Between the Post-ethnic and the Unique: Exclusion of American Muslim Women and Policy- Making

Abstract

Muslim women are treated in a similar manner by the media and the globalization political process. Because of this fusion between sensational media reporting and policy-making, combined with compartmentalized scholarship (area studies, Islamic studies, women's studies) and activism (Muslim vs. Western), a Muslim woman is often not viewed as an autonomous entity that could and should be involved in policy-making. This pattern of ignoring Muslim women's political participation is repeated even in the United States. With the exception of a few, the majority of American Muslim women of varying backgrounds and educational levels are neither involved in the domestic nor in the international affairs of the US. Hence, the issue is: how is it possible for the estimated three million American Muslim women to become a political reality to further the US democratic policy, the US Muslim political and legal rights, or Muslim women's human rights all over the world.