They’re invisible. Why else do you think that in every discussion about hijab people project their wholly unrelated anxieties onto a piece of attire? What I’ve learned is that Muslim women are at their most sympathetic when silent and being spoken for.
“What a terrible crime being perpetrated against Muslim women!”
“Look at how they’re treated!”
“Muslim women are trapped in a prison of their own mind.”
White people act like they have zero agency in pretty much every conversation I’ve been in. Maybe it’s because my mother, sister, aunts, and friends have been Muslim women, but sometimes I want to yell at people, “They’re human beings, not Islamic Burkabots!”
ETA: My favorite story about this. I was talking to a classmate who started asking me questions about the hijab, and he told me about this one classmate of his who seemed to be looking at him whenever he looked at her. He was wondering if it was because he wore an Atheist t-shirt one or two times. I looked at him and went, “You’re kidding, right?” The guy was a very conventionally attractive man. Like a stereotype of a professional model down to having the height for it. “Not to inflate your ego, but did you ever consider that she might think you’re good looking?” The look of epiphany on his face was phenomenal.
