Veiled Politics: Experiences with Discrimination among Muslim Americans

Anecdotal 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 systema...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:Symposium: Dialogue on Muslim American Sociopolitical Life
Authors: Dana, Karam (Author) ; Lajevardi, Nazita (Author) ; Oskooii, Kassra A. R. (Author) ; Walker, Hannah L. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press [2019]
In: Politics and religion
Year: 2019, Volume: 12, Issue: 4, Pages: 629-677
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B USA / Muslim woman / Discrimination / Head covering
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
BJ Islam
KBQ North America
ZB Sociology
ZC Politics in general
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Summary:Anecdotal 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 among all Muslim 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.
ISSN:1755-0491
Contains:Enthalten in: Politics and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S1755048318000287