Jadaliyya Reports. (2012, April 15). A Collective Response to “To Be Anti-Racist is to Be Feminist: The Hoodie and the Hijab are Not the Same.” Jadaliyya. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/25634 

Activists, feminist writers, and academics respond to an article published by Adele Wilde-Blavatsky in the Feminist Wire, “To Be Anti-Racist Is to Be Feminist: The Hoodie and the Hijab Are Not Equals”. The article addresses how Wilde-Blavatsky’s article reinforces white feminist privilege and power. Drawing upon the murders of Trayvon Martin and Shaima Alawadi, Wilde-Blavatsky argues that the hoodie is a choice while the hijab is generally forced upon women. In response to such assertions, this article addresses why questioning women’s choice of wearing the hijab is problematic. The respondents also take issue with the motivations of Alawadi’s murder outlined in Wide-Blavatsky’s article. The respondents conclude that it is important to note that women are not a singular category, and they call upon solidarity and understanding to avoid reproducing Islamophobic and racist narratives.

The Teaching Against Islamophobia resources were developed with funding support from the Law Foundation of BC, and the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies at SFU.