Source: The Times

Black women, Muslim women and all women need to realize we have a common cause
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By Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley, Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley is associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and a Public Voices Fellow for the OpEd Project.

Face haloed by a gilded purple scarf, Larycia Hawkins, an African-American Christian associate professor of political science at Wheaton College, posted a Christmas Facebook picture of herself in hijab. This is her Advent practice, she explained, urging others to follow suit: to don the hijab in embodied solidarity with sisters facing Islamophobic violence for wearing headscarves.

“As part of my Advent Worship, I will wear the hijab to work at Wheaton College, to play in Chi-town, in the airport and on the airplane … and at church,” she said. “A large scale movement of Women in Solidarity with Hijabs is my Christmas #‎wish this year.” She also equated the Christian God with the Muslim one. In a controversial move, Wheaton College suspended her for these remarks.

Hawkins embodies a point we don’t hear often enough: Islamophobic violence against women is a black feminist issue. To pass over the recent attacks against Muslim women is to concede ground to the mounting terror on women of color that endangers us all.

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