Blog8 Consequences
Of Discrimination
People speak of “American” as if it
means “white” and “minority” as if it means “black”. Many other immigrants, refugees are coming to
America to settle down and find a safe place to live at. Many of these refugees are judged by the way
they look and especially Muslim women. The
same refugees cannot belong to either groups and are facing discrimination in
their daily encounter with the society in USA.
Muslim women are haunted by the image that
they reflect, oppression. Some cultures,
women are forced by the men of the family to have the veil on. Some other cultures, women chose to have the
veil or the hijab as sign of worship or modesty. In both incidences, women are treated as
if they don’t have a voice not only in their cultures but even in this new
civilized culture.
One of my personal
encounter last week with discrimination happened with a fully veiled
woman. This discrimination occurred during a home visit accompanying
2 case managers working with this family. The woman was promised
gifts for her kids that they will be delivered before Christmas. This
program is funded by a non-profit organization to help refugees and people in
need. Suddenly, one of the case managers started showing a wide
range of offensive behavior, even threatening and disturbing behavior. As
a human being, I felt that the behavior was unfair treatment which is totally
based on the appearance of the woman. The Muslim woman was forced to talk about
her trauma in detail in front of her daughter who wears the veil too. The
case worker stood there enjoying the grief and pain that the 2 Arab Muslim
women were having while reliving their trauma. It was frightening
experience to hear all the details of suffering and torture that they had to go
through before coming to America.
I don’t think traumatizing
this woman and having her go through the physical and emotional consequences of
the discrimination is a fair price for the donated gifts. I had to
step out of my role as an interpreter and I had to be the advocate for this
family. I know that each person has to represent herself/himself but
now I have to be the voice of this woman, even though I look different but I
still am an Arab American Muslim woman. There is no doubt that this
woman was discriminated against by a professional worker that abused her authority.She also thought that I am
different and I will not react. I reported the incident with the
help of the other case manager and investigation was made. The
result was to reassign the person only to work with a different family… One
discrimination at a time…
Muslim women, like all people in the United States, have the
right to practice their religion. They also have the right to be treated
equally and the right not to be discriminated against or harassed because of
their religion, their gender, or perceptions about their nationality or
ethnicity.
Because of their visibility, Muslim women who wear hijab face
particular exposure to discrimination and have increasingly been targets for
harassment in the aftermath of September 11. While it is difficult to obtain
accurate statistics about discriminatory incidents, reported instances of
discrimination appear to be on the rise.
Civil rights complaints filed with one Muslim advocacy group
rose from 366 in 2000 to 2,467 in 2006, an increase of 674%. One expert has found that Muslim women
who wear headscarves are more likely than those who do not to face
discrimination: 69% of women who wore hijab reported at least one incident of
discrimination compared to 29% of women who did not wear hijab.
In my opinion, discrimination primarily
stems from lack of understanding of a particular culture or group. If there is
more awareness, not just about Arab Americans, but about different cultures in general, then we can prosper and become an even stronger nation.
References:
Rothenberg, P.S, Race, Class, And Gender in The United States
