The hijab functions as a racializing agent by marking wearers outside American beauty norms.

Evidence

Maham dresses like many other American women who live in an urban area like Chicago—she wears black or darker colors. She feels her black hijab matches the colors of her clothes. Black is not an unusual aesthetic for individuals who live in large cities. (In fact, in a 1994 New York Times article on fashion, John Tierney theorizes about the affinity New Yorkers have for black clothing.5) But Maham is not seen or treated like any ordinary American citizen who prefers to wear black. The hijab marks her as someone who is morbid. The librarian tried to explain that she was assuming this was a cultural practice of Maham’s, regardless of the fact that she was wearing jeans and a black sweater that day. Cultural practices like wearing the hijab are viewed as unattractive and as an eyesore in American society. Muslim women are repeatedly told that beauty is equated with showing more of one’s body and the practice of wearing the hijab is beneath American standards of beauty. It creates assumptions of what constitutes American beauty and situates Muslim women outside of this norm. Thus through a rejection of American cultural norms such as beauty, the hijab works as a racializing agent on Muslim women’s bodies. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 298

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explicitly defines the hijab as a ‘racializing agent’ — key conceptual move the reader needs from Selod.
• XREF: Ties directly to the reader’s ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ — the moral-panic lens crosses cultures and eras.