Signifiers like the hijab organize Muslims into homogenized societal categories

Evidence

A brief overview of semiology, in particular the writing of Ferdinand de Saussure, provides some theoretical insight into this process. For him, the sign has two distinctions: firstly, the meaning underpinning it, and secondly, the form it takes. In semiology, the meaning is that which is signified, whilst the form that it takes is the signifier. The hijab therefore would be the signifier, in that it gave meaning to and made known Muslim women – and Muslims per se – in certain frames of reference. Thus the signifiers – identifier, product or sign depending upon the terminology preferred – were organised and interpreted, through that meaning that they made known, by both the perpetrators of such retaliatory attacks and also those who did not undertake retaliatory attacks. So when either ‘Muslim’ or ‘Islam’ is made known through a signifier, so a process of signification ensues that organises and classifies into distinct societal categories that have homogenising characteristics and qualities. … Thus similarities can be seen between the textual signifier of ‘fundamentalist’ in the media and the visual signifier of the hijab or niqab in the more social setting. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 753

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces Saussure’s signifier/signified distinction as the theoretical engine for how Islamophobia operates through signs.
• XREF: Connects to Stuart Hall’s shared conceptual maps and to Bleich’s and Runnymede’s definitional frameworks being surveyed in this module. — connects to: Anti-Muslim attacks target visibly identifiable markers like the hijab. — Nasar Meer, Tariq Modood, Refutations of Racism in the ‘Muslim…, 44; The racialized content of the Muslim category persisted across changing labels — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 163; Muslim women are disproportionately targeted because hijabs make them most visibly Muslim — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 555 (+13 more)

Related

• Anti-Muslim attacks target visibly identifiable markers like the hijab. (similarity 0.88)
• Wearing the hijab shifts how Muslim women are racially perceived and treated (similarity 0.84)
• Visual markers of Muslim identity are treated as interchangeable signs of threat (similarity 0.84)
• The hijab functions like skin tone by marking bodies as racial others (similarity 0.84)
• The hijab signals foreignness so strongly it overrides ethnicity and skin tone (similarity 0.84)
• The hijab functions as Islam’s most provocative symbol in Western public discourse. (similarity 0.84)
• The hijab marks Muslim women instantly and provokes hostile public encounters (similarity 0.83)
• Muslim names alone can racialize phenotypically white people (similarity 0.83)
• Muslim women are disproportionately targeted because hijabs make them most visibly Muslim (similarity 0.83)
• The hijab overrides whiteness as a racializing agent on any wearer. (similarity 0.83)
• Muslim identity gets racialized through names and clothing, not only skin tone (similarity 0.82)
• A white non-Muslim can be forced into the Muslim’s demonological position (similarity 0.82)
• Muslims move down the racial hierarchy rather than becoming a new race (similarity 0.82)
• The hijab makes Muslim women visible targets of displaced anti-terror anger (similarity 0.82)
• Ordinary fashion choices become racial markers on hijabi bodies (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• The hijab rather than skin tone triggers racializing surveillance of Muslim women #expands (0.90) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 292
• The hijab functions like skin tone by marking bodies as racial others #expands (0.90)
• Racial profiling extends to religious signifiers like Muslim names and clothing. #expands (0.90) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 227
• Ordinary fashion choices become racial markers on hijabi bodies #exemplifies (0.85) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 412
• Muslim religious identity becomes a racial category through surveillance. #expands (0.85)
• The hijab signals foreignness so strongly it overrides ethnicity and skin tone #expands (0.85) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 349
• Wearing the hijab shifts how Muslim women are racially perceived and treated #corroborates (0.85)
• Religious identity can be racialized when signifiers trigger profiling #corroborates (0.85)
• Religious identity racializes Arab and South Asian Muslims along shared lines #expands (0.80)
• Converting to Islam or wearing the hijab causes loss of whiteness privileges #exemplifies (0.80) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 261
• Anti-Islamophobia frameworks can reproduce the very homogenization they oppose #complicates (0.80) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 397
• Gendered Islamophobia names discrimination targeting Muslim women #expands (0.75)