Islamophobia is not a recent invention, but the use of the word has become more common both in media, and in our daily lives. We have internalized islamophobia as fear towards Muslims. It is used as a way for people on the outside to put people into a category, to exclude and discriminate based on their religion. When we go back to the case it is clear that the hairdresser sees the woman wearing a hijab, not as a regular customer, but someone that represents something she does not agree with, tolerate or respect. She generalizes the woman of Islamic faith into the categories she knows: Muslim, Islam, terror, but most of all fear, and that is something we can also call islamophobia.

A youtube video by Teen Vouge (2016) called #AskAMuslimGirl,  Muslim girls share why they wear the hijab and what it means to them. It shows us another side of what the hijab represent. One of them says that Islam is constantly being portrayed in the media as a monster, that women is being oppressed. She means, that this is not true. One of the Westerns ideas is often that women that wear a hijab are oppressed by their religion. If we listen to these girls, they mean that the hijab is a symbol of liberation, and identity. It is liberating in the way that they can choose who gets to see their body, and who cannot. No one mention that they felt oppressed or not respected in their religion. It is a sign of confidence, and having something different with you. One of them also ask, why people are so afraid of a piece of cloth on the head?

 

So why are people so afraid of Muslims or in this case religious clothing like the hijab? One of the reasons can be media. Media is a resource of information people relay on and watch. The things we see in media that involve Islam are Muslims connected with terror, ISIS, killings, the extreme side of the faith. It is portrayed as a very little nuanced picture of a religion that is so diverse. When information like this is spread, it affects the people. The picture you see when you think of Muslims is the one media has portrayed. That creates generalizations, and what we now know today as islamophobia. One of the girls in the video also says this in another way, pointing to the hijab, which she sees as a defiance of islamophobia, “the first thing you know about me, before you even know my name is that I am a Muslim.” (Teen Vogue, 2016) When we put someone into a group, like in this case with the hairdresser and the woman of Islamic faith, it is easy to forget the person behind the religion. Yes, the woman is wearing a hijab because of her faith. She is a Muslim. But first of all, she is a young woman, a woman with a name, with friends and family, she is a Norwegian. Still in many eyes, she is only a Muslim, and as we are taught through stereotyping and generalizations, she must be feared, the human being does not exist, the Muslim does.