Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs

ISSN: 1360-2004 (Print) 1469-9591 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjmm20

Muslim Women in America: Challenges and Politics

of Diversity Within American Muslim Community

Uzma Rashid

To cite this article: Uzma Rashid (2017) Muslim Women in America: Challenges and Politics of
Diversity Within American Muslim Community, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 37:4, 481-495,
DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2017.1405502

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Published online: 22 Nov 2017.

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 Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2017
Vol. 37, No. 4, 481–495, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2017.1405502

Muslim Women in America: Challenges and Politics of

Diversity Within American Muslim Community

UZMA RASHID

Abstract
This paper will examine the complexities of the struggles faced by young Muslim
women within the American Muslim community. Data are part of a study aimed
at understanding the ways in which the gendered religious identities of Muslim
women are constructed in the United States. This work seeks to address the dearth
of research on the lives of Muslim women, and to identify and enhance an under-
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standing of the issues and challenges they face during the process. Participants
include 15 women, 18–22 years old, who graduated from an Islamic school in the
mid-Atlantic region of America (ISA). Two phenomenological interviews were con-
ducted with each participant. Data were analyzed using critical discourse and
content analysis techniques. Findings point towards conflicts within, including
those related to the rich racial and ethnic diversity in the community, and to the
patriarchal norms that still prevail. Some of these norms along with the perceptions
and experiences of American Muslim women guiding their lives will be shared, and
will be located within a larger discussion on how the obstacles towards their contri-
bution to this diverse social setting can be dealt with.

Introduction
As a Muslim woman growing up in a developing country—my gendered religious identity
was also formed through the sources of my socialization in that country. Coming to the
United States, I was very aware of how I identified myself and how I was going to be
identified in this new land. My religious as well as cultural association was clear and man-
ifested itself in my gendered performance, in particular through a piece of garment called
hijab which I donned in public spaces.
As I started socializing in the United States, I became conscious of performing the gen-
dered religious beliefs that I took for granted in the Muslim majority society where I grew
up. And as I started thinking more about how I had to explain my gendered acts, which
were religiously charged as well, I also began noticing more closely the lives of Muslim
students at the university that I attended. This university was a diverse campus with a sig-
nificant Muslim student body. These Muslim students belong to different ethnic and
racial groups and have traveled different pathways to Islam. While some had graduated
from Islamic schools, others had attended public or private schools not dominated by
any religion. I was intrigued by how these Muslim students practiced their religion and
gender in a diverse yet generally secular environment.

Uzma Rashid currently serves as Assistant Professor and Chair at the Department of Sociology, and
Associate Dean for Research, School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Management
and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. Prior to joining UMT, Dr Rashid completed her PhD as a Fulbright
scholar from the Language, Literacy, and Culture program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore,
Maryland, USA.

© 2017 Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs

 482 Uzma Rashid

Considering the dynamics surrounding the intersections of religion, gender, and race, I
decided to initiate a research study, in an attempt to add to the existing knowledge on the
life experiences and socialization of young American Muslim women, going through the
phase of late adolescence (18–22 years) who had graduated from an Islamic school. In
particular, this study was aimed at understanding the influences of institutions of socia-
lization, focusing on family, Islamic school and the mosque on how Muslim women
belonging to different racial and ethnic groups in the United States constructed their
gender and religious selves and the challenges they face during this process.
Participants for this research were recruited through an Islamic school in the mid-
Atlantic region of the United States (henceforth referred to as Islamic School of
America or ISA). This school has been serving the Muslim community in the area for
over 25 years and was chosen because of its importance within the community and for
reasons of feasibility for the researcher. As a K-12 school, it caters to boys and girls,
but for the high school, only offers classes for girls. While the curriculum of this school
prepares students to be able to graduate and be readily accepted in any public or
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private university system, it also promises the inculcation of Islamic mannerisms and dis-
positions. In addition to using the school as a recruitment site, snowball sampling was
also used to reach out to those graduates whose contact information the school did not
have, or who were more willing to participate in this study because of a friend’s referral.
The key means of data collection were in-depth qualitative interviews. Using a phenom-
enological approach, participants were interviewed twice to gain insights into their past
and current experiences as Muslim women. Participants will be referred to using pseudo-
nyms in this paper.
One of the main themes that emerged during the course of this research was the diver-
sity of views that Muslim women carry. This diversity, while not being an entirely new
phenomenon, presents a picture that defies the homogenization of the Muslim commu-
nity in the mainstream narrative. At the same time, it is also crucial in understanding how
this variety of perspective exists within the Muslim community. Are they all equally
respected and accommodated? How does the process of marginalization play out
within? What are the dynamics of the socialization of women and men in the Muslim
community? What is the face of resistance in the Muslim community as it lives in the
United States? These are some questions the answers to which this paper seeks to
share through the data collected from 15 Muslim women who had graduated from
the ISA.
The themes that reflect the nuances of identity politics within the Muslim community,
in particular for Muslim women, will be discussed. The meaning of these narratives and
how they need to be looked at in the current global context will be analyzed and impli-
cations will be drawn for policy and practice.

Politics of Diversity in the Expression of “Modesty”

Most of the participants wore hijab (headscarf) as an expression of their religious identity
and of their obedience to what they believed to be Allah’s command communicated
through Quranic scriptures. For some, it was not a value they believed to be only intrinsic
to being a Muslim woman; it was to them a characteristic of an ideal Muslim, regardless
of gender. They aligned themselves with the notion that “the virtue of modesty is no
different than any other human attribute, such as moderation or humility: it is a facet
of character but does not commit one to any particular expressive repertoire”.1 Others
believed in the gendered physical manifestation of this idea. Fatima, who was born and
 Muslim Women in America 483

raised in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States to African American parents,
explained the reason she generally shared with people who asked her why she wears a
hijab: “You want to be looked at for your intelligence instead of your body, so like
that’s usually the reason I give people, like just make it simple and short”. Another
participant, Ayisha, a participant who associated with her Moroccan and Caribbean heri-
tage, felt that it was only for God that she wore a hijab:
Hijab is part of submission. So a Muslim is one who submits, right. So, we
submit in different ways. We submit through praying five times a day, making
hajj, submitting to God, right, submitting wholly. Part of submitting is
putting away personal desires, wants, and needs, right. So if I’m submitting
to somebody else, it’s putting away what I want and doing what you want, so
may be, to me, part of hijab is to do what God wants, right. And, God wants
us to wear hijab and cover and dress modestly.
However, even though a notable common element among the majority of the women
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interviewed was their hijab, there were some who did not conform to this norm. They
either did not wear a hijab at all, or decided to wear it only when socializing with
Muslims. Ayisha shared that the hijab was “a very heavy word in this country” and
made anyone wearing it “a walking symbol for Islam”. Kelile, one participant who associ-
ated closely with her East African heritage, chose not to wear a hijab in non-Muslim set-
tings because the weight of doing so felt repressive. She explained:
When I don’t wear hijab, I don’t feel repressed. I feel like I can be completely
who I am without somebody associating who I am with my religion, but when
I wear my scarf, I’m more repressed because every action I do reflects my reli-
gion and not who I am.
There was at least one participant who decided not to wear a hijab because she believed
that it had not been her decision to wear it to begin with. Hanaan, a participant who
described herself as Moroccan American, discussed her reluctance in sporting a hijab:
“I’m just as confident in it as without it. It doesn’t really make a difference in that
sense, but it was not my choice to put it on. Given the choice now, I would take it off”.
Hanaan decided to not continue wearing it, once leaving ISA, because the decision to
wear it had not been her own. However, it is significant to note that she still considered
the hijab to be an ideal which she wants to return to at some point in her life, when she is
ready for it and when the decision to wear it emanates from within her. However, she also
reported seeing a value in the fact that people can easily identify her as being a Muslim
woman because of a hijab.
The reasons for wearing the hijab varied among participants. For most of them, it was a
fulfillment of Allah’s command and an act of submission to the divine will. Those who
did not align themselves with the idea of the gendered physical representation as being
the only expression of modesty voiced their frustration in the excessive attention that
hijab as an expression of modesty receives. Ayisha shared:
Unfortunately … it’s always a topic of discussion. And it makes me so mad, like,
it’s such a focus when it really shouldn’t be in my opinion, like it is important,
yeah. Like anything else in Islam, it’s important. Fasting is important. Praying is
important. But, this gets too much focus.
Ironically, this frustration with the hijab receiving too much attention has to be given
attention in order for it to be re-examined. It has to be asked, why is it that the hijab is
 484 Uzma Rashid

considered to be “invested with an importance that is unwarranted when it comes to

judgments about female modesty”?2 There is no denying that the practice of the hijab
is, in fact, loaded with meanings both “intensely local”3 and, in line with “dominant
master narratives”, more “global”. Understanding the practice in context requires locat-
ing American Muslim women within structures that are not only predominantly non-
Muslim, but also largely patriarchal.
Analyzing one layer of the many meanings a hijab carries, Syed Ali4 argues that “for
these young women, being Muslim is becoming more salient, often privileged over
their national-origin identities, and these young women are acting out their Muslim iden-
tities, displaying their ‘Muslimness’ by wearing hijab”. Unlike the common perception in
the West that the hijab is forced upon young Muslim girls, most of the participants in this
project, in line with Ali’s findings, chose to wear it on their own, both inside and outside
of ISA. Part of the reason for this desire to express their religious identity can be traced to
a rise in the acceptance of multiculturalism in diverse societies such as in the United
States. Despite the challenges that sometimes come with wearing a hijab in public
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spaces, a “shift towards acceptance of otherness has affected how Muslims express them-
selves”.5 They can now more freely be a part of the mainstream society while continuing
to wear their religious symbols such as the hijab.
The trend of young American Muslim women valuing the hijab can also be seen in the
general pattern of the increase in religiosity of Muslims in Western contexts, owing to
global events and tragedies like 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror; the French ban
on the veil; or the more recent spike in hate crimes against Muslims with Donald
Trump as the President of the United States, and the “Muslim ban”. Moreover, Williams
and Vashi6 argue that by wearing a hijab, Muslim women in the United States are “able to
carve out some autonomous cultural space with a public symbol that visibly repudiates
the overly individualized culture of dominant American society”.
Despite these Muslim women trying to carve out their own cultural space, they face
judgment and discrimination that come as part of living in the United States. One of
the participants, Kelile, shared that she does not wear the hijab when she goes out in
public places. It is a “heavy” symbol, which places the burden of representation on the
women who wear it and makes them vulnerable for being perceived a certain way and per-
secuted based on that. Kelile further elaborated: “When I wear my scarf, I feel more
repressed because every action I do reflects my religion and not who I am”. Wearing
this symbol then adds to the pressure that is already there for these Muslim women in
a context where their representation in the mainstream discourse entails general nega-
tivity towards Islam, and an association of the hijab with women’s oppression. This
feeling can be understood in light of Ashraf Zahedi’s7 argument that “Western percep-
tions of the veil and the social meaning they have assigned to it have led Westerners to
view the veil as symbolic of Muslim women’s oppression”. In the context of the post-
9/11 and post-2016 elections in the United States, the perceptions attached to this
symbol have also led to the discriminatory treatment of Muslim women, including “pro-
filing at airports”, and “employment discrimination”. These pressures continue to be a
concern for Muslim women, as the data shows, with the responses varying from a persist-
ent expression of the Islamic identity in the wearing of the hijab to not wanting to wear it
in public.
Apart from the social push towards wearing or not wearing a hijab, the practice stems
from within the Islamic tradition and carries many layers of wisdom. However, it is also
sometimes a practice that is pushed on women from within their families and community,
and is given undue importance. One of the reasons behind the overemphasis on the hijab,
 Muslim Women in America 485

especially within the Muslim community, can be traced back to patriarchal notions of
modesty and the sexualization of girls from a very young age. Jameelah Medina8
argues that the patriarchal notions of how a woman should cover herself up, are in
place “in order to protect her male coreligionists from temptation and sin”. Ayisha, a
graduate of the ISA, also heard this reason among others growing up in a religious house-
hold and religious school:
You have to cover up now because you’re developing and boys are gonna look at
you. You know you have to make it easy on the brothers. You know they’re
weak.
Participants also shared what they felt was “hyper-sexualization” thrust upon them in
the form of pieces of clothing, in particular the head covering. While at home it was not so
much a prescription for most of the participants, the hijab was mandatory for girls at the
Islamic school as they reached the third grade. One participant also shared that marking
the beginning of menstruation as the time when a girl should start donning a hijab is
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another way to sexualize the practice. Such marking, coming along with the patriarchal
expectation that girls need to cover themselves up to “make it easy on the men”,
makes “women partially responsible for some men’s bad behavior”9 and leads to more
pressure on Muslim women. Some participants, who shared instances of such expec-
tations in contrast to the ones that were directed to Muslim men, also considered it pro-
blematic, and an example of the double standards within the Muslim community.
Regardless of the critique that some participants shared of the Muslim community’s
overemphasis on the hijab, or the challenges that come with wearing one, all the partici-
pants, for one reason or another, unanimously considered wearing the hijab a virtue. Even
for those that do not currently practice it, hijab is viewed as something to aspire to.
Hanaan, for instance, shared: “I like the concept of hijab. I like that people can identify
me as a Muslim in hijab”. For Kelile, “it’s like a filter” that helps her be more aware of
staying on the right path. It is also important to note that participants’ views, even
though influenced by their primary institutions of socialization, were the result of their
reflexivity and pursuit of defining and enhancing their religiosity, especially within a
non-Muslim society where they had to make more conscious efforts to sustain their reli-
giosity.
Thus, the hijab was a contested area of identity for the young Muslim women inter-
viewed. Among most of the women interviewed, there existed a pattern of valuing hijab
as part of their dress code in public. The reasons for wearing it varied, along with the
way it was worn, sometimes with trousers and a shirt, sometimes with a long coat, or
with a skirt. However, for one of the participants, it was too “heavy” a symbol in the
tense social climate, one which she chose not to bear in settings where she was not sur-
rounded primarily by the Muslim community. Yet another participant valued its religious
symbolism for Muslim women, but did not feel personally compelled to wear it.

Politics of Racial Diversity Within the American Muslim Community

Within the context of the United States, its history with race and racism continues to
haunt the present. The chants of “I can’t breathe” and “hands up; don’t shoot” are in
the air, and social media and demonstrations are pushing for the system to agree that
#BlackLivesMatter. A cursory look at the Muslim community shows that African Amer-
ican Muslims constitute 25% of the total population of Muslims in the United States.
The struggles of African American Muslims, apart from those they face in the larger
 486 Uzma Rashid

society, form a part of their experience within the Muslim community that cannot be
ignored. Black Muslims are seen as being constantly engaged in negotiating their reli-
gious and racial identities with Muslims claiming other ethnic associations—mainly
Arab Muslims, South Asian Muslims, and African immigrant Muslims. Such inter-
racial interactions within the Muslim community often bring with them tensions that
are in line with the racial hierarchy outside of this community. Jamillah Karim10
records the experiences of African American Muslims who “regularly expressed how
immigrants exclude and discriminate against them. On the other hand, South Asian
Muslims very rarely referred to negative experiences with African American Muslims”.
Thus, even though Muslims of South Asian and Arab descent have faced discrimination
and persecution in recent years, they are not at the bottom of the racial hierarchy within
the Muslim community. Also, because immigrant Muslims do not identify with the
history of slavery, which directly affects African American lives to this day, they end up
“discounting the African American struggle”, and downplaying “the systemic effects of
anti-black racism and … immigrant privilege”.11
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Bikowutha, a participant who associated with her Native American and African Amer-
ican heritage, shared that her religious identity was not the only aspect of her life that
engendered discrimination: “It was my race too. It wasn’t religious views. It was more
of a … , I could see some prejudice in their eyes whenever I was around them”. Some
of the Black Muslim women interviewed talked about having coined the abbreviation
“BMW” for Black Muslim Women on the social media network of Twitter, which
allowed them to form an alliance of sorts with people who had dealt with similar struggles
because of multiple layers of oppression. Kelile, one of the participants, states:
Me specifically, I’m a woman … , and I’m Black, and on top of that, I’m Muslim,
you know. So it’s a triple thing, so it’s like, okay, if I take one of them away for a
second, maybe it will be easier, which is a horrible thing to say but … .
This oppression was not just something that Black Muslim women experienced
outside the Muslim community. They explained that all the instances which made
them uncomfortable during their time at ISA made more sense in retrospect as represen-
tative of the racist attitudes within the Muslim community. Some of the participants also
had to sever ties with some of their old classmates and other members of the Muslim
community because of their continued racist attitudes. According to Ayisha, a graduate
of ISA,
I lost a lot of friends and a lot of relationships in this community that I had had
for a long time because I didn’t let them call me kallu to my face anymore, like
they know I wasn’t going to allow it.
“Kallu” is a derogatory derivative of an Urdu word meaning “black”, used to refer to
people with African or African American lineage, and is regularly used by non-Black
Muslims in the United States. Because of its pejorative use, it can perhaps be considered
the equivalent of the word “nigger”. Participants shared that although they tried bringing
up issues related to their race with their non-Black friends, many times their concerns
were just dismissed. Consequently, they had to let such friends go. The impact of
these experiences on the women’s sense of belonging within the Muslim community
can be seen in the following statement by one of the participants with Moroccan and
African American heritage, Aabya:
 Muslim Women in America 487

The only reason I’m part of the community is because I was raised there. And
we grew up together, you know. We’re family. But if I was an outsider, I
wouldn’t wanna be part of the community either, because there are a lot of
racist people.
Some of the participants other than the Black Muslim women also shared their obser-
vations of differential treatment on the basis of race, or even towards darker skin tones
within the ranks of Muslims. Keisha, a participant who identified herself as Indian Amer-
ican remarked:
His skin color is dark. He’s Punjabi and everything but his skin color is dark so
my mom, she’s like, “Oh he’s darker than you. Do you really wanna marry him,
like what would people think?” And, I’m like “Is that all you think about?”.
Within their community, the issue of marriage is one that brings racism to the forefront
as Black women “not only suffer the racism of the white majority but also the racism inter-
nalized and refracted back at them by other people of color”.12 While their association
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with another race is also an issue, because of their dark skin color, they also do not
carry the value of light skin that Muslims belonging to the South Asian and Arab diaspora
in particular have internalized as the standard. Thus, racism and colorism in their Muslim
communities were additional areas for reflection, contestation, and resistance among the
Muslim women.
They found themselves in a conundrum when it came to tackling their multiple iden-
tities. Not only could they not convince their non-Black Muslim peers of the discrimi-
natory attitudes they faced in their Muslim circles, they were also asked to surrender
their Black identity and only identify as Muslims. Karim13 notes that this dilemma
that Black Muslim women find themselves faced with is a direct product of the “privi-
lege” that the immigrant Muslim community enjoys in the United States. Even though
they do not enjoy the same level of privilege that White privilege promises to White
people, they do align themselves in a way that places distance between them and the
Black community that is arguably the least favored in the social setup of the United
States.
Karim14 traces the reasons for this alignment to the “racial hierarchy that demonizes
blackness” because of which “nonwhite immigrants construct ethnic boundaries that sep-
arate them from African Americans”. These ethnic boundaries are further endorsed by
the society as it gives them the label of “model minority”, a label that brings its own
set of pressures but simultaneously also privileges them over other marginalized
groups. Pushing the Asian immigrants to perform better in life, this label is also “used
against African Americans to bolster fictions of African American incompetence and lazi-
ness”.15 What can be seen in this struggle is the unequal distribution of the “social” and
“symbolic” capital16 among the different racial and ethnic groups that constitute the
Muslim diaspora in the United States. Differences in capital, in turn, determine the
kind of “dispositions” Muslims have towards the realities surrounding them, based on
their personal experiences with those realities.
Such privilege, which comes with a differential acquisition of capital and a different set
of rules to guide their behavior within the Muslim community and in the society at large,
has led to hierarchical relationships that are in stark contrast to the often-cited notions of
equity and justice in Islam and among groups of Muslims. This fundamental Islamic
belief is shared through various religious sources. Prophet Muhammad’s words from
his last sermon, for example, are often used to support the notion of equality:
 488 Uzma Rashid

All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab
nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a White has no superiority
over a Black, nor a Black has any superiority over a White—except by piety and
good action.17
The echoes of these calls for Muslims to consider everyone as their equals and treat
them as such are often heard in realities not so just and equitable. Such contrast
between the ideals that Muslims have been urged to aim for in the sources they revere
most and the contexts in which they exist presents a site for struggle. This struggle is
exemplified in the interactions among different races and ethnicities in the Muslim com-
munity. One of the African American participants, Phoebe, voiced her stance on com-
parisons between religious and racial discrimination drawn by her Muslim friends with
South Asian heritage:
What they do to Muslims is annoying compared to what they did to African
Americans. That was like the hardship when you got people getting lynched
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on trees and things. Me going to the airport and them asking me to take off
my sweater or coat, that’s just annoying.
During the process of data collection, I also had the opportunity of witnessing conversa-
tions and arguments on social media sites between some of my participants who identified
as Black and their non-Black Muslim friends. In most of these interactions, the starting
point would be some news item or an opinion piece about police brutality targeting
African Americans in particular. The discussion however, quickly digressed into friends
with a South Asian heritage trying to erase the notion of racial identity by arguing that reli-
gious identity should be the only determiner of how they conducted themselves in life.
They would argue that Islam should be the primary and the only identification to matter
for all Muslims, and that ethnic or racial associations should not be valued. They would
point towards the discrimination that Muslims face because of their religious association,
which, in their opinion, was similar to the hardships that African Americans are subjected
to. They would equate the struggles Muslims have been going through since 9/11 to the
oppression that Black people in the United States experience. The conversation would
almost always end with tension, and then resume on a similar note at another time.
Along with the struggles of the Black Muslim women within the Muslim community,
what is noteworthy is their resistance in the face of racism that manifested itself on mul-
tiple platforms including—but not limited to—their voices on social media and their con-
versations in the local mosques, voices that refuse to be silenced anymore.

Dealing with Diversity of Sexualities

During the interviews with graduates of ISA sexual orientation was hardly a topic for dis-
cussion. Implicit in the discussions with all the participants was the idea that they were
heterosexual. There was only one exception where the participant, Hanaan, chose to
identify herself as bisexual or pan-sexual:
I always felt like I had an attraction to girls when I was younger. And that didn’t
take well with my parents. That blew over a few times. And so yeah we never
really talked about it and we still won’t and we probably never will.
The reason for this lack of willingness to have an open discussion about sexuality,
especially if it is deviating from the norm of being straight, can be understood through
 Muslim Women in America 489

the widely accepted Islamic understanding that practicing homosexuality is a sin. Not
only is homosexuality vehemently condemned, individuals who choose to let others
know of their sexual preference also run the risk of being cast out as social pariahs.
This participant shared a similar fear: “If I ever open up about it, my father would
probably disown me, no lie. My mom would probably feel like she raised me wrong
and honestly, nothing good will come of it, so I don’t see any point”.
Some women also discussed at length how Muslim women are hyper-sexualized in
such a way that they have to bear the burden of placing their sexuality at the forefront
of whatever they do. They were also expected to keep in mind that they could tempt
the “brothers” [Muslim men are referred to as “brothers” by the Muslim community
regardless of whether or not they are related to you by blood, and Muslim women are
referred to as “sisters” in the same way.] and resist doing so at all times. This burden
was felt by the girls when it came to their interactions with boys within or outside the
school. Aziza, a participant who described herself as Palestinian American shared
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We didn’t talk to each other at all, like it was like we’re aliens to each other, and
whenever we even looked at a guy, the teachers would think something is up …
It doesn’t have to be oh I like you or just because you talk to a guy. Like I think
that is really an issue with the youth in ISA. Like, they don’t set any boundaries-
there’s no middle way. It’s always all or nothing for them. So, it’s just too strict I
think.
Some graduates also connected the idea of modesty with that of the sexuality of Muslim
women. Generally, it is around the time of puberty that a Muslim woman is expected to
start dressing modestly and cover her head and bosom with a veil. Ayisha explained the
issue she takes with the connection Muslims tend to make between the sexual develop-
ment of a Muslim girl and the obligation of wearing a hijab:
Sexualization of girls … we have to you know cover this up now because you
know you can reproduce and you might start getting urges and desires you
know. You have to suppress all that rather than, you know talking about it, so
unfortunately, people like to equate all this with hijab rather than the whole
purpose of hijab … . So we always say, oh we have to make it easy on the broth-
ers. That’s one thing I heard here all throughout middle school. Oh you know
you have to make it easy on the brothers. You know they’re weak … I’m not
wearing hijab for the brothers, you know what I’m saying … I know like this
past year I’ve had maybe five friends who were 21 take off their hijab, and it
was like a big deal.
Part of the reason some of these Muslim women find the emphasis placed on the hijab
excessive is the lack of an equivalent emphasis on Muslim men’s modesty or practice of
the hijab. As in the sentiment just quoted, they find themselves under a lot of pressure to
ensure that their sexual development does not become distracting for Muslim men. Since
they feel that this responsibility is not placed with comparable weight on the men, it
becomes unfairly cumbersome and some young Muslim women refuse to conform to
this expectation within the Muslim community.

The Politics of Being a Muslim and a Woman

Participants consistently shared that being a Muslim woman involved a belief in the same
core values as being a Muslim man. The one element that made their conduct different
 490 Uzma Rashid

was perceptions within the Muslim community. Chimamanda explained the way these
perceptions influenced her behavior: “I’m just more careful the way I’m perceived and
the way I’m doing things, because even if you aren’t doing something wrong, it’s per-
ceived as doing something wrong”.
Other than the awareness of how they were perceived and treated differently from
Muslim men, there was a clear pattern of a belief among the participants that Islamic
values took precedence over gender differences. Olana, a participant who identified
herself as Ethiopian American, summarized this belief stating that Muslim men and
women had the “same beliefs and everything when it comes to Islam”. Participants
believed that even notions such as “modesty”, which are mostly discussed in relation
to women, are the same for Muslim men. For example, Muslim men and women are
all expected to lower their gaze when interacting with people of another sex. Similarly,
they are also supposed to lower their voices. Even if the manifestation of these core
beliefs could be different for the different sexes, the ideals remained the same. One par-
ticipant, Zaibunnisa, who described herself as Pakistani American, states:
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They’re all the same as they were when we were growing up … We all knew what
was expected of us, like we are supposed to have a level of haya and humility
when you go outside or whatever. It applies to the guys too in the family.
Apart from this notion of haya which can be translated into shame or modesty,
participants also cited religious practices such as praying and fasting being the same
across both sexes. To these women, the ideals and practices were more important to
being a Muslim, woman or man, than any gendered behaviors and attitudes. As described
in the following section, their beliefs about what it means to be Muslim were influenced
and reinforced by the prescriptions and expectations of their families, mosques, and
shared experiences at ISA.
Participants’ gendered religious identities and the disparities that they experienced in
relation to Muslim men seemed to be influenced in large part by the prescriptions and
expectations placed on them by their families and the school. Specifically, differential
emphasis on the prescriptions of conduct for men and women influenced these
women’s behaviors. These institutions, for instance, influenced the women’s engagement
in sports. Most of the women interviewed did not feel much inclined toward sports activi-
ties, which are, particularly in predominantly South Asian and Muslim settings, con-
sidered to be men’s domain. However, some also traced their lack of interest in sports
back to the unequal opportunities for engaging in sports provided to women by the
Muslim community. According to ISA’s by-laws, the girls were allowed to participate
in sports activities and to use the school’s gymnasium for that purpose. However, in
reality, they had to be very conscious of the way they were going to be perceived by
their teachers if they played in the same gym used by the boys. Ayisha shared, “A lot of
times during recess, we were expected to more like sit down and chat while the guys
could play football or something”. In subtle and at times through more explicit verbal
statements, it was communicated to the girls that they could not use sports as an
excuse to behave around boys in a way that could be considered inviting or promiscuous.
This prescription was communicated to the young women at school, as well as outside
of the school within their families. Some participants shared that not only was indulging
in sports not encouraged at home, it was at times not allowed at all. According to Hanaan:
“I was really into skate boarding and I really, really wanted to skateboard so I could prac-
tice around the neighborhood and he [her father] was like no, you’re a Muslim girl;
Muslim girls don’t do that”. This pattern of policing the bodies of Muslim women
 Muslim Women in America 491

extended beyond sports to other activities and behaviors inside and outside of the Muslim
community.
As previously described, Keisha perceived differences in how the Muslim community
viewed and responded to the same behaviors exhibited by Muslim men and women.
Describing the nature of such discrepancies, she stated: “They have so many double stan-
dards … I noticed that a lot in university. They, Muslim guys can do whatever they want.
They can have as many girls as they want but when girls talk to guys, it’s a horrible thing”.
The young women also reported consistent patterns of differential treatment in the way
parents dealt with their sons and daughters. According to Ayisha:
I feel like parents are way more concerned about raising their girls than they are
with their sons, even with my younger brother. We’re only 14 months apart—
he’s 18. He gets away with way more than I was able to get away with when I
was 18 … It’s not just my family—it’s all the families, all my friends’ …
Muslim friends … Even now, if I’m trying to go walk somewhere, my parents
are like, “Oh it’s late”. I’m like. “Well, Ammar was doing this my age and
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you guys didn’t say anything, so what’s the issue?”.

Eventually, even when Ayisha’s parents let her go for a walk, it is after more questioning
than what they would subject her brother to. She also reported that whenever she is out
with her friends, her own and her friends’ parents would keep calling to insist that they
come home sooner, which was again another practice she did not see them extend to
their brothers. Another participant shared similar experiences with the way she was ques-
tioned and restricted in contrast to her brother when socializing with peers:
They always tried to exercise more control with me. My brother came in and out
of the house whenever he liked. They wouldn’t question who it was … they
wouldn’t be concerned too much with what they were actually doing. Like
he’d be like, “Oh you know I’m going to see my friend”.
The women also felt that they were under significantly more pressure when it came to
their interactions outside the Muslim community. Because of the symbol of the hijab,
their religious identities were visible even before they started speaking with someone
they did not know, and this had a bearing on the way they were perceived and treated.
They had to be conscious of this perception all the time. Muslim men, in this regard,
were not subjected to the same pressure. Even when they do at times wear a cap while
praying, it is not considered obligatory, as Ayisha states:
They don’t have to wear them. You see me, you know I’m a Muslim, so it’s a lot
harder. I have to deal with anything that’s negative about it and people saying
different stuff to me about it. So I feel like that’s the hard part about being a
Muslim woman, that boys, they don’t have to go through the same things
that we do, like people don’t meet them and be like oh they’re Muslims.
They can’t tell.
This is not to say that Muslim men do not have their share of pressures within the
Muslim community or in the larger society. It is, however, reasonable to deduce from
the experiences of these Muslim women, that the burden they bear, at least for expressing
their religious association and outwardly exhibiting the notion of modesty through their
appearance and conduct, was palpably more than that of their male peers. Barlas18 argues
that patriarchy is not supported by the Quranic text. Even though she acknowledges that
“the Quran treats women and men differently with respect to some issues”, she continues
 492 Uzma Rashid

to maintain that “difference does not always signify inequality”19 and that the “Qur’an
itself does not tie its different treatment to the claim that women are like lesser or defec-
tive men or that the sexes are incompatible, incommensurable, unequal, or opposite”. At
the same time though, according to Ahmad,20 “the realities of life today have put them
(men and women) on a collision course with patriarchy’s construction of the ‘ideal’
Muslim woman in the name of religion”. This “collision” is visible in the struggles of
young Muslim women who shared how they received attitudes and treatment, especially
from their families and within the Islamic school, which they considered disparagingly
different from those extended to young men in the same settings. From the prescriptions
about clothing, to the loudness of speech in public settings, to the varied expectations of
cross gender interactions, the collision had myriad occasions to happen.

The Identity Construction of Muslim Woman

It is important to understand how these experiences of the Muslim women within the
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Muslim community could be taken for deriving the understanding the issues of diversity
shared earlier. However, diversity in the reasons for wearing a hijab or not wearing and the
way it is worn by Muslim women does not simply point to a differences of practice and
opinion. This trend of young American Muslim women valuing the hijab can also be
seen as an assertion of religious identity which is part of the general pattern of the increase
in religiosity of Muslims, especially in Western contexts, owing to global events and situ-
ations such as 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror, the French ban on the veil, or the
spike in racially motivated hate crimes in the current climate after the election of Donald
Trump as President of the United States. However, wearing this symbol also adds to the
pressure that is already there for Muslim women within the Muslim community who may
wish to not wear this heavy symbol for various reasons. This pressure continues to be a
concern for Muslim women and needs to be dealt with not just through open conversa-
tions in mosques and other religious spaces that Muslims use but also in the media rep-
resentations of Muslim women that generally tends to project Muslim women as those
who wear the hijab.
During the current project, an issue that resonated with most participants related to the
way Muslim women experienced differential treatment compared to Muslim men
growing up. While only three participants viewed their socialization experience within
of family, friends, and school, and the Muslim community in general, to be an egalitarian
experience where men were not treated in preferential ways, the majority of the partici-
pants described experiences that were in sharp contrast to these equitable life histories.
A common thread in the lives of these women was that of the various ways in which
their behavior and actions were dictated along patriarchal lines. This involved differential
attitudes and prescriptions they received based on their gender, which were not just
different, but also placed them in disadvantaged positions in terms of the opportunities
afforded to them. For future research, it would be useful to explore the experiences of
Muslim men as they grew up in the same environment. It will not only contribute to
understanding how socialization works in similar and different ways for men, but also
help in forming a holistic picture of identity processes among adolescents within the
Muslim community and in informing the socialization of Muslim men and women
from a young age.
The findings of this research also point towards the existence of a hierarchical and dis-
criminatory way of dealing with the marginalized groups within the Muslim community.
African American Muslim leader, Imam Warith Deen Mohammad, stresses the need for
 Muslim Women in America 493

Muslims from different backgrounds, including African American and immigrant

Muslims, to get involved in “communicating” with each other better for a resolution of
the issues that exist among them.21 Grewal22 believes that in fact, “Muslim youth in
American mosques are reviving it [religion] in debates about race and color” in order
to move forward in a quest for more intra-group egalitarianism. Outside the mosques,
this conversation has also started on social media, including Facebook and Twitter,
with debates happening through hashtags such as #BeingBlackAndMuslim and #Umma-
hAntiBlackness. A group called the Muslim Anti-racism Collaborative23 has also been
very active since 2014, working, as they state in their mission statement:
… to provide anti-racism education to the American Muslim community
through online resources, consulting, and training support; to offer services
and resources to others interested in anti-racism work; to fulfill an advocacy
role informing and persuading Muslim institutions and leaders of the value of
diversity training and anti-racism work.24
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These efforts seem to be paving the course towards a more race-conscious and just
Muslim community in the United States, mirroring the efforts revealed in the current
study. There is a need to stress on engagement with the issues of racial disparities
within the Muslim community in order to move to address the racism that exists in the
ranks of an Ummah that is supposed to believe in and work towards equity in its ranks
and beyond.
Through the accounts of some of the participants, problems with the acceptance of the
diverse ways in which female sexuality is expressed can also be seen within the Muslim
community. These participants pointed out the presence of a homophobic streak
within their network of Muslims and considered this an issue not only for people who
openly identified as being gay or bisexual, but also for those Muslims who could not
express their sexuality because of fear of being socially ostracized. This disclosure pre-
sents a need to conduct more in-depth studies exploring the notion of sexuality among
young Muslims given its importance in adolescents’ identity development. Such
studies may be of particular relevance in diverse settings such as the United States,
where it is more common for people to freely express their sexuality in society.

Conclusion
While the existence of diversity in its various forms is a valuable feature of any commu-
nity, it comes with its complexities that need to be fully appreciated in order for all indi-
viduals to enjoy their status equally as the rest of society. In politically volatile times like
these, the need to address concerns within the Muslim community in the United States is
stronger than ever.
There is a need for Muslim women to engage in debate regarding the hijab. The stig-
matization that comes with the decision to not wear hijab in the public domain especially
in the context of increasing Islamophobia needs to be considered. In this regard, it is also
pertinent to emphasize that judgments on a Muslim woman’s religiosity, based on
whether or not she wears a hijab, need to be discouraged within the Muslim community
with the emphasis on the hijab being a woman’s choice, not a compulsion.
The conversation on hijab also needs to be seen in the bigger picture of gender-based
discrimination within the Muslim community that is reflected in the preferential treat-
ment awarded to Muslim men compared to Muslim women. It is important to note
the limitations on the life chances placed on the lives of Muslim women because of
 494 Uzma Rashid

these differential attitudes, such as constraints related to their mobility and career
choices, among others. Issues of marginalized sexualities that are currently considered
taboo also need to be brought to the front. Voices of female scholars need to be given
space and need to be equated with others for change in the status quo.
Along with a discourse about patriarchy, the Muslim community also needs to address
the issue of racism within that has plagued it for years. Instead of denying the existence of
racism, it is time the community came together to listen to the experiences of the margin-
alized. In the context of the United States where Muslims are actively trying to fight the
menace of Islamophobia directed towards it from other communities, the struggle would
ring hollow if the same bigotry and discrimination within is left unacknowledged and
unaddressed. The intersection of patriarchy and racism needs to be considered in
greater detail, and the lead of Black Muslim women needs to be followed for understand-
ing this better.
With the initiatives cited earlier, such as the Muslim Anti-Racism Collective and
the growing face of resistance both within and outside the Muslim community by
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Muslim women in their diverse presence, it can be hoped that these struggles shall be
overcome. However, this is only an ideal that can be achieved through active engagement
with such initiatives. It is this commitment to change that can lead the Muslim commu-
nity to being the model for justice and equity that it also expects from members of other
communities.

NOTES
1. Saba Mahmood, “Feminist Theory, Agency, and the Liberatory Subject”, in On Shifting Ground:
Muslim Women in the Global Era, ed. F. Nouraine-Simone, New York: The Feminist Press, 2005,
pp. 111–154.
2. Ibid., p. 124.
3. Leila Ahmed, “The Veil Debate Again: A View From America in the Early Twenty-First Century”, in
On Shifting Ground: Muslim Women in the Global Era, ed. F. Nouraine-Simone, New York: The
Feminist Press, 2005, pp. 151–171.
4. Syed Ali, “Why Here, Why Now? Young Muslim Women Wearing Hijab”, The Muslim world, Vol. 95,
2005, pp. 515–530.
5. Ibid., p. 522.
6. Rhys H. Williams and Gira Vashi, ““Hijab” and American Muslim Women: Creating the Space for
Autonomous Selves”, Sociology of Religion, Vol. 68, No. 3, Fall, 2007, pp. 269–287.
7. Ashraf Zahedi, “Muslim American Women in the Post-9/11 September Era: Challenges and Oppor-
tunities”, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2011, pp. 183–203.
8. Jameelah Medina, “This Battlefield Called my Body: Warring Over the Muslim Female”, Religions,
Vol. 5, No. 3, 2014, pp. 876–885.
9. Rachel Anderson Droogsma, “Redefining Hijab: American Muslim Women’s Standpoints on
Veiling”, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Vol. 35, No. 3, 2007, pp. 294–319.
10. Jamillah A. Karim, “To Be Black, Female, and Muslim: A Candid Conversation About Race in the
American Ummah”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2006, pp. 225–233.
11. Ibid., p. 228.
12. Zareena A. Grewal, “Marriage in Color: Race, Religion, and Spouse Selection in Four American
Mosques”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2009, pp. 323–345.
13. Karim, “To Be Black, Female, and Muslim”, op. cit., p.148.
14. Jamillah A. Karim, American Muslim Women: Negotiating Race, Class, and Gender within the Ummah,
New York: NYU Press, 2008.
15. Ibid., p. 29.
16. Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron, Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, London:
Sage, 1998.
17. “The Last Sermon (Khutabul Wada) of Prophet Muhammad,” Sound Vision, https://www.soundvision.
com/article/the-last-sermon-khutabul-wada-of-prophet-muhammad/ (accessed 11 February 2017).
 Muslim Women in America 495

18. A. Barlas, “Globalizing Equality: Muslim Women, Theology, And Feminism”, in On Shifting Ground:
Muslim Women in the Global Era, ed. Fereshteh Nouraie-Simone, New York: The Feminist Press,
2005.
19. Ibid., p. 100.
20. Ahmed, “The Veil Debate Again”, op. cit., p. 233.
21. Karim, “To Be Black, Female, and Muslim”, op. cit., p. 227.
22. Grewal, “Marriage in Color”, op. cit., p. 342.
23. Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, Muslim ARC, http://www.muslimarc.org/ (accessed 13 July
2017).
24. Ibid.
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