'They make us feel like we're a virus': the multiple impacts of Islamophobic hostility towards veiled Muslim women

Zempi, I. ORCID: 0000-0002-1719-8573 and Chakraborti, N., 2015. 'They make us feel like we're a virus': the multiple impacts of Islamophobic hostility towards veiled Muslim women. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 4 (3), pp. 44-56. ISSN 2202-7998

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Abstract

Within the prevailing post-9/11 climate, veiled Muslim women are commonly portrayed as oppressed, ‘culturally dangerous’ and ‘threatening’ to the western way of life and to notions of public safety and security by virtue of being fully covered in the public sphere. It is in such a context that manifestations of Islamophobia often emerge as a means of responding to these ‘threats’. Drawing from qualitative data elicited through a UK-based study, this article reflects upon the lived experiences of veiled Muslim women as actual and potential victims of Islamophobia and examines the impacts of Islamophobic attacks upon victims, their families and wider Muslim communities. Among the central themes we explore are impacts upon their sense of vulnerability, the visibility of their Muslim identity, and the management of their safety in public. The individual and collective harms associated with this form of victimisation are considered through notions of a worldwide, transnational Muslim community, the ummah, which connects Muslims from all over world. We conclude by noting that the effects of this victimisation are not exclusively restricted to the global ummah; rather, the harm extends to society as a whole by exacerbating the polarisation which already exists between ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy
Creators: Zempi, I. and Chakraborti, N.
Publisher: Queensland University of Technology, Crime and Justice Research Centre
Place of Publication: Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Date: 2015
Volume: 4
Number: 3
ISSN: 2202-7998
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.5204/ijcjsd.v4i3.236DOI
Divisions: Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by: EPrints Services
Date Added: 28 Oct 2015 10:34
Last Modified: 23 Feb 2024 16:17
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26034

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