Abstract:
This paper discusses the rise of Islamophobia and the way Muslim women use their online presence to address the centred hate crime and negative stereotypes put forth against them. As Muslim identities are being used to connect to online users to advocate against Islamophobia and increase a positive image for Muslims, Muslim women online are incorporating their religion into their daily posts to portray an authentic side of Muslims. This paper demonstrates how the use of platforms like YouTube and Instagram enable the emergence of online advocacy to attack the contorted Western views on Muslim women.
Paper
Islamophobia refers to the excessive fear and hostility shown toward Muslims due to the negative stereotypes, marginalisation, and discrimination that erupted after the 9/11 incident (Khamis, 2021). With the media portraying this false misleading image of Islam, Muslims began to use social media platforms to advocate and show the true essence of their Muslim identity. Online campaigns are initiated to fight against the falsified image while spreading positive awareness of the faith and their religious identity (Khamis, 2021). Though Islamophobia is targeted at all Muslims, it has had a larger impact on women as they visibly carry their identity through their hijab. A hijab is a veil which typically covers certain areas like the neck, hair, and one’s chest with the scarf (Grine & Saeed, 2017). This Islamic headscarf is an active indicator of Muslim women’s religious and gender identity. With the hijab represented as a symbol of a female Muslim’s identity, Muslims constantly face hate and discrimination in media and broader society. Therefore, the use of hashtag activism and lifestyle blogging on platforms like YouTube and Instagram allowed Muslim women to promote their identities in a positive light while advocating against the negative stereotypes developed from Islamophobia.
YouTube’s use of lifestyle blogging allowed Muslim women to use their videos to defy the mass media stereotypes of their religious identity. Muslims around the world use the internet not to be only heard or seen but to fight against the negative profiling and stigmas used to silence their voice (Khamis, 2021). In places like America, Islamophobia is built on concepts like xenophobia where people declare Islam as dangerous due to it being a foreign faith and ‘non-American-like’ (Islam, 2018). With a lot of these misconceptions and stereotypes evolving due to the increase in false news and negative perception of Islam, marginalisation of Muslim women in society continue to rise. Social media becomes a haven for these Muslim women to communicate to a large audience and redirect the public opinion of Islam. With the increasing trend in lifestyle videos on YouTube, Muslim influencers use the platform to demonstrate a more authentic view of their identity and Islam. For instance, Youtubers like Amena Khan and Dina Torkia who have both gained online popularity through their hijab tutorials to later opened their clothing line (Peterson, 2016). Though they do not currently continue these hijab tutorial videos, they stand to have inspired many of their viewers to become comfortable and proud of their Muslim identity. Just like other lifestyle videos, these Muslim YouTubers cover content like makeup tutorials, outfit checks, and their travel diaries but incorporate the element of Islam into their videos too. Amena and Dina use their social media account to formulate their microcelebrity personas to enhance their career while upholding their religious identity. Microcelebrities are famous to a niche group of people and use their online presence to connect to their audience and follower by using a persona that comes off as being authentic to the viewers (Abidin, 2016). This enables them to build a relationship with their viewers while teaching them about Islam. Though they post videos of their daily life, it cannot be on the stage of commercial lifestyle blogging that incorporates advertisements, personalised items like merch, and continuous promotion of products into their daily videos (Abidin, 2016). However, it can be argued that there is a sense of commercial lifestyle blogging found within both Amena and Dina’s YouTube videos as they do promote their brand and pay constant attention to their online image. Imaging becomes vital in their videos as both Amena and Dina continue to face massive pressure of representing Islam in a positive light to change these western views of their hijab and identities being a sign of oppression (Peterson, 2016). The process of an online persona and image allows them to prove that, unlike the stereotype, Muslim women do have individuality as the aesthetic styling in both Amena and Dina’s video proves that. With Dina being sillier and immature, Amena carries the more mature persona and acts as the ideal big sister (Peterson, 2016). This enables them to be able to create an authentic persona to drive in their followers and build their online presence. Thus, the use of lifestyle blogging enables YouTubers like Amena and Dina to retaliate against some of the stereotypes put forth against them.
On the other hand, the use of hashtag activism on Instagram allowed many internet users to communicate and collaborate to advocate for Hijab-wearing. Hashtag activism is described as the use of the hashtag symbol followed by a political statement (Yang,2016). Hashtag activism encourages worldwide participation to advocate issues like Islamophobia using selfies and posts that carry a certain story. Worldwide Muslims and non-Muslims can connect through the #WorldHijabDay and get mass attention on the topic. With many Muslims being reprimanded as oppressed and freedom lacking, the creation of World Hijab Day enabled many people to come together and clear up the misunderstandings of the hijab. World Hijab Day was first initiated in 2016 to acknowledge Muslim women’s voluntary choice of wearing the hijab as an act of modesty (“World hijab day”, 2020). This event allowed many people of diverse backgrounds to come to wear the hijab for a day to create international solidarity and to learn about Islam (“World hijab day”, 2020). Hashtags like #WorldHijabDay became more prominent as more people began to post on Instagram. In 2013, Instagram became the most growing social media app among mobile users due to its unique feature of professional selfies with carefully planned captions (Abidin, 2021). With Instagram ability of allowing users to post short stories and post pictures with hashtags, many Muslim women took the time to capture a selfie for the event. The use of the hashtag #WorldHijabDay on Instagram enables Muslim women to show the major Western audience that the hijab is of one’s choice. With multiple non-Muslim women trying the clothing for the first time, it enabled them to learn about the hijab through a physical experience. Many women were happy to join the movement of promoting peace and unity as they view the experience as eye-opening (“World hijab day”, 2020). The World Hijab Day fought prejudice and discrimination and discusses the heavy issue of hijab-wearing in a uniquely collaborative way that got global attention to this marginalised group. Thus, the use of hashtag activism for World Hijab Day enabled a mass collaboration event to open a positive light on hijab-wearing.
Though hashtag activism opened new methods to address Islam and Muslim identity positivity, platforms like Instagram enable the awareness of the injustices and hate crimes that emerged from Islamophobia. Muslim women face the stress of not knowing when they will become the victim of this hate crime as many Muslims are facing a loss of connection to their religious identity. This is due to their fear of receiving hate and the constant pressure of not fitting in. With the constant segregation and marginalisation of Muslim women in the western world, the relentless pressure of fitting becomes an issue for worldwide Muslims. The emergence of extremist groups induces the 1.8 billion Muslims to be stereotyped with these terrorist groups as a collective large organisation (Khamis, 2021). This increases the alienation of Muslims as Western society justifies the hate crime directed at Muslim women. Hashtag activism put light on these issues with an example being the #JusticeforHuda movement. The hashtag was started when a Muslim female named Huda at the Otago Girls High School faced verbal and physical abuse riled by Islamophobia (Gill, 2022). Huda was reported to be bullied for her Muslim identity and faced a hijab pulling incident (Gill, 2022). The #JusticeforHuda campaign made its launch on Instagram gaining the support of online users as well as influencers like Bella Hadid and ended up accumulating approximately 40,000 signatures for the petition in less than a day (Gill, 2022). As news agencies are the main source of information about Islam for many people, the Muslim voice has been cut out and silenced. Instagram and its hashtag activism movements enabled the Muslim women’s voices to be heard as they discuss the racial and religious profiling as well as the imposed restrictions on Muslims’ right to wear the hijab in France (Khamis, 2021). Hashtag activism allowed them to spread authentic awareness and fix the misconceptions through engagement as they try to reduce the prevalence of Muslim-centred hate crimes. Therefore, hashtag activism for movements like #JusticeforHuda gave access to Muslim women to share their voices as they discuss the increase of fear of hate crime and its effects on their Muslim identities.
On the contrary, the existence of soft Islamophobia stand as an obstacle to the spread of awareness of Islamophobia, hindering the existence of Muslim womens’ identity online. Soft Islamophobia occurs when the main victims of Islamophobia are excluded from political organisations and groups tackling Islamophobia (Islam, 2018). Muslims are being shaped to fit the preference of western societies’ views of how Islam should be. Narrative campaigns are initiated to carry the message that Muslims are ‘like you’, incorporating western ideals on Muslims as they alienate those who are more religiously conservative for not being deserving of protection against hate and prejudices (Islam, 2018). This contradicts the message that Muslim women are trying to advocate online as soft Islamophobia campaigns encourage the support of only American-like Muslims. This isolates Muslims with cultural backgrounds and accented English. The identity made through the Western ideal preferences does not incorporate the sense of diversity and inclusivity found in the Muslim communities. Another issue that came to face is Islamophobic people using Instagram to their advantage to manipulate the data presented to the users. These self-amplification groups have the intention of triggering the Instagram algorithms to manage their post on the main page (Abidin, 2021). This is evident in the use of #StopIslam whereby multiple users gather to increase hate speech and create false leading information about Islam as they aim to demonise Muslim people (Civila, 2020). This Islamophobic-oriented group gained advantages in the Instagram algorithm as they have increased searchability compared to Muslim-created content. These groups are limiting the freedom of expression of Muslim users preventing them from clearing misunderstandings as their online presence is nullified until it is chanced upon (Civila, 2020). However, though these disadvantages are put on the Muslim communities, there is an increase in information distrust that makes more users question the credibility of their information sources (Abidin, 2021). This enables them to reduce the easy persuasion to act on hate crimes as they give chance to Muslim women online and judge them before creating false and ignorant viewpoints about them.
To conclude, when discussing the ongoing presence of Muslim women identities being portrayed online, more users are changing their negative viewpoint on this marginalised group of people. The use of lifestyle blogging and hashtag activism has opened a new door of discovery for Muslims as they are able to fight against the negative stigma put forth on them. With their personalities and online personas, more Muslim women are gaining mass attention as they confront issues such as Islamophobia and hate crimes. However, with the social media platform algorithm supporting the spread of a negative perspective of Islam and the creation of campaigns supporting American tailored Muslims, Muslim women are finding it a bit difficult to create a larger platform for their message. However, this does not demotivate them to continue to influence. Hence, platforms like YouTube and Instagram enabled more Muslim women to advocate against Islamophobia and negative stereotypes.
Reference List
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Abidin, C. (2021). From “networked publics” to “refracted publics”: A companion framework for researching “below the radar” studies. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120984458
Civila S., Romero-Rodríguez, LM., & Civila, A. The demonization of Islam through social media: A case study of #Stopislam in Instagram. (2020). Publications, 8(4), 52. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/publications8040052
Gill, S. (2022, Feb 19). Influencer shares viral #JusticeForHuda. Manawatu Standard. https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/influencer-shares-viral-justiceforhuda/docview/2630282403/se-2?accountid=10382
Grine, F., & Saeed, M. (2017). Is Hijab a fashion statement? A study of Malaysian Muslim women. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 8(3), 430-443. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-04-2015-0029
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Peterson, K. M. (2016). Beyond fashion tips and Hijab tutorials: The aesthetic style of Islamic lifestyle videos. Film Criticism, 40(2), 1-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/fc.13761232.0040.203
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Hi Asli
I have read and agree with what you have written. I think you have excellently explained the difficulties that Muslim women face as we are visibly seen to be Muslim due to our hijab. As a Muslim women, I have used social media to have the platform to show that Muslim people are not to be scared of. Seeing many influencers using the hashtags and promoting world hijab day has made me proud to be a Muslim and I believe it is because of the support that we have received.
Hi Bahjo, thanks for the comment.
Social media allowed access to many people to connect, advocate and inform. Muslims around the world are now able to create a better image for their religion which was distorted by the media. As more influencers are using the platform to promote, they are inspiring other fellow Muslim women who face the daily challenges of discrimination while providing a positive awareness to Islam. The support and love globally are insane which shows the power of online connectivity and how far the internet has come when we talk about communication and collaboration.
Hi Asli,
I enjoyed reading your informative paper. I think its great that marginalised people are finding spaces to express their identities and attempt to change the negative discourses surrounding them, as well as challenging mainstream media representation. In my paper, I discuss another group, LGBTQIA+, and their use of Twitter and hashtags to create community and normalise their experiences, while negotiating privacy. You might like to check it out. https://networkconference.netstudies.org/2022/ioa/184/negotiation-of-privacy-and-social-media-to-explore-lgbtqia-identity-and-advocate-for-their-communities/
After reading your paper, I searched Amena Khan and Dina Torkia, as I was curious to watch one of their videos, but I was immediately presented with articles about how they had removed their hijab. I wondered if they continue to advocate for Muslim women in the same ways as previously, or if they had stepped aside due to the controversy? Or are they now facing marginalisation within their established communities? This would be similar to transwomen within the LGBTQIA+ community who are often seen as problematic by other members of the community (Jackson et al, 2018).
Hello Tracy,
I have viewed your paper and left a comment there.
The hijab follows the practice of modesty and is an obligation upon all women in Islam. However, as the religion focuses more on choice rather than force, people can choose whether they want to wear it or not. When Amena and Dina decide to take their hijab off, they face massive backlash as people believed it was more for a publicity stunt even though they took it off for their own personal reasons. In fact, Amena did not use to wear it outside of her videos. Every person has their own journey with the hijab, and they should wear it when they have fully embraced it as part of their identity and feel comfortable. I believe that culture influences the hate rather than religion. When it comes to people that don’t wear the hijab, the issue that comes up is whether people are making their opinions from an Islamic perceptive or a cultural perspective. Multiple online Muslim public figures have come in their defence to say that it is ok on whether they choose to wear it or not. Some may feel betrayed, but overall, no one should direct hate toward their decision.
For once Amena has advocated that woman should be able to choose what they do their bodies, whether they wear the hijab or not and her decision doesn’t stop. Did they lose connection to the religion after removing the hijab? The answer is no. They still spread Islam in the way they feel most comfortable in, and I think it’s the best solution for them.
I would not say that they fall into a mini community or that people view them as problematic or unwelcomed. I would in fact say that with many Muslim female facing hateful comments, non-Hijabis are more prone to more hate on the internet as certain internet users have strong ideals and cultural perspectives that don’t align with Islamic teachings.
I hope that answered your question.
Thanks Asli, Its a great point you make about how people tend to focus on the hate because of culture, rather than the religion, I think its the fear of the unknown, and the ‘other’ that make people latch onto certain points, especially when it is very visible like the hijab.
Very good paper. The referencing looks really good. The information that the references lead to really support your points. The funny thing is that America purposely doesn’t have a national religion, because of something in the Constitution called the Establishment Clause. The original settlers were considered heretics in England, but were of various kinds of Christianity, not all the same – Quakers, Shakers, Amish, Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Presbyterians, Masons, etc.
They reasoned that it was not the government’s place to ‘correct’ a citizen about how to please their own god(s), and that leaving such debates out of government’s sphere would prevent the nation from having these kinds of internal skirmishes. So, to suddenly throw up a wall, and say, “No, not like that,” is unAmerican. There might be academic or philosophical debate in people’s private lives, but there was no place for an ‘American religion’ so to speak. To be hassled about it today is really unconsititutional. Anyway, great paper. Well done.
Hello, Richard. Thanks for having a read of my paper. I guess their judgement did end up being false as the nation did end up having these religious issues. I did not know that America had this no national religion rule so that was interesting to know. It is sad to know that even though people should have the freedom to believe and practice the religious of their choice, societies try to limit that through the issues of inequality and religion. People start making their own stories and start to govern which religions should be acknowledged and should belong. We can only hope that religious freedom becomes identified as a major issue of discussion.
Hi Asli,
Thank you for your paper. I find it interesting to read about how Muslim social media influencers use social media platforms and engage in online activism to fight against negative stigma and stereotypes. In reading about the social shaping of identity of Muslim based on Western’s views, your analysis around soft Islamophobia is very insightful. I also find it noteworthy to read about anti-Muslim hashtags and the tension that emerges from hashtags, platform algorithm and social media posts as text to underline what make sense to anti-Muslim audience. Given Muslim women are in the intersection of Islamophobia, negative stigma and stereotypes and right-wing content creators and audience, how much (or how long) can advocates rely on social media, especially social media affordances continue to be part of the problem/ obstacle? Where do you think the real change towards the increase of a positive image for Muslims will emerge from?
PS: As I am not familiar with the inner workings of anti-Muslim hashtags, so I did a search and this may be of interest – https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444820903319. It looks at Islamophobia and right-wing populism on social media platforms and how inequality is amplified and reproduced.
Thanks again.
Cheers
Mags
Hello Mags, thanks for giving my paper a read. Social media has proven itself to be a strong platform to spread awareness of many deep issues and I believe it has opened many opportunities for many Muslims worldwide to inform people of Islam from a Muslim perspective. There are a lot of people who don’t have knowledge about Islam and the first encounter about the religion comes from the news reports on terrorism. That lack of knowledge of the religion and the news depictions of Islam instils this negative picture that Muslim are terrorist or evil in people minds. One of the changes that can be done to reduce the hate is to first educate people on the various religion and to stop blaming the religion as the main source of evil.
Unfortunately, we are not near that milestone to say that we are safe. The support online is tremendous, and more people have come out to defend more Muslims. However, these supports can sometimes just end on the internet with no active movement within the actual societies. Sadly, for many Muslims the internet is the only safe haven for them to discuss issues which they are unable to discuss in their daily lives.
The internet is effective currently, but we cannot speak for the future. Just like many other online advocacy movements like BLM, Palestinian movement and even with the Christchurch masjid event, they have lost fuel after a while. Assumptions on whether this support is more of a trend and whether this an example of slacktivism is unsure. We can only hope for the awareness exist for a long period of time and not die out any time soon.
I will give the article a read, thanks for the suggestion.
Hi Asli,
Thanks for a really interesting read. Like others have said, it is great to see a platform that challenges that stereotype that the western media has fed for so long. Unfortunately, as it seems with a lot of papers I am reading, the advantages also come with disadvantages. Participating in this space also opens the gates of negativity through trolls and hate groups just as you described with Amena and Dina. The facts of the #stopislam movement were alarming to hear – I had not heard of this before, but it saddened me to hear how it is undoing the progress made by Muslim women. Is there a solution for algorithms to recognise this?
Another concept that I had not been aware of was the soft islamaphobia that you discussed. It’s a really interesting point and something that will help guide my thoughts in the future too thank you for that! I guess I liken it to the new trend of employing diverse models for advertising campaigns – photographing an able-bodied model merely sitting in a wheelchair attempting to relate to someone living with a disability is offensive. Saying that though, I do believe it is a step in the right direction and maybe it is the slow path that we have to take. Exposure is already changing public expectations and the benefits are in the generations to come – young people are exposed to so many different things now (and arguably too many things!) that previous generations were deprived of, thanks to the internet and social media. Awareness is the key and although changing public perception in the past has been at a glacial pace, I’m hopeful that the authentic window into Muslim Women’s that social media offers, will quicken that pace.
I’d love to hear if yourself, or anyone else through their research, has uncovered a solution to our reliance on algorithms and the issues that result?
Hello Andrea, thank you for reading may paper and finding it interesting. Social media stands a tool, and it is up to the us whether we use it to promote hate or spread peace. Many minority communities use these platforms to give themselves a voice knowing that they may become susceptible to hate and negative stereotypes. Muslim women are finally able to receive support and change the negatives stigmas around them and that shows how far we have come.
The #stopislam spread hate speech and began to strengthen the negative views put forth on Muslim women. Social media algorithm played a major impact as they triggered these posts to gain more exposure in compared to the positive post about Muslims. One of the main reasons these posts became more prominent was due to Muslim users interacting with these posts in order to condemn them for the content they post. In a way this increase the spread of these post with the hashtag gaining more traction. A way we can stop the #stopislam from having an algorithm advantage is to in fact encourage users to not interact with these pages. This will reduce it from gaining more attraction than it already has. Hopefully, this diminishes the #stopislam movement and sets the algorithms to show more Muslim supporting post in compared to the hate spreading ones.
Hi Asli,
What a great and engaging paper! Your paper was very easy to read and held a clear and strong argument. As someone who does not know much about this topic, I found your paper to be super informative and also inspiring. It’s always really nice to hear that social media is able to bring people together in these ways and create awareness. I hadn’t heard of Amena Khan and Dina Torkia before but I really enjoyed looking through their accounts, it’s always comforting to know that there are inspiring women out there from all religions, cultures, countries and walks of life who can support and inspire women and girls across the world. This is one of the best parts of social media, the way communities can come together.
While you mainly speak of Instagram and YouTube, are there other social networking sites that are having this same positive impact?
Great paper again!
– Kyla
Hello, Kyra thanks for the read. You are right when you say that social media allows communities to unite and come together. Some minority groups may not know a lot of people that share the same value or religion, so the internet provided them with that felling on inclusivity and belonging. It opens more doors for connection as well as engagement There are definitely other platforms that have created positive impact such as Tik-Tok and even Facebook. For instance, Tik-Tok has become more popular, having a higher engagement rate and has allowed more Muslims to spread awareness and portray their Muslim identity in a positive light. In certain countries there are also mini street debate corners for people to ask any question they have about the religion which is remarkably interesting.
Hello Asli,
This was a very interesting paper. Islamophobia is something that is a big problem everywhere. It is quite alarming to hear that people tend to marginalize people simply because they observe different religions. I also like the fact that you mainly focused on how Muslim women are using social media to advocate against Islamophobia because according to what I have personally witnessed, they are constant victims both online and offline. I was also surprised to read about the #stopislam hashtag. It is unacceptable that people decide it’s okay to talk bad about somebody else’s religion. I have also seen many Muslim online personalities coming forward to debunk misinformation spreading about how Muslim women are being treated within the religion, which is also possibly another reason behind the widespread hate towards Islam. This was a very informative paper which really gave me an insight to how social media is and can be used positively.
Hello Senera, thanks for viewing my paper. Having more Muslim women take the time to advocate for their identity has made tremendous effect in changing the negative stereotypes and view put on Muslim women. Hate has transcended to different levels for Muslims. As you said, the hate is occurring both offline and online. Fun fact, there was an anti-Muslim campaign that sent out letters encouraging people to commit hate crimes against Muslims to gain more points. For example, torturing a Muslim gets you 250 points and bombing a mosque was 1000 points. The higher the crime the more points you get. Even though this ‘Punish a Muslim Day’ did not actually occur, it was scary enough that there were a group spreading these leaflets and promoting hate in their society.
Hi Asli!
Wonderful paper and I really enjoyed reading it and learning more in-depth about it! I love how you explored the ways that it impacts but also the counterproductive impacts that take place-I certainly have to agree with you on the importance of social media and the way digital activism and online advocacy for marginalized groups is! More than traditional media, online media certainly holds more power, and more things tend to “come to light” through social media platforms. I noticed that fashion houses that take part use headscarves and modest wear, which is very obviously inspired by the Muslim community, and called it “fashion”. However, people do not have any problem with this “fashion” as it was not associated with Islam at all it almost makes you sick to the stomach to think that just because an “attire” belongs to a Muslim woman, for example, the Hijab- it would gain hate, but the same type of “attire” worn by a model in the name of fashion would be applauded. When we see posts like this on social media and not the traditional news on the double standards, racism, and islamophobia that our Muslim brothers and sisters face- it gives a chance for people to be educated and understand different viewpoints. Kim Kardashian pulled up to the Met Gala last year in a head-to-toe black dress that covered her entire body including the face and called it “fashion” and was applauded- however the Niqab, Burka and Hijab would be scrutinized and used as a weapon to have negative opinions about Islam and the Muslim community. What’re your thoughts on the fashion industry using marginalized groups as a fashion statement and not having to bear the consequences that Muslim women have to for just being themselves?
– Neha
Neha, thank you for the insightful comment. I agree that the current fashion industry uses the concept of the hijab to their benefit as ‘fashion’ while Muslims receive constant hate speech and negativity from society. This whole issue falls under the concept of cultural appropriation. Where Muslims receive hate and disrespect for wearing the hijab, people online can steal the concept of hijab for their own self-interest. In a sense it is not fair for the fashion industry to use the hijab as a symbol of fashion and looked up upon, while Muslims who wear it daily must constantly face discrimination for wearing the same thing. They delete the symbolic reasoning behind the hijab and why Muslims wear it. One should not be worse off with the same output. Take a look at Paris which puts restrictions on hijabs and Niqabs for instance. Their runaways incorporates head pieces that are similar to the hijab under the notion of fashion. Is it right for Muslims to be restricted from wearing it even though it is for their religious purpose while models can as its for ‘fashion’? The answer is no. A hijab is a hijab and it should not uplift one while put the other group down.