Itinerant Data: Unveiling Gendered Scrutiny at the Border

As national borders are being transformed into technologized zones of securitization and national power, the surveillance of particular individuals and groups has become routine. Aided by a public culture of suspicion and belief in the neutrality of technology, national borders work to ferret out the digital tracks of those predetermined to be of risk or threat. Fortifying discriminatory structures of immigration control, the reworked digital frontier filters gendered bodies of risk and drafts their visual records for scrutiny. Engaging with the objections raised by Muslim American women wearing head cover to the unwarranted search of mobile phones at the border, this article addresses the entangled connections between nationalism, digital archives and transparency. The objections which center around the veil and data visibility serve as an embodied point of departure to rethink and render visible assumptions regarding national belonging in terms of the new itinerancy of data and marked bodies.

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Islamic Headcovering and Political Engagement: The Power of Social Networks

Politics and Religion ◽

10.1017/s1755048316000754 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 3-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Aubrey Westfall ◽

Özge Çelik Russell ◽

Bozena Welborne ◽

Sarah Tobin

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Political Participation ◽

Online Survey ◽

Political Engagement ◽

The United States ◽

Religious Institutions ◽

Muslim Americans ◽

Muslim American ◽

American Muslim ◽

Muslim American Women

AbstractThis article explores the relationship between headcovering and women's political participation through an original online survey of 1,917 Muslim-American women. As a visible marker of religious group identity, wearing the headscarf can orient the integration of Muslim women into the American political system via its impact on the openness of their associational life. Our survey respondents who cover are more likely to form insular, strong ties with predominantly Muslim friend networks, which decreased their likelihood of voting and affiliating with a political party. Interestingly, frequency of mosque attendance across both covered and uncovered respondents is associated with a higher probability of political participation, an effect noted in other religious institutions in the United States. Yet, mosque attendance can simultaneously decrease the political engagement of congregants if they are steered into exclusively religious friend groups. This discovery reveals a tension within American Muslim religious life and elaborates on the role of religious institutions vs. social networks in politically mobilizing Muslim-Americans.

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Veiled Politics: Experiences with Discrimination among Muslim Americans

Politics and Religion ◽

10.1017/s1755048318000287 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 629-677 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Karam Dana ◽

Nazita Lajevardi ◽

Kassra A.R. Oskooii ◽

Hannah L. Walker

Keyword(s):

Perceived Discrimination ◽

Minority Group ◽

Anecdotal Evidence ◽

Muslim Americans ◽

Muslim American ◽

Religious Minority ◽

Institutional Discrimination ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

Muslim American Women

AbstractAnecdotal evidence suggests that Muslim American women who wear the hijab may be particularly vulnerable to the experiences of stigmatization because the hijab represents one of the most obvious and dominant markers of “otherness.” Yet, extant research has surprisingly neglected to systematically examine how such external markers of difference can increase perceptions of discrimination. Drawing from two nationally representative datasets, we examine perceived discrimination among Muslim Americans, and find that veiled women report experiencing both societal and institutional discrimination at much higher rates than their counterparts. In fact, our findings show that the hijab is one of the most important predictors of self-reported discrimination amongallMuslim Americans. Interestingly, however, we also find that men are more likely than women to perceive discrimination once we account for the role of the hijab. Our analysis makes an important contribution to existing research by highlighting the unique experiences of a religious minority group and identifies one important and previously underexplored mechanism by which individuals may be targeted for discrimination—the hijab.

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Gender, Space, and Muslim American Women

Muslim American City ◽

10.18574/nyu/9781479828012.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 62-78

Author(s):

Alisa Perkins

Keyword(s):

South Asians ◽

Cultural Citizenship ◽

Muslim American ◽

Women's Bodies ◽

American Women ◽

City Life ◽

Teenage Girls ◽

The Gaze ◽

Dominant Society ◽

Muslim American Women

This chapter analyzes how Yemeni and Bangladeshi American women and teenage girls in Hamtramck establish a particular type of gender organization—what I call “civic purdah”—across a variety of different contexts. Although there is no exact word for it in Arabic, Bangladeshis and other South Asians use the word “purdah” to signify gender separation, most often in expressed through patterns of dress (hijāb) and proximity, enacted in an effort to protect the sanctity of women’s bodies and spaces from the gaze and interference of unrelated men. Civic purdah signifies the way that women interpret and apply the purdah ethos in the municipal context as a means of participating in different aspects of city life. When enacted in public spaces and institutions, civic purdah can be considered a means for advancing cultural citizenship, defined as engaging in the dominant society while maintaining differences from the norm.

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