1. What particular confluence of historical events has created the context (the “perfect storm”) Mir discusses with respect to the challenges Muslim women face on college campuses?

2. In what ways is the situation of Muslim women on campus like that of all groups that might be labeled “marginalized”?

3. Do you agree with Mir’s claim that much of college life — or at least campus life — focuses on sociability and hedonism? Why or why not?

4. During an interview about her book (which can be read at http://bit.ly/1o2PpgF), Mir was asked whether the women she studied had a difficult time reconciling their identities as Muslims and Americans. Here is her reply:

My participants knew that observers and others thought that their “Muslim” and “American” identities were in perpetual conflict. None of them said that they experienced this conflict. Where they saw conflict was in the way others saw what it means to be “American” and “Muslim.” In other words, if you think an “American” young person is a White, Christian person who drinks at college then, yes, there is conflict between being “American” and an observant Muslim. There are certainly plenty of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Christians who do not participate in hedonistic youth culture, and plenty who do. When we assume that an “American” and/or a “Muslim” has an “essence” that is religious or irreligious, liberal or conservative, etc., that is when we engage with the problem of conflict between these incommensurable identities. Intisar (a Somali American student), for instance, is personally comfortable with praying in the prayer-room as well as attending a dance show; Teresa, a White convert, is comfortable with being an observant Muslim as well as smoking; but neither of them is comfortable being seen doing these “conflicting” things. The problem is not in being this complicated person. The problem is that the observer just can’t take it all in. These real, complicated, mixed people simply do not compute.
What does Mir’s comment teach us about the nature of identity, especially when one belongs to a group that is placed on the periphery? What does it teach us about the challenge of diversity on college campuses and in society generally?

5. Mir uses a large number of constructs from social theory to discuss the situation of the women she studied, including stigma, cultural capital, informal policy, Orientalist discourse, essentialism, double consciousness, and covering. Use one or more of these constructs to discuss the situation of other minority groups on campus.

6. Like most theorists in any discipline who currently write about issues of identity, Mir argues that it is socially constructed, that is, it is not simply something that is given or assigned but something that is achieved through a complex process — a dialogue, and often a painful one — with one’s family, friends, and the communities of which one is a part. Not surprisingly, it often involves the feeling that one must cover aspects of one’s identity, at least in certain contexts. Write a causal essay in which you examine some aspect of your understanding of your identity, including, perhaps, some prejudice that you possess that has changed over time. In the essay be sure to help readers understand the series of events that led you to change. (Chapter 11 discusses causal arguments. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 on arguments based on emotion and character, respectively, will likely prove useful resources as well.)