Muslim women alter their dress in response to fellow citizens’ surveillance, not male oppression

Evidence

In an attempt to escape the gaze and control the narrative about Islam, Muslim American women were purposeful in how they navigated public spaces. Muslim American women altered their dress, made attempts to smile more and appear assertive, and tried to perform what they saw as American values to the public. Many women told me they felt it was their duty as Muslims to represent Islam in a positive light and in order to counter the stereotypes that have racialized them. Monitoring one’s behavior and actions like this is a form of self-­discipline enacted by the threat of surveillance. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 486 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Because women who wear the hijab are incapable of hiding their religious identity in public, they are forced to deal with the public hostility, as I chronicled in chapter 3. Many Muslim women who wear the hijab have become more vigilant since 9/11 and subsequent terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States because the anger toward Muslims, with hate crimes and anti-­Muslim violence, continues to rise. For Muslim women to avoid public spaces out of fear of physical and verbal abuse is understandable. However, as emphasized in Zara’s testimony, there has been an alternative response to a self-­imposed house arrest: the conscientious decision to try claim a place in American society by showing the compatibility of a Muslim and American identity. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 500 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: American-born Muslim women are assaulted for being recognizably Muslim; Media coverage of Muslim women collapses them into an oppressed-or-dangerous binary — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 407; Muslim women’s bodies are the first site of state policing in Islamophobic societies (+21 more)

Related

• Surveillance pressure to represent an entire collective erodes hijabi women’s individuality (similarity 0.96)
• Hijab-wearing women are caught between self-surveillance and resistance. (similarity 0.94)
• Some hijab-wearing women resist surveillance by reclaiming public space (similarity 0.93)
• Muslim women perform their behavior and dress as self-discipline enacted by surveillance (similarity 0.93)
• Hijab-wearing women altered dress and demeanor under citizen surveillance (similarity 0.93)
• Women alter dress to escape the citizen gaze, not male oppression (similarity 0.93)
• Muslim women’s dress choices are constrained by citizen surveillance, not male oppression (similarity 0.92)
• Hijab-wearing Muslim women self-surveil under scrutiny while claiming agency through it (similarity 0.92)
• Muslim women treat public behavior as a duty to represent Islam favorably. (similarity 0.92)
• Muslim women alter dress and demeanor to counter surveillance-based stereotypes. (similarity 0.91)
• Surveilled Muslim women respond through a mix of self-surveillance and resistance. (similarity 0.90)
• Surveillance leads Muslims to police their own actions and dress (similarity 0.89)
• Muslim women’s bodies are the first site of state policing in Islamophobic societies (similarity 0.89)
• Private citizens surveil hijabi women and recast their dress as un-American (similarity 0.89)
• American-born Muslim women are assaulted for being recognizably Muslim (similarity 0.89)

Broader Connections

• Muslim women perform their behavior and dress as self-discipline enacted by surveillance #corroborates (0.85) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 486
• Some hijab-wearing women resist surveillance by reclaiming public space #complicates (0.60) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 500
• Surveillance pressure to represent an entire collective erodes hijabi women’s individuality #expands (0.60)
• Racializing Muslims as threats sustains a surveillance state with gendered effects #complicates (0.50)