The Politics of The Headscarf in the United States by Bozena C. Welborne et. al. (review)

While there are countless books on the presumed oppression of Muslim women and the regulation of Muslim bodies in Western society, this book offers an original and significant study of the personal decisions that Muslim American women make to wear the headscarf. Instead of exploring political limitations on religious dress in public spaces, the authors focus on the symbolic boundaries created by the headscarf and assess how the treatment of covered Muslim women in American public spaces might signal the sustainability of democratic pluralism in the United States. Through a survey of nearly two thousand Muslim American women and focus group interviews with more than seventy women, the authors share unprecedented data on the daily experiences of Muslim women in the United States. This multi-method approach allows the authors to present statistical data and substantial quotes about the reasons for wearing the headscarf, experiences of daily harassment and motivations for political engagement.

The first chapter effectively presents the complex and overlapping reasons why women wear the headscarf such as, cultivating a pious disposition, identity representation, and protection from sexual harassment. Additionally, the authors foreground an exploration of agency, with the help of Saba Mahmood's theorization, not only as acts that resist norms but also as gestures that embrace norms. Through the wearing of the headscarf, Muslim women are able to embody virtuous customs with the goal of becoming more pious Muslims. The developing arguments in this book are based on the understanding that Muslim women have the agency to choose how they will dress and appear in public.

The next chapter presents an important discussion of the internal tensions in the Muslim American community, specifically related to racism. Although the historical background on the Nation of Islam and African American Muslims was essential to this conversation, the authors inadequately discuss this history and neglect to acknowledge the work of Warith Deen Muhammad, who transitioned the majority of the Nation members to Sunni Islam. The next few chapters go into further details about the political and social situations of Muslim women, including discussions of experiences of othering, bringing democratic values into Muslim identity, and formal political action through voting and lobbying.

This book excels in the incorporation of first-person comments and survey results from the Muslim participants, which enables more indepth discussions of the complex and intersecting experiences of Muslim Americans. Additional strengths of this book include its clear and accessible writing style, as well as the organized chapters that address a variety of political and social issues. This book would be relevant in courses on religion and politics in the United States, and it is also accessible for general audiences interested in contemporary Islam. Scholars of Islam in America would find these recent statistics and discussions extremely helpful.

Although the authors do try to address issues of agency and religious subjectivity, the political science background of the authors is evident in the limited discussions of religious history, expressions, and practices. In addition, there is an unsatisfying section in the conclusion on media representations of Muslims. More significantly, the authors' overall argument that Muslim Americans can and should be incorporated into democratic liberal society neglects to question whether it is desirable for Muslims to integrate democratic ideals into their faith. The authors fail to address whether Muslims might want to consider their faith as more significant than, or irreconcilable, with liberal democratic values—values based in Western Christian traditions. This book lacks a critical edge to question whether democratic pluralism is the neutral ideal that Muslims and other religious minorities should strive to reach.