Complex Negotiations and Navigations for Muslim Women Who Veil and Those Who Don’t

• In Event: 2183 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Race, Gender, Bodies

Abstract

Within the context of post 9/11, (veiled) Muslim women are faced with patriarchy, racism and Islamophobia in North American societies and within their own Muslim diaspora communities. Popular media outlets, as well as general public discourse, have ascribed meanings to the hijab. The hijab has been portrayed as a gender oppressive symbol, a threat to secularism and national security, a symbol of racialized difference and anti-integration into mainstream society. Congruently, within their own diaspora communities, the hijab also gets assigned a number of different meanings. Muslim women who wear the hijab are seen as ‘pure women’, women that are committed to faith and Islam, as well as visible religious and political representations of Islam itself. This paper investigates how Muslim women in Quebec navigate these hegemonic discourses surrounding hijab. Findings reveal that participants have developed savvy skills to navigate these meanings by accommodating to the dominant culture in non-assertive ways or rejecting the culture altogether.

Author

• Jessica Stallone, University of Toronto