Hijab pat-downs are performative security that vilifies while appearing protective

Evidence

Ayesha: I was quiet because I couldn’t believe he just asked me that. Then I was like, “Well, I wear it for religious reasons. I’m not going to take it off.” And then he was like, “Oh.” And then he called the female person over and then I was so confused. So then she was like, “Okay. You can do it yourself. Just reach under your scarf and move it around or something, make sure there’s nothing there.” I was like, “I fly quite a bit and this is the first time I’m experiencing this.” And she was like, “I personally don’t think it’s right.” And she said herself, “I think it’s discrimination and profiling.” The act of stopping Ayesha and searching her hijab is a spectacle of security. I refer to this as performing security. If the TSA agent truly felt Ayesha was hiding a dangerous weapon underneath her scarf, she would not allow her to pat herself down. This act shows how stopping and searching Muslim women who wear the hijab is a symbolic gesture of security that makes some bodies feel more secure while vilifying others. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 151

Categorization

• DEFINE: ‘Performing security’ — a concept that names how the spectacle works, and the reader flagged interior experience of being watched as prime material.
• XREF: The concept of ‘performing security’ as symbolic gesture resonates with the immodesty-panics article’s thesis about dress signaling identity/politics.