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should be properly educated with (Western) feminist ideals to disabuse them of their
commitment to Islam. Similarly, Razack (2008) illustrates how “Muslim women have
beensingledoutasneedingprotectionfromtheirviolentandhyper-patriarchalmen”(4).
Effectively, gender and Islamophobia combine in such a way that men in these groups
are considered extra dangerous, and women are considered extra oppressed.
Privilege takes on multiple meanings in the case of gendered Islamophobia. Patricia
Hill Collins observed that privilege is constantly bound up in various oppressive sys-
tems: “Each individual derives varying amounts of penalty and privilege from the mul-
tiplesystemsofoppressionwhichframeeveryone'slives”(2000,287).First,thereisthe
contextualized articulation of restriction and permission in everyday life. For Muslim
American communities, that often comes into play with the pervasive stereotype of
a supposedly singular “Islamic culture” that is somehow uniquely patriarchal and ex-
tremely oppressive of women. The power of this stereotype to impact the lives of in-
dividuals should not be underestimated, implicating all aspects of gender performance,
from attire to public displays of affection. This study, which focuses on the efforts of
advocacyworktoconfrontthesesortsofharmfuldiscourses,isconcernedwithasecond
kind of privilege that can influence the development of gender and Islamophobia—the
privilege to advocate for change.
Very often, the privilege to engage in advocacy is perceived as male-dominated.
However, in other civil rights struggles, for example, during the 1950s and 1960s wo-
men played significant roles in the African American Civil Rights Movement. Their ef-
forts have largely gone unnoticed until recent scholarship on the subject (Irons 1998;
Payne 1995; McAdam 1992; Barnett 1993; Robnett 1996). However, male privilege
contributed toa“glass ceiling” that was observed inmany civil rights organizations that
prevented women from attaining senior leadership positions in advocacy organizations.
Robnett found that although women frequently presented new ideas and initiated activ-
ism, they then would often “recede into the background” (1996, 1677). Whether a sim-
ilar “glass ceiling” is in place at Muslim American organizations working today is an
empirical question addressed later in this chapter. Even if the metaphorical glass ceiling
isnotinplace,however,theperceptionthatmenhavegreaterabilitytoparticipateinad-
vocacy work. The perception that Muslim men are uniquely oppressive toward women
might also affect the advocacy strategies taken by male-dominated advocacy organiza-
tions. This could manifest in an attempt to recruit women into leadership positions; for
example, the attempt to showcase women as community leaders. It might also lead or-
ganizations to take up (or avoid) advocacy around certain gendered issues in an attempt
to highlight (or downplay) their significance.
In this chapter, I follow in the footsteps of Jenny Irons (1998), who engages with is-
sues of gender roles and privilege in her groundbreaking work on gender in the African
