The hijab functions as Islam’s most provocative symbol in Western public discourse.

Evidence

One of the difficulties involved in discussing the threats that Muslims face today is the tendency of those having the conversations to change the subject. For example, there are very few conversations about Islam today which do not ultimately end up touching upon the type of clothing that many Muslim women choose to wear. Instead of focusing on Donald Trump’s Muslim travel bans, or the meteoric rise of right-wing white supremacist neo-Nazi groups in virtually every industrialized nation, many Westerners still cannot lower their obsessive gaze from female Muslim religious attire. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 356 (#expands, via linked claim)

Comparing the experiences of Muslim women who wear the hijab to those who do not wear it demonstrates how clothing can become a racial marker for Muslim women because it triggers surveillance. Women who did not wear the hijab had very different experiences while flying. Samira, a twenty-five-year-old Palestinian American who worked as a domestic violence advocate, told me she was stopped and searched at the security checkpoint when she wore the hijab but has no longer been “randomly” searched at airports since she stopped wearing it. Experiences like this suggest that the hijab is what motivates TSA agents to stop and search Muslim women. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 224 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: European restrictions target Islam’s most visible public symbols. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 608; Hijab-wearers and mosques both symbolize Islam’s threat and face violence — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 506; The hijab marks Muslim women instantly and provokes hostile public encounters (+10 more)

Related

• Western discourse displaces Muslim threats onto obsessing over women’s clothing (similarity 0.90)
• Rising Islamophobia drove many Muslim women to adopt the hijab in protest. (similarity 0.88)
• The hijab marks Muslim women instantly and provokes hostile public encounters (similarity 0.88)
• Anti-Muslim attacks target visibly identifiable markers like the hijab. (similarity 0.88)
• Hijab-wearers and mosques both symbolize Islam’s threat and face violence (similarity 0.87)
• Wearing the hijab shifts how Muslim women are racially perceived and treated (similarity 0.87)
• European restrictions target Islam’s most visible public symbols. (similarity 0.87)
• Muslim women are disproportionately targeted because hijabs make them most visibly Muslim (similarity 0.86)
• The oppressor stereotype itself oppresses hijab-wearing women. (similarity 0.86)
• The War on Terror targets a religiously defined region, making hijab-wearing women stateless foreigners (similarity 0.86)
• The hijab functions as a symbol of defiance against colonialism and Islamophobia (similarity 0.85)
• The hijab functions as a racial marker that triggers airport surveillance (similarity 0.85)
• The hijab signals foreignness so strongly it overrides ethnicity and skin tone (similarity 0.85)
• Muslim women are simultaneously attacked as threats and pitied as victims (similarity 0.85)
• Ordinary fashion choices become racial markers on hijabi bodies (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• The hijab marks Muslim women instantly and provokes hostile public encounters #exemplifies (0.80)
• Western discourse displaces Muslim threats onto obsessing over women’s clothing #expands (0.75) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 356
• The hijab functions as a racial marker that triggers airport surveillance #exemplifies (0.75) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 224
• Hijab-wearers and mosques both symbolize Islam’s threat and face violence #exemplifies (0.70) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 506
• Wearing the hijab shifts how Muslim women are racially perceived and treated #expands (0.70)
• The hijab signals foreignness so strongly it overrides ethnicity and skin tone #expands (0.70) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 349
• The hijab rather than skin tone triggers racializing surveillance of Muslim women #expands (0.70) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 292
• Ordinary fashion choices become racial markers on hijabi bodies #expands (0.65) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 412
• The hijab functions like skin tone by marking bodies as racial others #expands (0.60)
• Wearing the hijab is read as surrendering whiteness and citizenship standing #expands (0.60)
• Race and religion are inextricably intertwined in Islamophobic discourse. #expands (0.60) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 104