The veil ban discourse silences Muslim women’s own autonomous voices

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

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Kumar’s earlier argument distinguishing portrayals of Muslim women as victims from their agency; parallels Spivak’s ‘Can the Subaltern Speak’ and Rana’s work on racialized Muslims. — connects to: Scholarly discourse can itself silence and wound marginalized participants; French media gave hijab-wearing women no voice in the 2004 ban debate — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 515; Western journalists describe veiled Muslim women as faceless victims lacking personhood — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 516 (+12 more)
• SEED: Angle: how rescue-narrative discourse structurally excludes the rescuers’ own claimed beneficiaries’ testimony.

Broader Connections

• The hijab-oppresses-women narrative is sexist and contradicts surveyed Muslim women #corroborates (0.80) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 373
• Circulating veiled-woman imagery deadens Westerners’ sense of Muslim women’s diversity #expands (0.70) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 394
• Erasing non-Western feminist activity constitutes a silencing Islamophobic move #expands (0.70)
• Western discourse displaces Muslim threats onto obsessing over women’s clothing #expands (0.65) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 356
• Gendered Islamophobia imposes the most distorted stereotypes on veiled Muslim women. #expands (0.60)
• Muslim women alter their dress in response to fellow citizens’ surveillance, not male oppression #corroborates (0.60)