| No Images? Click here   Black Muslim women are the target of multiple forms of bigotry — and yet they are expected to deal with those instances gracefully. Case in point Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) sees it regularly.Rowaida Abdelaziz spoke to black Muslim women about their daily interactions with prejudice.What was the seed for this story?When people think of a Muslim American, too often the mainstream perception are Muslims of immigrant descent -- primarily Arabs and Southeast Asian. The black Muslim experience is often overlooked and disregarded, despite the fact that some of the very first Muslims in this country were enslaved black Muslims.I’ve wanted to report on the complex experiences black Muslims face in America for a while, particularly the experiences of black Muslim women. With the election of Ilhan Omar and Black History Month in full effect, I know there was no better time to finally tackle this story.How did you go about reporting it out?While the entire news cycle was obsessed over Ilhan Omar and her tweets, I began talking to various black Muslim women around the country. We talked about their experiences facing racism, sexism and Islamophobia both within their line of work and in their personal lives in light of the Omar story. We didn’t focus on the tweets, but the bigger picture many of these women felt was missing from the national conversation -- which is it’s pretty damn hard to be a black Muslim woman in America.I also studied the complex histories of black Muslims, both in the context of racism within the United States and the racial tensions black Muslims face within the larger Muslim community among other immigrant Muslims. These women provided a first hand look into the intersections of hate they face and how they overcome it. |
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