Gendered racialization: Muslim American men and women’s encounters with racialized surveillance

Muslim American men and women are increasingly encountering surveillance by the state and by their fellow private citizen. Interviews with 48 South Asian and Arab Muslim American men and women in the Chicago and Dallas–Ft. Worth areas reveal that Muslims are racialized in unique ways guided by their gender. This article shows the importance gender plays in organizing how Muslim men’s and women’s bodies are racially surveilled in the War on Terror. Muslim American bodies are subjected to gendered racialization via their hyper surveillance by the state and their fellow private citizen. While South Asian and Arabs have already been racialized as a result of their ethnicity, there are newer racial meanings imparted to their bodies because of their religious identity that is guided by gender. This article highlights the importance of gender in the process of racialization.