(Muslim) Women’s Bodies, Islamophobia, and American Politics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v42i1.29Keywords:
Islamophobia, gender, United States, Muslim womenAbstract
Taking Islamophobia as shorthand for a set of more complex phenomena in recent American politics this article offers an analysis of some of the ways in which Muslim women’s bodies have occupied center stage in discourses on Islam and Muslims in the United States. It focuses on representations of Muslim women as victims of their religion and the men in their communities on the one hand, and the discrimination and marginalization of the same Muslim women in public discourse and security policies on the other. Islamophobic discourses are also gendered through the particular contribution of women pundits and their claims to feminist authenticity. Recognizing the racist, xenophobic, and misogynist dimensions of Islamophobic discourses within a liberal framework makes it possible to go beyond decrying its premises and repercussions.
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Brown, Wendy. 2006. Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
CAIR Los Angeles. 2011. Hate Comes to Southern California. Video, 5:52 minutes. March 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NutFkykjmbM.
Chesler, Phyllis. 2009. “Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?,” Middle East Quarterly, 16: 61–69
———. 2011. “No More Harems: The Hidden History of Muslim and Ex-Muslim Feminists,” October 4. http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/1040/muslim-feminism.
“The Debate over Anchor Babies and Citizenship.” 2010. National Public Radio, August 18. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129279863
Esposito, John and Ibrahim Kalin eds., 2011. Islamophobia: the Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gottschalk, Peter and Gabriel Greenberg, eds. 2008. Islamophobia: Making Muslims the Enemy. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Geller, Pamela. 2012. “Muslim Americans Stand Up for Honor Killing.” Atlas Shrugs. May 10. http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/jessica-mokdad-human-rights-conference/
Hu, Elise. 2010. “TX Rep. Louis Gohmert Warns of Terrorist Babies. Texas Tribune, June 28. http://www.texastribune.org/texas-mexico-border-news/arizona-immigration-law/tx-rep-louie-gohmert-warns-of-terrorist-babies/
Mahmood, Saba and Charles Hirschkind. 2002. “Feminism, the Taliban, and Politics of Counter-Insurgency.” Anthropological Quarterly 75: 339–54.
Mahmood, Saba. 2008. “Feminism, Democracy, and Empire: Islam and the War on Terror.” In Women’s Studies on the Edge, edited by Joan Scott, 81–114. Durham: Duke University Press.
Mantela, Kyle. 2011. “Boykin Terrifies Dobson with Dire Warnings of America’s Pending Islamification.” February 18. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/boykin-terrifies-dobson-dire-warnings-americas-pending-islamification
Moore, Kathleen. 2000. “The Hijab and Religious Liberty: Anti-Discrimination law and Muslim Women in the United States.” In Muslims on the Americanization Path?, edited by Y. Haddad and J. Esposito, 105–27. New York: Oxford University Press.
Puar, Jasbir. 2007. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham: Duke University Press.
RAWA. 2011. “Why Is a Leading Feminist Organization Lending Its Name to Support Escalation in Afghanistan? August 8. http://www.rawa.org/rawa/2009/07/08/why-is-a-leading-feminist-organization-lending-its-name-to-support-escalation-in-afghanistano.html.
Sayyid, S. and AbdooolKarim Vakil, eds. 2010. Thinking through Islamophobia: Global Perspectives. New York: Columbia University Press.
Schulman, Daniel. 2010. “Rep. Louie Gohmert's "Terror Baby" Meltdown.” Mother Jones. August 13. http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/rep-louie-gohmerts-terror-baby-meltdown.
Shakir, Faiz. 2012. “Kansas Legislature Passes Discriminatory Anti-Muslim Bill by Calling it a ‘Women’s Rights’ Issue.” May 13. Where did this article appear?
Sheehi, Stephen. 2011. Islamophobia: The Ideological Campaign against Muslims. Atlanta: Clarity Press.
Shryock, Andrew, ed. 2010. Islamophilia/Islamophobia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
“US: Senate Vote on Violence Against Women Act a Victory.” 2012. Human Rights Watch. April 26. http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/04/26/us-senate-vote-violence-against-women-act-victory.
“Witness to Discrimination: What Would You Do?” 2008. What Would You Do? ABC News. February 26. http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/WhatWouldYouDo/story?id=4339476&page=1#.UM6SybbageN
Published
2013-03-08
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Hammer, J. (2013). (Muslim) Women’s Bodies, Islamophobia, and American Politics. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 42(1), 29-36. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v42i1.29
