Thirteenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the popular and critically acclaimed “viral” poster of the Muslim woman dawning an American flag as hijab by Shepard Fairey. The poster is out of a larger collection of work titled “We the People,” which was created in response to former President Donald Trump’s infamous 2017 immigration policy (largely referred to as the “Muslim Ban”). My interest is not only in Fairey’s image—a form of political art–itself, but the widespread adaptation of the concept by Muslim women in the U.S. In contrast to critical acclaim that largely hailed using the American flag as hijab as revolutionary, I move beyond scholarship that is limited to cultural frameworks that discuss the representations of Muslim women against stereotypical depictions in news media post 9/11. My own analyses interrogates the sociopolitical and historic realities that are masked when discussions of Muslim women pertain only to visibility and choice. I argue the visual of the flag as hijab is merging colonial tropes with personal practices—invoking sentiments of national pride and liberty while ignoring a colonial history of domination upon which Muslim women have been integral. I examine the image medium, the visual itself (and subsequent phenomenon), and the contexts from which it arises. Through such analysis, it becomes clear that the image demonstrates an intellectual colonial violence that continues to take place on Muslim women’s bodies in new forms within the United States.