Can You hear US Now

Can You hear US Now January 14, 2017

By Maria Faiola

“Can You Hear Us Now?” features six different Muslim women explaining their perspective on what Islam says about women in society. They are all advocates and leaders in their communities and share ways that they try to break stereotypes that many Americans have about Muslim women. The idea for the video began in response to the controversial statements made my Donald Trump where he insinuated that Muslim women were not allowed to speak out in public. His comment was made after a speech was given at the Democratic National Convention by the father of a fallen U.S. soldier that was Muslim.

While people often focus on the ways that Islam can be oppressive for Muslim women, I wanted to explore instead the ways that Muslim women are just as free and outspoken as any other women and do speak out contrary to what Donald Trump suggested. Americans may see Muslim women wearing hijabs and think that this is a sign of submission when in reality not all Muslims even wear hijabs and as one of the girls says in the video, she actually feels empowered by their modesty. The Muslim women in this video show that they are just like any other American women and represent their religion with pride and dignity.

Maria Faiola is an undergraduate student at the University of Delaware. This documentary was produced for a class on Islam and America taught by Dr. Muqtedar Khan at the University of Delaware.


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