Inclusion and Alterity: An analysis of American flag hijab discourse

• In Event: 4147 - Global and Transnational Approaches to Culture and Power (Co-sponsored with the Section on Global and Transnational Sociology)

Abstract

The image of a woman wearing an American flag hijab was one of the most popular posters displayed during the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. The illustrated woman in the poster embodied the essence of the march and its message: liberal America rejects an exclusive understanding of American identity; Muslim women, and particularly refugees from Muslim majority countries, are American, too. Yet, the image proved controversial: voices from the political left, right, and center in some instances praise and in other cases challenge the image. The intersecting and dialectically constituted claims about Muslim alterity and American inclusivity make the discourse about the poster a fruitful case-study to trace American constructions of identity in relation to Muslim subjectivity. Critical discourse analysis shows how writings about the image reveal internal tensions that may temper the political potential of the image, and potentially the larger protest movement of which it was a part.

Author

• Deniz Uyan, Boston College