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Experiences of Muslim Female Students in Knoxville: at the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Religion

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Experiences of Muslim Female Students in Knoxville: at the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Religion University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2018 Experiences of Muslim Female Students in Knoxville: At the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Religion Nuray Karaman University of Tennessee, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Karaman, Nuray, "Experiences of Muslim Female Students in Knoxville: At the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Religion. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2018. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/5002 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Nuray Karaman entitled "Experiences of Muslim Female Students in Knoxville: At the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Religion." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Sociology. Michelle M. Christian, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Manuela Ceballos, Harry F. Dahms, Asafa Jalata Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Experiences of Muslim Female Students in Knoxville: At the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Religion A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Nuray Karaman August 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Nuray Karaman. All rights reserved. ii Acknowledgments There are many I have to thank for making this dissertation possible. First, I firmly believe that the completion of this project would never have been possible without the patience and encouragement of my advisor, Dr. Michelle Christian. I am truly honored to have had her as an advisor. Thank you for believing in me and in my project. I would also like to thank my doctoral committee – Dr. Harry F. Dahms, Dr. Asafa Jalata, and Dr. Manuela Ceballos– for their valuable suggestions and perceptive comments. Special thanks to the faculty and staff in the Sociology Department at the University of Tennessee. In addition, I would like to thank the Department of Sociology and Turkish Ministry of Education for their financial throughout my doctoral program. A special thanks to my parents, Serife Karakaya and Isa Karakaya, for their support and love throughout this entire process. My very special thanks to my beloved husband Ferhat, for his unconditional support and unwavering confidence in my capabilities, as well as the personal sacrifices he has made to support me during my entire doctoral program. And my lovely daughter, Ipek, who have endured my occasional impatience and crankiness and the many hours away from her writing my dissertation. Last but not least, I would like to thank my research participants because without their contribution and support this project would not have been possible. iii Abstract In the current climate, there is a need to give particular attention to the racialization of Muslim women in order to understand their experiences. In the U.S., there are current discriminatory policies towards Muslims, such as Trump’s travel ban, increased incidents of hate against Muslims, and the spread of negative stereotypes about Muslims and Islam. In this study, I interview thirty-four Muslim female students to show the experiences of Muslim women at the intersection of multiple identities. These multiple identities: religion, gender, race, culture, citizenship status, clothing and various levels of religiosity such as wearing a headscarf, and national background shape these women’s perception of the hijab, their racial identification, and their coping strategies. The following three research questions are explored: 1) How do Muslim female students experience practices of racialization, regarding the outside and inside campus environment on the University of Tennessee campus where the majority of its enrollment is self- identified as Christian? (2) How does the intersection of religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, and gender effect the identity formation of Muslim female university students in U.S.? (3) What are Muslim female students’ opinions, reactions, and coping strategies towards negative stereotypes about Muslim women and Islam in U.S.? The results demonstrate the diversity among Muslim female students in how they think and identify. Important intersecting markers such as being hijabi/non-hijabi; being a white/person of color; being an American citizen/non-American; speaking English as a native language/second language; coming from a secular country/religious country showcase differences in terms of how all women experienced racialization but in different ways. They also defined differently the meaning of the hijab and their racial identities and they selected different coping strategies to challenge the negative stereotypes of Muslims and Islam that have been on the rise in Trump’s era. The findings of this iv study broaden the existing literature and help future studies that do not only analyze Muslim population but also other minority groups in Western or Middle Eastern countries. v Table of Contents Chapter I: Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 My Story ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Background ................................................................................................................................. 6 My Study ................................................................................................................................... 11 Method ...................................................................................................................................... 13 Case Study ............................................................................................................................ 13 Selection of Participants ....................................................................................................... 14 Interviewing: Data Gathering Technique.............................................................................. 16 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 18 Chapter II: Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 21 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 21 Racialization of Muslims and Islam ......................................................................................... 21 Citizenship ................................................................................................................................ 31 Intersectionality......................................................................................................................... 34 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 39 Chapter III: Muslim Female Students’ Practices and Experiences of Racialization .................... 43 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 43 Feeling Different ....................................................................................................................... 44 American Muslim Female Students ...................................................................................... 45 International Muslim Female Students ................................................................................. 49 Feeling Exclusion...................................................................................................................... 51 American Muslim Female Students ...................................................................................... 51 International Muslim Female Students ................................................................................. 55 Verbal Hatred ............................................................................................................................ 58 American Muslim Female Students ...................................................................................... 58 International Muslim Female Students ................................................................................. 60 Stereotypes ................................................................................................................................ 61 Muslim Women as Oppressed and Forced to Be Veiled ...................................................... 62 Islam is a Religion of Terror and Muslims are Terrorist or Terrorist Sympathizer .............. 66 Muslim Women as Having Heterogeneous Lives and Identities .........................................
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