The Gendered Suspect: Women at the Canada-U.S. Border after September 11

Crossing the border is a gendered and racialized act. Considering the experiences of South Asian women at the border deemed "Suspect," this article examines the ways that discourses of "saving Muslim women" get mobilized at the border. While much has been written on the racial profiling that happens to South Asian men, for South Asian women there is a corresponding phenomenon that draws on popular images of "Other" women. At the border, categories of "victim" and "terrorist" become mutually constitutive and importantly gendered. This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Toronto, Canada and Lahore and Karachi Pakistan between 2002 and 2010.