Racialized Muslim women perform emotional labor to dismantle stereotypes of their religion

Evidence

Nazia, a naturalized citizen who is Indian American, no longer wears the hijab, but when she did, she tried to positively represent Islam while wearing it. In order to dismantle the association of Islam with violence and terror, Nazia felt she had to create a new association with Islam. She said, “Because to wear a scarf and go out and be nice, just be a normal human being and still show people that you are a Muslim, I found that to be very encouraging. So I still wore my hijab just to show that I am Muslim.” Nazia’s comment highlights that Muslim women are under constant pressure to demonstrate that they are ordinary Americans; they have to do a lot of work to demonstrate that they are just like everyone else. They are aware of their power to confirm or dismiss racialized understandings of their bodies through their actions and dress. They take cues from their interactions with private citizens and shift their behavior accordingly. Muslim women carry with them the responsibility of dismantling myths about Muslims, which often places limitations on their behaviors. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 387

Categorization

• QUESTION: How far does this pressure-to-represent go in making the surveillance internal rather than just external? Selod seems to be describing self-surveillance among women.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s earlier map of how surveillance racializes Muslim Americans and turns citizens into permanent suspects — this is the self-policing interior dimension.