Gendered Islamophobia: Intersectional Racialized Violence against Women

After September 11, 2001 and in more recent years (the Trump Era), Muslim people and communities have been subject to unique threats of discrimination, surveillance, and violence, as a result of stigmatization. Muslim women encounter gender-based violence at the axes of multiple marginalizations which informs contemporary notions of Islamophobia. Gender-based violence and harassment of Muslim women in public spaces continue to be linked to hypervisibility (veiling), yet ‘invisible’ (non-veiled) Muslim women are also susceptible to gendered anti-Muslim assaults in the public sphere. Drawing from an exploratory qualitative study that examined the perceptions of Muslim women (n= 27) across racial, ethnic, and immigrant identity during the first Trump Administration in the US, findings indicate that Muslim women in the US navigate public spaces from a unique intersectional position where they encounter a spectrum of interpersonal violence including social surveillance, physical violence, and verbal assaults. Because these experiences are shaped by racialized gender norms and perceptions of Muslims as perpetual foreigners (immigrants), findings center how Muslim women resist normalized violence by embracing protective measures and increased participation in civic engagement. Thus, Muslim women negotiating their existence in society highlights the double bind they face that shapes experiences of invisible victimization and informs understandings of intragender interpersonal harassment.