Muslim women veil for varied personal-political reasons silenced by rescue discourse

Evidence

Despite this reality, the logic that Muslim women are oppressed and therefore need to be rescued by the West continues to hold ground. The Islamic veil has been the subject of much controversy. Seen ubiquitously as a symbol of Muslim women’s oppression, the veil has been banned, scorned, or otherwise used to advance the aforementioned colonial argument. In April 2011, the French government recycled this argument when it banned women from wearing the veil in public—running roughshod over religious freedom in the process. Absent from this discourse are the voices of Muslim women themselves, who could construct an alternative narrative—one which speaks to a self-conscious choice made by autonomous individuals. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 167 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

First, it is seen as oppressive and representative of the presumed inferior position of women in Islam. This narrative relies on denying Muslim women wearing the veil any agency, the presumption being that all women are being forced to wear the veil by male family members. While there will of course be instances where this happens, as Tahira argues, ‘The veil cannot be seen as a black-and-white-issue; each woman who wears it has a different story and I would like to see these women recognized as individuals’ (BBC 2017). Equally, it could be argued that Muslim women are being pressured to remove their veils out of fear of anti-Muslim discrimination or violence. — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 561 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Veiling discourse excludes women’s own varied motives for wearing it — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 293; The veil functions as feminist resistance and liberation, not only oppression — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 305; The veil ban discourse silences Muslim women’s own autonomous voices — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 167 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• The veil ban discourse silences Muslim women’s own autonomous voices #corroborates (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 167
• Veil-scepticism narratives deny Muslim women agency and ignore reverse coercion #expands (0.85) — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 561
• Feminist defense of Muslim women silenced those very women #corroborates (0.85)
• Feminist anti-Sharia campaigns silenced the Muslim women they claimed to protect #corroborates (0.85) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 357
• Feminist discourse becomes Islamophobic when it abandons critique for rescue #expands (0.85) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 560
• The imperilled Muslim woman trope structures Western responses to Sharia #expands (0.85)
• Rising Islamophobia causes some Muslim women to adopt the veil as political resistance #expands (0.82) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 846
• Circulating veiled-woman imagery deadens Westerners’ sense of Muslim women’s diversity #expands (0.80) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 394
• Veil bans revived imperialist narratives about Muslim women needing saving #qualifies (0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 712
• Media categories meant to make Muslim women visible actually silence them #expands (0.80) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 584
• Muslim women alter their dress in response to fellow citizens’ surveillance, not male oppression #contradicts (0.80)
• Veiled Muslim women manage anti-Muslim hate crime through concealment and social withdrawal. #expands (0.75) — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 368