Hijabophobia
Racial profiling on Muslim women who wear headscarves is one of many examples of Islamophobia. The hijab is seen as an anomaly, something that deviates from the normal, and has come to symbolize female oppression. In an Islamic context, hijab is interpreted as a principle of modesty which includes dress code and behavior. The most common manifestation of this concept is the complete covering of everything except the hands, feet, face.
According to a study by Assistant Professor Shania Ghumman from the University of Hawaii Manoa in the Shidler College of Business, out of all of religious symbols and clothing, the hijab was understood as the most visual identifier of Islam. Thus, in the rise of Islamophobia after 9/11, hate crimes and discrimination toward hijabis has intensified in reaction to a perceived threat. Phrases such as “go back to your country” or “this is America” are only just some examples of verbal discrimination that are often directed toward hijabis. Below are two examples of racial profiling against hijabis. One in the workplace and one in a public transportation.
According to a study by Assistant Professor Shania Ghumman from the University of Hawaii Manoa in the Shidler College of Business, out of all of religious symbols and clothing, the hijab was understood as the most visual identifier of Islam. Thus, in the rise of Islamophobia after 9/11, hate crimes and discrimination toward hijabis has intensified in reaction to a perceived threat. Phrases such as “go back to your country” or “this is America” are only just some examples of verbal discrimination that are often directed toward hijabis. Below are two examples of racial profiling against hijabis. One in the workplace and one in a public transportation.
Boudlal vs. Disney 2012
Imane Boudlal, a Moroccan-born US citizen who worked at the Storyteller Café in Disney’s Grand California Hotel, started wearing a hijab to work after having worked at the restaurant for two and a half years. When she did, she said she was told to take it off or work "backstage" where customers wouldn't see her.
Disney said that all employees, or "cast members," whether they're dressed up as a Disney character or not, wear "costumes" if they interact with customers. However, Boudlal said that her "costume" was just a uniform, and that her white hijab matched it. Boudlal's managers offered her a bow-tie bonnet covered with a hat as a substitute for her hijab but Boudlal refused the substitute, saying, "The hat makes a joke of me and my religion, and draws even more attention to me. It's unacceptable. They don't want me to look Muslim," she said. She also added that several employees violated the ‘look policy’ but they were not suspended nor instructed to work in the back. |
Sydney Woman Praised for Defending Hijabi in TrainStacey Eden defended a Muslim woman after she was harassed by another passenger on a train. The passenger who was a senior had been verbally abusing the Muslim woman, calling her an ISIS supporter because of her identifiable choice to wear a headscarf. The woman responded by saying: “Your kids behead people in Syria. […] Read the newspapers, 148 people, Christians murdered in Kenya. They’re killing each other in Syria. Don’t sit there disrespecting someone that has nothing to do with it. Have some respect. If you've got nothing nice to say, don't say anything."
|
The Hijab Anomaly : “If you don’t look like us, you are not us”
Both Bouldlal vs. Disney and the Sydney train hijabi harassment examples prove that there is identifiable alienation of Muslim women who choose to wear the headscarf. These two examples demonstrate the same Islamophobia experiment featured in “Islamophobia Making Muslims the Enemy” by Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg. The experiment asked most Americans (statistic not included) to write down, with as little thought and as much honesty any names, places, events, ideas, practices, and objects that they associated with Muslims or Islam. Not surprisingly, most of the respondents gave similar sets of answers. They tended to associate Islam and Muslims with Osama bin Laden, the 9/11 attack, Palestinian suicide bombers, “jihad”, veiling, and an association of Shariah law with oppression.
The profiling of Muslim hijabis has been born out of the confrontations of predominantly Christian Europe and Muslim Middle East over economic resources, religious sites, and political power. This socioeconomic and political dispute creates and motivates suspicion and fear--the root of Islamophobia. Only when people cure their ignorance about Islam and the Muslim can this social cancer can be cured.
The profiling of Muslim hijabis has been born out of the confrontations of predominantly Christian Europe and Muslim Middle East over economic resources, religious sites, and political power. This socioeconomic and political dispute creates and motivates suspicion and fear--the root of Islamophobia. Only when people cure their ignorance about Islam and the Muslim can this social cancer can be cured.