Perspectives and experiences of Muslim women who veil on college campuses

Journal of College Student Development, Jan/Feb 2003 by Cole, Darnell, Ahmadi, Shafiqa

Essentially, whether peer interactions are motivated by intrigue or fear, the assumption of patriarchal domination and matriarchal submissiveness is maintained. Interestingly, the idea that all women are oppressed through the practice of veiling is strongly conveyed whether through stereotypes, misinformation, or limited information.

In further explaining why students on campus may have these preconceptions about all veiled Muslim women, Isha proposed,

For an average American student, who's just been exposed to living in the Midwest their whole life, [women who veil seem] strange and something very foreign. And [it] kind of belongs to cultures, which essentially oppress women and don't give them any freedom.

Similarly, Sema claimed,

When I've talked to people, they [have] really struggled with stereotypes-- [like,] "So you have to do it?"-- because, it's a humility thing. It's an inferiority thing. Or it's a submissiveness thing. I can understand where that comes from, because a lot of [them come from a] Christian background, [and] that's where it comes from-the fact that you were supposed to cover your heads as a sign of humility.

Common misconceptions and stereotypes encountered, as suggested by Isha and Sema, usually stem from a lack of cultural and religious exposure, beyond that of small Midwestern towns and Christianity, respectively. In other words, misinformation or a lack of sufficient information maintains alienating stereotypes and misconceptions.

Collectively, these Muslim women have similar perceptions of how they are viewed by the majority of the campus community. Exotic, fundamental, and oppressed were the identified misconceptions. Exoticism and fundamentalism were on opposite ends of a continuum, producing either ethnocentric amusement or alienation, depending upon the onlooker's perception. Sema and Isha argue that many people within the campus community, in either case, assume patriarchal oppression and matriarchal submissiveness. Though in Khadija's situation, an opportunity to answer questions motivated out of curiosity also suggests that the lack of information, along with stereotypes and misconceptions need addressing.

Social Reinforcement

Participant perceptions concerning the reactions of non-Muslims toward veiled women, and in some instances, how these veiled women responded constitutes Theme 4. Social reinforcement and distinctions drawn between contrasting campus groups inform these diverging community reactions. These groups included non-Muslim women and men, graduate and undergraduate students, minority and nonminority students, hippie and fraternity or sorority students, and professors and maintenance staff. Latifa, for instance, stated that she enters many classrooms from the rear as a result of negative student reactions. She said,

Some people don't know how to react, so they wait to see how other people are going to react and then join along with them. So, if a couple of people start laughing, then they [all] start laughing. Or people just stare and they don't have anything to say. You get mixed reactions. It depends on what kind of crowd, what kind of audience is there. It kind of made me really, really shy. I don't even want to know how they are going to respond most of the time.