Hijab-wearing women are denied individual identity and reduced to collective stereotypes

Evidence

Saima: I feel like whenever I see non-Muslims that the first thing that comes to their mind when they see someone like me—[may] not necessarily [be] terrorist, but it’s a totally negative image. Like I really just want to walk into a situation where it’s just a blank slate. Yeah, let me create my own image. Let me create my own identity. If you want to hate me or disrespect me at the end, let it be because of who I am and not because of your simplemindedness or your naiveness or your ignorance [or] from what you’ve been told. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 406

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘blank slate’ desire — wanting to enter a space unread — is visceral reporting on the interior experience of being watched. Could anchor an essay on how surveillance strips the right to self-presentation.
• ADDENDUM: Echoes the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ thread — the hijab as a body made legible by others against one’s will, comparable to how moral panic redefines women’s dress as a public statement.