“I won’t change who I am for anyone”: Muslim women’s narrative identities

In the United States today, Muslim women are portrayed as weak, submissive, one-dimensional, and occupying a place of contradiction. These master narratives of Muslim women as uncivilized or anti-American lead them to be misunderstood at best and victims of hate crimes at worst. In this environment, a space emerges to explore counterstories, or narratives that depict a group as desirable in the face of a detrimental dominant narrative. In order to study how Muslim women construct their identities in this environment, a thematic analysis of stories told by Muslim women in an online setting was conducted. Findings reveal four prominent constructions or responses to this narrative: (1) I am multidimensional, (2) I am strong, (3) I change the world, and (4) I am special. Implications for the study of counterstories and future directions for research are discussed.