ThE MuSlIM “VEIl” PoST-9/11 - Institute for Social Policy and ...

NOVEMBER 2012POLICY BRIEFand her family’s physical safety, her ability to obtainemployment, and the government’s harsh prosecutorialtactics. Many of them also suffer tangible economic harmvia termination and demotion because they choose to wearthe headscarf. 24 In a country that promotes the economicindependence of women as a means of preserving theirlegal and political rights, some Muslim women are forcedto forfeit their right to practice their faith in their preferredmanner in order to preserve their economic independenceand the corresponding benefits. As the costs of wearingthe headscarf become prohibitively high, the legal rightto wear it rings hollow.Section I of this report prefaces the report’s thesis byhighlighting Islam’s transition from obscurity to notorietyin the American public’s psyche due to the 9/11 attacks.Section II highlights how recasting Islam from a bona fidereligion to a political ideology is a necessary precursorfor accepting otherwise discriminatory acts as legitimatenational security practices. This reclassification is mostglaring in the nationwide campaigns against building orexpanding mosques, due to the public’s fixation on theseplaces of worship as hotbeds of extremism. 25 Likewise, asIslam becomes defined as an expression of politics insteadof religion, Muslim demands for religious accommodationare deemed stealth Islamic imperialism not protectedby law. 26 Against this backdrop, Section III examineshow the headscarf’s meaning was transformed from asymbol of female subjugation into a symbol of terror(ism).Through an analysis of employment discrimination,racial violence, political marginalization, and exclusionfrom the courthouse, this article demonstrates howwearing it has resulted in palpable and widespreaddiscrimination. Yet discourses on American civil libertiesin the national security context are woefully lacking dueto the conspicuous absence of her voice.Notably, internal debates within the Muslimcommunities about gender rights in Islam are beyondthe scope of this report. Nor does this report discusswhether the headscarf is effectively a patriarchal toolthat subjugates women, the paradigm of the 1990smulticulturalism discourse pertaining to Muslim women.While these issues have not yet been fully resolved, thisreport argues that 9/11 eclipsed internal communitygrievances of sexism, to the detriment of women’s rightswithin the community, with more existential concerns suchas the Muslim woman’s ability to obtain employment,right to freedom from physical attack in public spaces,and ability to shape civil rights strategies to counterpost-9/11 discrimination. The focus here is on extracommunityfactors that disparately and uniquely impactMuslim women’s individual expressive freedoms, religiousfreedoms, and gender rights vis-à-vis the American publicand government.FROM OBSCURITY TO NOTORIETYIn a matter of days, Islam went from a relatively obscurereligion in the United States to the focal point of publicanxiety. The odious acts of nineteen Muslim hijackersthrust the lives of millions 27 of ordinary American Muslimcitizens and residents under increased government andpublic scrutiny. More than ten years later, this attentionhas not waned. 28While other racial and ethnic minorities suffer frompublic bias, most noticeably in the anti-immigrantsentiment directed primarily at Latinos and in longstandingracial bias against African Americans, animusagainst Muslims is different in nature and expression. The“race-ed” Muslim lies at the unenviable intersection ofpreexisting American biases against racial, immigrant, andreligious minority groups. Those suspicious of Muslimsoften contribute to a perceived grand civilizational clashbetween the inherently violent, oppressive, and bloodthirsty Islam of the “East” and the liberal, pluralistic,and free United States of the “West.” 29 This prejudice isrooted in the essentialist definition of a Muslim as proneto terrorism and disloyalty, coupled with an ingrainedaversion to freedom. 30 Hence, otherwise discriminatoryacts are perceived as rational responses to real threatsto the nation’s security. 31ISPUTerrorizing the Muslim “Veil”