“My Hijab Is Like My Skin Color”: Muslim Women Students,Racialization,and Intersectionality

Abstract

During the past several years a growing body of literature has encouraged sociologists to examine the intersection of race and Islam as a distinct form of racialization. What is further needed is an understanding of the experiences of racialization of Muslims through the prism of intersectionality. Applying and expanding Selod’s (2018a, 2018b) conceptualization of “gendered racialization” we argue American and international Muslim college women in the United States experience racialization at the intersection of nationality-culture; how their corporeal bodies are gendered and racially signified; religious-political expression; and legal-political policies and practices. Using data from 34 Muslim women college students we argue, first, that they are being racialized in similar practices and feel un-American and that they do not belong but how they mitigate racialization differs based on their intersecting identities. Specifically, the intersecting forces of nationality, gender and racial body signification, and religious-political expression are pertinent. Second, Muslim women college students negotiate their racialization with different coping strategies informed by their intersecting identities, notably their nationality and how they are bodily signified. These findings expose how whiteness is a malleable process for Muslim college women and choosing how to navigate racialization is determined by competing identities.