Reclaiming the narrative: gendered Islamophobia, its impacts and responses from Muslim women

ABSTRACT

With the growing rise of Islamophobia in Canada, this study looks at Muslim women's experiences of Islamophobia, how they are impacted and how they respond to Islamophobia in the Canadian context. It also explores how Muslim women feel about being Muslim in Canada in relation to their identities. This study was conducted through individual semi-structured interviews with five Muslim women in the greater Toronto area. Findings from this study reveal how Muslim women experience a hypervisibility of their Muslim identity and how this shapes the way they regulate themselves in public. Muslim women in this study speak about how they are seen as Un-Canadian by others and share about the community-wide impacts of Islamophobia. Findings from this study demonstrate how Muslim women respond to Islamophobia in several different ways including activism, spreading awareness in the media and connecting more with the larger community. A key finding of this study includes how Muslim women describe their resilience and continue to persevere in the face of Islamophobia, thereby generating counter-narratives to dominant stereotypical tropes.

KEYWORDS:

• Gendered Islamophobia
• Islamophobia
• Muslim women
• Collective Islamophobia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Dawah means educating or inviting people to Islam. In this context, Saudah is referring to efforts needed to educate the wider public about Islam and Muslims to address Islamophobia.