Special Issue - Women’s Scholarship and Engagement in Policy, Pedagogy, and Development
Vol. 6 No. 2 (2025)
Muslim scholars in liberal democracies, especially women, often face discrimination, Islamophobia, and racism in academia. This discrimination can occur in hiring, selections, or promotion reviews, to mention only a few instances. In Muslim-majority contexts, their experiences of discrimination might be entirely framed around their gender, as patriarchal norms often relegate them to the peripheries of their professions. There are both overt and covert attempts to silence women’s voices, and sometimes women choose to remain silent to avoid retaliation and sidelining. Women recognize that by being ‘too visible’, they are seen as a threat. Their silence, therefore, provides an ‘invisibility’ which makes it easier for them to navigate their professional spaces. The kinds of negotiations that typically accompany women as they try to participate in the proverbial public sphere or professional work environment has worsened in recent years. For example, since the Gaza Genocide, scholars of all religions, including women, were penalized and fired for speaking out about the Palestinian quest for self-determination and ending the Occupation. In the case of Muslim women in academia, instead of benefiting from their unique perspectives as women, there are numerous stories of Muslim women being silenced in Western countries, particularly in the U.S.