Post-9/11 Discrimination, Weblogistan, and Persepolis

The difference between discrimination against Arab women and Arab men that Caintar documents shows that Islamophobia isn't as simple as "white Christian Americans hate Arab (American) Muslims because of terrorism fear". It's fascinating how different Arab-American men and women have been treated, both before 9/11 and in the past ten-plus years, partially based on dress choices (rhetorically toward men and women both but practically against women) and partially on racial profiling (primarily toward men). Gender differences also play a role in western interpretations of "Weblogistan", according to Sima Shakhsari in Feminist Review, in that male bloggers are considered revolutionaries and poltical activists, while female bloggers are seen as more culturally subversive (she "write[s] about sex"! How scandalous!), but not political actors. Put together these imply that western gender norms are at play in how westerners (Americans or Canadians) view Muslims.

On a not very related note, I found in Persepolis that the depiction of the young narrator's relationship with God was interesting. Obviously the "old man with a beard" meme exists in western non-orthodox Christianity as well, but it implies either cultural exchange or some sort of common understanding of anthropomorphism based on religious traditions with staunchly invisible gods. On that same note, her initial desire to become a prophet and its rejection made me wonder if the reasoning was primarily that there was a rejection of the possibility of new prophets or if it was a sexist ideation based on the fact she was female.