This article shows that Muslim women in higher-level occupations are confronted with Islamophobic microaggressions as articulations of symbolic violence. These interactions take the form of everyday comments and/or looks, which can make them seem less tangible than more structural types of discrimination, but nevertheless their impact can be just as significant. The main research question therefore looks at the manifestations of everyday gendered Islamophobia in the workplace. By viewing microaggressions as part of the larger theoretical framework of symbolic violence by Pierre Bourdieu, it tries to uncover the underlying reason as to why these take place in these specific spaces. It has been found that the Islamophobic microaggressions operate on the intersections of gender, religion, ethnicity, and race. As the spaces these women move in were historically reserved for white men of a higher social standing (Mills 1997; Puwar 2004), they also have an implied class element. Muslim women who wear the hijab are often the target of symbolic violence within the first weeks or even days of starting a new position, making them feel singled out and unwelcome. The women who are not visibly Muslim become a target as soon as their surroundings find out that they adhere to certain Muslim rules and rituals. Specific to the Belgian context is the intersection with the Moroccan identity, which even non-Moroccan Muslims are confronted with. This article provides an insight into their experiences yet also touches on their responses and the strategies they apply to deal, or not have to deal with, this Islamophobic symbolic violence. This article is based on research from 2022/2023, which consists of twenty semi-structured interviews with Muslim women of different ages, ethnic backgrounds, visibly (hijab) and less visibly Muslim in Flanders, Belgium.
Arthemis SNIJDERS (Wed,) studied this question.