“I Don’t Dress Like You”: Islamophobia Between the (In)Visible Violence against Muslim Women in Italy, and Resilience Strategies

Islamophobia is a constantly growing phenomenon throughout both Europe and Italy, with it being the expression of a general tendency towards the stigmatization of Muslim communities, whose manifestation, on a social level, at times occurs more evidently and at others more subtly. The first part of the paper will reconstruct a theoretical framework, with a post-colonial matrix, of the concept of Islamophobia and the ways in which it interacts with radicalization, hate crimes, and violence. It seems that the causes of these negative manifestations and emotions towards Islam and the subjects who profess this faith, with their set of practices, habits, ways of living, and dressing, are to be identified with both the increase of Jihadist attacks as well as the rise of right-wing populist parties. If the tolerance towards Muslim men seems to be greater on the part of Italians, it seems that it is “veiled” women (Zempi 2020) who are the subject of episodes of visible and invisible violence. Muslim women are more exposed to fragility, due to both long-standing reasons linked to gender and since they interact in precarious contexts and social spaces peripheral to the center. These reflections are the framework within which the survey in the second part of the paper will be developed. An ethnographic approach, which will include narrative interviews focused on Muslim women of different generations, in 3 Italian regions, mainly Somali (also refugees and asylum seekers), will be used to analyze the dimensions of violence and resilience in relation to the narratives that the interviewees give of their experiences of gendered islamophobia. The survey also discusses the involvement of Somali female activists, along with the presidents of anti-racist/feminist/Muslim organizations and actors who work with issues related to discrimination, racism and equality for the rights of Muslims. The elaboration of the interviews will be conducted within the paradigm of the enhancement of subjectivities. The conclusions will propose strategies for dealing with and raising awareness of such delicate and, it is hoped, urgent containment issues, to promote a more cohesive society.