Discrimination Against Muslim Women

In 2006, complaints of civil rights stemming from Muslim groups have significantly increased from 366 to 2,467. An increase of over 600%.[1] The discrimination against Muslims have escalated over the last decade due to the devastating event of 9/11. Muslims, in general, faced racial profiling and discrimination as a result. However, if we take a step back and look at the issue we can see that the Muslim women are facing ten times more discrimination. Muslim women are generally seen as inferior to men and are treated as second-class citizens. This kind of behavior occurs in the Muslim communities outside of the United States. The discrimination is only worse in the United States. They are seen as a threat. Today, Muslim women are channeling

that hatred towards them and putting it into creativity and strength. They are staying true to themselves and working around the boundaries of both their religion and society’s standards. By wearing vibrant hijabs and participating in the makeup community they have been seen as “relatable” to the non-Muslims. They are trying to comply with society’s “requirements” but are having trouble maintaining that connection they have with their religion. Global significance to society is the fact that Muslim women are treated differently no matter where they go. They are treated worse in their actual birthplace, in the Middle East. On a global scale, discrimination against Muslim women have sprouted in France, England, and the United States. There have been multiple cases where Muslim women were targeted as being dangerous because of their head covering.[2] 69% of women experienced some sort of discrimination when wearing the hijab. However, 29% didn’t experience discrimination when they didn’t have on the hijab.[3] Muslim women are making efforts to fit in society by modernizing their look, attending social events, and even going to extremes and taking off their head covering.

A personal experience I would include would be a social experiment that I did with a couple of friends. My friend passed away and his family was Bosnian so at his funeral we had to cover every inch of skin on our bodies, neck down. We also had to cover our hair so basically it looked like a hijab. We decided to leave them on and walked into a restaurant. All eyes were on us. People began to shift in their seats. Personally, I felt very vulnerable because of all the staring. We got a sense of how it must feel for actual Muslim women. Eighteen-year-old Rowan Elwishawi experienced discrimination and was constantly stereotyped. She had people stare at her and felt out of place.[4]

Important key terms to know ahead of time would include hijab, mipsters, discrimination, islamophobia, and makeup guru. A hijab is a piece of clothing or head covering that symbolizes self-worth and the preference to cover their body. Mipsters are “Muslim hipsters” which are Muslims who have incorporated modern fashion with the traditional Muslim clothing.

Advocates for the position of the Muslim women trying to comply with society’s standards include different Muslim women who blend the two cultures together. Their credentials include their popularity on social media by introducing Muslim girls and women to embrace their culture but put a modern twist on it. The thesis of this argument revolves around the Muslim women combining their culture with society’s trends. Even though Muslim women receive hate they try to bend the rules and alter their traditional fashion to comply with society’s usual fashion in hopes of making them feel more comfortable.[5] Muslim hipsters or ‘mipsters’ have worked around their traditional fashion rules by creating fun modern looks.[6] The significance of this argument is to prove that Muslim women are pushing boundaries to try and mix the two cultures.

Muslim women are more frequently attending popular social events that they won’t normally be seen at.

Many Muslim teens are attending music festivals and different social events. Their credentials/authority are abysmal since they are just regular teenagers with no “high position”. This ties in with the Muslim fashion because most of the time the Muslim women make an effort to blend in with the surrounding people. The amount of Muslims in the United States is steadily increasing with a total of 322 million people in 2015 and will double by 2050.[7] Some cities contain more than 1% of Muslims than any other specific group.[8] Muslims often live in large metropolitan areas such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.[9] Popular music festivals such as Lollapalooza and Coachella are located in those cities. Although it is normal, to others it is surprising to see them outside. This supports the idea of Muslim women trying to “blend” in with society. Especially for the teenagers since they are already surrounded by westernized culture. The significance of this argument is to show how more Muslim women are accepting westernized culture and are making efforts to fit

in.

This argument is different from the first argument because it is mainly talking about the amount of Muslim women attending popular festivals while the first argument is talking about the Muslim fashion. However, they both include the effect of westernized culture on their own culture.

Muslim women are getting rid of their head coverings completely. The thesis of this argument will include the various women either removing their hijab completely or disconnecting from their culture because it comes off as a threat to others in the community. Institutionalized religious practices have been directly targeted as pertaining to a certain religion such as wearing the hijab. [10]Muslim women cannot wear their hijabs for a number of reasons. [11]The hijab mainly symbolizes that a woman expresses her loyalty to only one man and one man only.[12] It also serves as a symbol of stability and preservation of marriage and family.[13] The hijab is often mistaken as a symbol of forced silence or radical militancy. However, it is a way of showing self-worth and how the women don’t want to be perceived only by their physical assets. Naheed Mustafa, a Canadian Muslim, has gained the freedom from attention to her physical appearance because of the hijab.[14] The significance of this argument is to express how far Muslim women are going to fit society’s standards. Most of the time, one-in-five American Muslim adults who were raised Muslim no longer identified with their faith.[15] Some are completely disconnecting themselves from their religion because their religion is seen as dangerous. Many of the Muslims have to work twice as hard to prove that they are up to par because of their religion.[16] A Disney employee sued the theme park due to harassment and religious discrimination against her Muslim religion. [17]Seven Muslim women were kicked out of a California restaurant because six of them were wearing headscarves.[18] A man pulled off a Muslim woman’s hijab and shouted “this is America” during a flight, he was sentenced.[19]

Strengths of this argument include the several accounts of Muslim women taking off their hijab in order to be treated normally.

This argument is different from the two previous arguments because it deals with the Muslim women are disconnecting from their religion rather than tweaking the fashion or participating in more westernized events. This argument is far more serious because the Muslim women are losing a major part of themselves and their cultural identity.

I think that this issue is ridiculous because there should be no reason to hate someone because of their religion.

It makes me angry because these Muslim women are harmless but are constantly being scrutinized because of an article of clothing- their hijab. Some of these women are actually taking something that is a part of them and throwing it away. The close-minded people who stereotype these women are molding them into who THEY want them to be rather than who they actually are. As I was researching I noticed the amount of Muslim women getting fired or quitting their jobs because they were disrespected. Many have also been escorted out of places because they didn’t want to remove their hijab which is their right. The world would be less hateful if we all stopped stereotyping and learned the value of respect. The argument that swayed me the most was the last argument. I could not believe that some women were actually taking their hijab off permanently. To my knowledge, Muslim women NEVER take their hijab off unless they’re in the shower. I was appalled when I found out some Muslim women were removing their hijab. They are being stripped of their identity, leaving them vulnerable. They are going through all of this just to feel accepted in their community. I think more investigation needs to be done because there are more instances of discriminatory behavior against Muslim women occurring. It is also taking place in different areas around the globe. This issue needs to be

investigated because it could lead to the decrease in religion and faith these women have.

I honestly believe the issue starts with the people which would be difficult to control because humans aren’t easily controllable. I haven’t seen many people actually looking at how Muslim women are mistreated and then spreading awareness for them. The instances are getting more and more violent. Some consequence needs to be made. The potential impact of future study or research could hopefully minimize the amount of Muslim women being escorted out of places, fired from jobs, or blatantly being mistreated. Future study could minimize the amount of Muslim women losing their cultural identity, making their bond with their culture even stronger. There would be an increase of diversity in different communities, creating a safe environment for all.