health among Muslim Career Women

“…In addition, Muslim women also experience mental health problems caused by religious and gender discrimination. According to Koura (2018), this discrimination is caused by stereotyping and stigmatization by non-Muslims after the 9/11 incident. These issues lead to problems related to mental health problems, such as stress, depression, fear and phobia.…”

“…In Muslim minority countries, such as the United States and Europe, wearing the veil (hijab) is among the factors giving rise to discrimination against Muslim career women. Koura (2017Koura ( & 2018 showed that there were several cases in the United States involving Muslim women who were fired for wearing a veil (hijab) at their workplace. Besides that, Weichselbaumer (2020) found that wearing the veil (hijab) had a negative impact on the lives of Muslim women.…”

“…The findings are summarised in Diagram 5. Koura (2018) stated that the main element that can reduce the level of stress and pressure is the performance of acts that enhance the spiritual aspect, which is to forge good relations with Allah SWT. Anchour, Azmi, Isahak, Nor and Yusoff (2019) supported this suggestion by stating that the most effective means of increasing the level of calmness is to communicate with Allah SWT by performing prayers (solat).…”

Anti-Muslim hate on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean: Lebanon, the Hijab, and modernity/coloniality

“…On a similar level, hijabisstereotyped with a host of negative attitudesare documented as particularly and increasingly subject to various forms of Islamophobic discrimination in the work-sphere (Koura 2018;Mahmud and Swami 2010). While emerging scholarship here is rarely in-depth, it points to the lack of research on discrimination based on religious attire and presents 'direct evidence for both formal and interpersonal discrimination and low expectations of receiving job offers among Hijabis' (Ghumman and Ryan 2013: 692;Abdelhadi 2019;Ghumman and Jackson 2010;Strabac et al 2016).…”