Victimhood status is currency these days. If you’re a victim, all manner of doors open to you that might otherwise have remained closed: doors to the adulation of the Left; doors to free passes from scrutiny (legal or otherwise) that you might otherwise have received; doors to a privileged status that elevates you above ordinary non-victim folk. And few, if any, groups are more skilled and indefatigable at pursuing victim status than Islamic advocacy groups in the U.S. They have successfully established in the public discourse the wholesale fiction that Muslimas who wear hijab are routinely insulted, harassed, and brutalized in the United States. This piece is an extension of that endeavor, sans (as always) the insults, harassment, and brutalization.
Sawsan Morrar, an award-winning hijab-wearing journalist, says: “Those who tune in to watch this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday will hear my name called as I take the stage to accept a journalism scholarship. They won’t see my portfolio of work, and they will likely forget my name. But they’re sure to notice and remember one thing about me: my headscarf.”
Maybe so. But isn’t that the idea? Isn’t wearing the hijab a proclamation to the world that here is a Muslim woman who is preserving her modesty and piety, in contrast to the non-Muslim women who are walking around with heads uncovered? If Sawsan Morrar wants to be remembered for something other than the hijab, there is one simple way to ensure that: don’t wear it.
She also says: “And as I prepare to attend, I know some at the event may not perceive me as a fellow reporter who, like them, relishes the thought of meeting journalists I admire. Muslims don’t have the luxury of being a fusion of their achievements, interests and uniqueness. Rather, in the eyes of others, we are only Muslim.”
On what does she base this claim? Nothing whatsoever, of course. But this is the Washington Post during the Trump administration, so anything goes for Muslims wishing to claim victim status.
Morrar concludes: “I do hope that when I am called on stage at the dinner, I will be recognized for my achievements in journalism and not used to portray some striking juxtaposition between the Trump administration and the Muslim community.”
Don’t kid yourself, Ms. Morrar, about your helpful Leftist comrades and allies. They will smile, they will congratulate you, they will praise your achievements, whatever they may be, and however large or small. But your being a Muslim, and a hijabi at that, is the only reason why you’re there. To the White House Correspondents’ Association, your only purpose and value is that you are a Muslim who wears a hijab, and thus constitute for the Leftists of that association a virtue-signaling rebuke to President Trump. If you had taken off your hijab and converted to Christianity or became an atheist, would you have been chosen as a 2017 White House Correspondents’ Association Scholar? Not in a million years.
“When I’m honored for my journalism, everyone will see one thing: My headscarf,” by Sawsan Morrar, Washington Post, April 28, 2017:
Sawsan Morrar, a multimedia journalist at the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, was chosen as a 2017 White House Correspondents’ Association Scholar.
Those who tune in to watch this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday will hear my name called as I take the stage to accept a journalism scholarship. They won’t see my portfolio of work, and they will likely forget my name. But they’re sure to notice and remember one thing about me: my headscarf.
Some may call it symbolic that a Muslim American journalist will be recognized at the annual dinner the same year that President Trump declined to attend. Trump is breaking from a long tradition of presidents meeting with the award recipients.
And as I prepare to attend, I know some at the event may not perceive me as a fellow reporter who, like them, relishes the thought of meeting journalists I admire. Muslims don’t have the luxury of being a fusion of their achievements, interests and uniqueness. Rather, in the eyes of others, we are only Muslim….
I do hope that when I am called on stage at the dinner, I will be recognized for my achievements in journalism and not used to portray some striking juxtaposition between the Trump administration and the Muslim community….