Women that do not cover emphasized the guilt that they feel when they hear of other Muslim women being the targets of hate crimes. They know that they hold a privilege because they are not visibly Muslim and therefore have great sympathy for the women that do bravely wear hijab when these kinds of attacks are so common.
For Muslim women that cover, before they are able to say a word, many people can use well known but false stereotypes to make assumptions regarding women. Many women who cover must be ready for microaggressions each day and, rarely, may face hate crimes or acts of violence. Even for Muslim women generally, whether because of their “foreign sounding” name or dark skin tone, they are subject to hatred based on uninformed stereotypes.
Many women described examples of times when they felt left out of the Muslim community or criticized by members of the community. This was concerning for the Latinas who converted to Islam yet attended mosques where they were the only person of their race. Additionally, women that do not cover described their frustration with others in the community that expected them to cover, or criticized them for having an improper covering, despite the fact that they were in the mosque to focus on their own spirituality.
Of course, much that is known about Muslim women emphasizes the lack of choice they have both in their decision to cover and to pursue their interests to the fullest extent. This, however, was largely untrue, according to the women we interviewed, as they emphasized choice as being incredible important in whether or not women covered, practiced or lived up to the expectations of Islam.
Many women we interviewed emphasized that a large portion of their faith was treating others, both Muslim and not, as if they were as close as brothers and sisters. This was seen as a solution to stopping Islamophobia, bringing together the Muslim and American identities and was also described as one way to practice their faith.
We found that there was no one trend on family influence on covering, but rather it was a spectrum from family having no influence to being very important to the decision. Our interviews found that some women were empowered and/or strongly influenced by the Muslim women in their family in their decision of whether or not to cover. However, other women strayed from their families’ interpretations of Islam and chose alternatively whether to cover or not. Additionally, one of our interviewees converted to Islam in adulthood, so her family had no influence on her choice to wear the Hijab.
Every woman we interviewed combated the idea of a binary between Muslim and American identities. This is indirect contradiction of the message of the Islamophobia industry that the identities are not compatible. The woman spoke to the fact that their very existence as individuals who are American and Muslim disproves the binary, and they did not feel they had to compromise one aspect of their identity for another.
Hijab is an often misunderstood religious and cultural symbol and custom. While often associated with just the physical scarf and head covering, the hijab represents modesty not only in appearance but also in attitudes and actions. Women we interviewed utilize the hijab as a source of empowerment to create individual spaces for their intellect and independence. The hijab removes societal conceptions of beauty and allows women to be viewed for their intelligence. Overall, the women we spoke to highlighted the fact that covering went beyond a physical scarf, and was a representative of their life choices as Muslims, as well as a representation of their identity.