Religion and spirituality have been found to contribute to the well-being of American university students. Although practiced by a small minority, Islam is the fastest growing faith in the United States, indicating a growing campus presence. The purpose of this study was to identify campus experiences that influenced the identity perception of traditional age Muslim American women. The conceptual framework included theories of identity negotiation, intergroup contact, and religious identity as well as campus climate structures developed to improve diversity. This phenomenological study took place at 2 public 4-year universities in California and included interviews with 6 participants. Interview protocol was framed by 4 research questions and focused on classroom and campus experiences that affected the choice to wear or refrain from wearing the hijab, campus satisfaction, and how student services might support a positive religious climate. Data were analyzed through continuous comparison of codes developed from organization of significant student statements into units of meaning, context, and synthesis of significance of events experienced. Themes that emerged were harassment, stereotyping based on media portrayals, and student and faculty ignorance of Islam. The participants expressed a deep personal and spiritual identification with their faith and requested campus spaces for this expression. This study may contribute to positive social change through the initiation of education and training programs for campus policymakers, student affairs personnel, faculty, and staff regarding the unique needs of religious minority groups, including Muslim American women.

Hur kan ett klädesplagg som betyder ”tillbakadragenhet” väcka så starka känslor? Det här är en etnologisk studie om socialistfeministers normsystem och sociala kategoriseringar. Informanters berättelser om det samhälle de växte upp i och det samhälle de lever i idag, hur det formar och förklarar en föreställning om kvinnan i hijab. Med hjälp av postkolonial diskurs analyseras synen på jämställdhet och frihet. Den föreställda kvinnan i hijab kan inte komma att intervjuvas eftersom hon är just en föreställning. Den föreställningen om henne går hand i hand med den postkoloniala diskurs vi påverkas så mycket av.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, School of Education, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Comparative Religion, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-56-Xx).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2004. / Includes bibliography.

abstract: The thesis I have written aims to investigate the underlying reasons why France has considered Islam as unassimilable and why it has targeted Muslim women’s bodies to force assimilation. In the first section of the thesis, I examine the colonial relationship between France and Algeria. I conclude that Algeria’s independence from France significantly influenced the negative treatment towards immigrants in postcolonial France. I then study the racist discourse that dominated French politics in the 1980s; and clarify how this has laid the foundation for the first attempt to ban the headscarves in public schools during the 1980s. The final section explores the 2004 ban on conspicuous religious symbols, a ban that significantly targeted the headscarf. I conclude that the prohibition of the headscarf undermined the rights of Muslim women and symbolized France’s inability to accept Islam, since France feared Islam’s visibility weakened a dominant French identity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2017

abstract: The American-led 'war on terror' affected how media outlets and some contemporary literature addressed and stereotyped Islam. One of the most common stereotypes regarded the status of women in society. The constant images of oppressed Afghani women generated a wave of negativity toward Islam. Afghani women were portrayed as passive characters during the Taliban rule awaiting liberation from the west. Defending their rights became one of the moral justifications for waging the 'war on terror' after the tragedy of 9/11. Gender politics in Afghanistan is closely tied to the regime in power. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the social and cultural transformation of society that followed also directly affected women and their identity as Muslims. Both the Soviet and the Taliban regimes envisioned a drastic transformation of women's participation in the public sphere. Each regime's gender politics oppressed Afghani women and sought to take away their agency. Some women welcomed the freedom under the Soviets, but others found the freedoms to be oppressive. The Taliban aimed to preserve men's authority over women. However, Afghani women never gave up the hope of freedom and equality. My main argument is to challenge the contemporary belief that Afghani women were passive characters in their history. This study introduces a fresh perspective on to women's role as change makers in the society. I argue that Afghani women maintained their autonomy and fought for their rights, before the rest of the world rushed to liberate them. They engaged in different forms of resistance from directly attacking the oppressors to keeping their resistance hidden. This thesis challenges the notion of Afghani women as victims in need of saving. On the contrary, they were the agents of change in their communities. On the basis of ethnographic interviews and three memoirs written by women who lived in Afghanistan during Soviet and Taliban rule. Their resistance against the oppressors is an affirmation of their courage and bravery. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Religious Studies 2017

This diploma thesis deals with the veiling issue in Turkey. The first theoretical part is trying to map out the issues with an emphasis on the diverse interpretations and perceptions of the scarf / hijab. The work perceives the scarf as a symbol which represents more than just the Islamic religion. These multiple interpretations were caused primarily by the historical development of the country, especially the specific modernization process of Turkey which has been linked to the process of westernization. Mainly because of this the headscarf was for many years regarded as something obsolete, unfashionable. Many people perceived the scarf as something that does not belong in modern Turkey. This situation had affect the veilling issue a lot. Women were prohibited by law to wear a scarf in public areas. For this reason the work shows this issue also in the historical context which goes back to the 19th century - to the Ottoman Empire. The second part comprises the empirical part is devoted to qualitative research. For the purpose of this work interviews with Turkish university students were carried out which focused on their motivation of covering or not covering and other phenomena associated with this topic. Interviews were conducted both with veiled, and with unveiled girls because of the...

My experiences as a Canadian Muslim nurse wearing a hijab have sparked the question concerning the experiences of nurses who, in their daily practice, choose to wear a head cover, an immediate visual signifier of their Muslim identity. I wish to generate understanding of how this religious identity and its racialization intersect with gender to shape nurses’ experiences with anti-Muslim racism. Through listening to the stories of ten Canadian Muslim nurses who were recruited across Canada and who wear different types of the hijab, come from varied and diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, and practice in different healthcare settings and contexts, their experiences are highlighted, and their voices are illuminated, revealing valuable insights into the challenges they encounter in their daily nursing practice. I situate these experiences within a conceptualization of Islamophobia and, more specifically, gendered Islamophobia as a form of anti-Muslim racism that is often experienced by women and girls who are identifiable as Muslims. In this dissertation, I attend to the overarching question: What are the experiences of Canadian Muslim nurses wearing hijab and practicing within the Canadian healthcare system? This question encompasses three sub questions: 1) How do Muslim nurses’ social locations that are produced at the intersections of gender-race-religion converge in understanding their experiences? 2) What are the power relations enacted within the discipline of Canadian nursing that produce and sustain social locations experienced by nurses who wear a hijab? 3) What are the ways these nurses resist their racialization and push against master-narratives that are constructed about them? These questions are approached using narrative inquiry as a research methodology that is informed by critical race feminism and care ethics. These questions are also explored through intersectionality as an analytical lens to unpack the complexities of these nurses’ experiences. In this study I present the nurses’ counter-narrative that challenges the stereotypical assumptions about them and unveils the multilevel contextual power structures that preserve racism within the discipline of nursing and reproduce the processes of racialization experienced by nurses who wear a hijab. In doing so, my aim is to provide a vessel in which the nurses share their stories and to reclaim control over the reductionist Orientalist colonial narratives about them. It is my hope that knowledge gleaned from this study will inform the understanding of the structures and processes that produce and maintain racism within nursing with the goal of advancing transformational change in nursing to achieve social justice. I capture the counter-narrative of nurses who wear a hijab in three composite narratives that I constructed from their stories based on key storylines that I needed to unpack. By ‘composite narrative’ I refer to a technique where several interviews are combined and presented in one or more individual stories that are linked by a shared purpose or identity among research participants. The technique of using composite narratives to present and analyse complex and extensive data is congruent with analyzing stories as a whole instead of fragmenting them. The counter-narrative offers a point of resistance as an alternative discourse that uplifts the voices of the nurses through understanding and generating knowledge about their experiences from their standpoint. The stories of Muslim nurses who wear a hijab bridge a gap in the literature about Muslim nurses’ experiences within the current charged political environment, post 9/11 era, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Quebec ban on wearing religious symbols and the ensuing debates it generated in Canada. Their stories provide a needed and timely understanding of the implications for nursing research, policy, practice, and education to create an inclusive and supportive environment for nurses who wear a hijab. Given the interconnected nature between racism and colonialism, fostering such an environment is inherently anti-racist and decolonial. Importantly, doing the work to create safer, anti-racist spaces for nurses who wear a hijab and to decolonize nursing which would benefit all racialized nurses. / Graduate

The South African Constitution provides a comprehensive list of rights, many of which are important, directly or indirectly, to meet the needs of religious minorities in the country. However, due to South Africa being a secular state and also having particular needs, many workplaces tend to adopt this approach which leads to a conflict between Muslims' religious obligations and the rules of the workplace. As a result, Muslim employees may perceive that their employers are religiously discriminating against them. Muslim women may face more discrimination than Muslim men as their stigma is less concealable due to their modest dressing and the hijab (religious identity marker). Surprisingly, there has been an increase in cases of religious discrimination against Muslim women. To elucidate, these Muslim women employees were asked to remove their hijab on their job as it somewhat violated the company policies. Therefore, presenting a challenge for Muslim women as their religious identity is part of their self-concept and they are required to follow their religious obligations. Informed by theories such as Social Identity Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory, the present study utilised a cross-sectional design to examine the role of Muslim identity in perceived religious discrimination in the workplace. To gain insight about the hijab in various contexts, the current study also examined the comfortability of wearing the hijab in different contexts. The participants were 75 Muslim women living and working in organisations in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The findings of this research indicate that the dimensions of Muslim identity are not significant predictors of perceived religious discrimination; however, psychological identity can lead Muslim women to perceive less or no discrimination. Furthermore, the ANOVA showed that Muslim women did not feel significantly more comfortable wearing the hijab in certain contexts. This study offered implications for both research and practice and made significant recommendations for future research.