Islamophobia and the "Privileging" of Arab American Women

Abstract

In the present climate of virulent Islamophobia, various U.S. circles are nevertheless opening up to Muslim and Arab American women. This phenomenon must be understood as a contemporary manifestation of colonialist patriarchal racism, which views "other" women as powerless victims of their own culture, while casting the men as threats that must be kept at bay. Consequently, many Arab women are delaying addressing critical gender issues, as they deal with the imprisonment, deportation, and "disappearing" of their male kin.