The Production of Acceptable Muslim Women in the United States

Abstract

In this article, I explore some of the elements by which Muslim women who wear the hijab in the United States are managed so as to produce and distinguish “unruly” from “good” Muslim female citizens within the context of American liberalism. Unlike the French state, which has regulated both the hijab and niqab through national legislation, the American liberal framework utilizes a laissez-faire approach, which relies on a range of public and private institutions to determine acceptable public presentations of the liberal female subject. I refer to this form of management as “neoliberalism.” Neoliberal management works in conjunction with popular political discourses and domestic events in ways that alternately contract and expand the boundaries that allow “suitable Muslim women” in the public sphere.