Muslim men escape stranger harassment but women in hijabs do not

Evidence

Nasreen, a forty-­two-­year-­old Palestinian American and mother of five, said that before she started wearing the hijab, she sometimes passed for white or a white ethnic, like an Italian or Greek. Once she started wearing it, she had some interesting experiences with her neighbors, who she considered to be her friends. After 9/11, the father of her son’s neighborhood friend would come over and engage her in conversation about religion. She felt he was trying to persuade her to give up her religious beliefs. He would try to convince her to take off the hijab. He said, “But you’re so good, Nasreen. You’re so good. And why do you have to put that on? It’s not making you better. It’s ugly.” She told me that his wife did not like her because she wore the hijab. She said her son’s friend would tell her stories of what his mother said about her. He told her his mother said, “She’s white. She’s an American. Why the hell does she have this on?” Another neighbor, an older white woman, said she would be more beautiful without the hijab. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 404 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Citizen surveillance targets hijab-wearing women publicly but men privately as suspected terrorists — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 347; Hijab-wearing women self-impose house arrest out of safety fear — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 488; Wearing the hijab shifts how Muslim women are racially perceived and treated (+4 more)

Related

• The hijab marks Muslim women instantly and provokes hostile public encounters (similarity 0.88)
• Citizen surveillance targets hijab-wearing women publicly but men privately as suspected terrorists (similarity 0.88)
• Muslim women alter their dress in response to fellow citizens’ surveillance, not male oppression (similarity 0.88)
• In the period studied, hijabi women bore more stranger harassment than Muslim men (similarity 0.87)
• Wearing the hijab shifts how Muslim women are racially perceived and treated (similarity 0.87)
• Hijab-wearing women are caught between self-surveillance and resistance. (similarity 0.87)
• Hijab-wearing women altered dress and demeanor under citizen surveillance (similarity 0.86)
• Women alter dress to escape the citizen gaze, not male oppression (similarity 0.86)
• Surveillance pressure to represent an entire collective erodes hijabi women’s individuality (similarity 0.86)
• Citizens surveil hijabi women for supposedly violating American values (similarity 0.86)
• Muslim men respond to surveillance by suppressing visible markers rather than counter-narratives (similarity 0.86)
• Private citizens surveil hijabi women and recast their dress as un-American (similarity 0.86)
• Private citizens surveil Muslim women for cultural transgression and men for security threats (similarity 0.86)
• Fear of violence after terror attacks places hijab-wearing women under house arrest. (similarity 0.86)
• Surveillance targets Muslim women’s veils and Muslim men’s suspected terrorism (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Wearing the hijab shifts how Muslim women are racially perceived and treated #expands (0.75)
• The hijab rather than skin tone triggers racializing surveillance of Muslim women #expands (0.60) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 292
• Surveillance operates differently on Muslim men and women through distinct mechanisms #expands (0.60)
• Hijab converts white-passing women into racialized outsiders #expands (0.60) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 404