One space where state-led surveillance of Muslim bodies is overwhelmingly obvious is in U.S. airports. Muslim experiences in airports reveal the interplay of technologies coupled with practices by state agents that rely on religious, ethnic, and gendered cues. TSA uses lists such as the Secondary Security Screening Selection List and the No-Fly List—derived from the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database and the National Counterterrorism Center's Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE)—to surveil Muslim passengers in airports. According to the TSA website, the No-Fly List contains approximately one hundred thousand names, while TIDE contains roughly one million names (Handeyside 2014). Passengers who find themselves on these lists either are prevented from flying (the No-Fly List) or have to endure several layers of additional security simply because they have Muslim names. The majority of the Muslim men I interviewed told me they were on some list at airports. The Muslim women I interviewed told me they were not on a TSA list like Muslim men, indicating that the state targets mostly men for surveillance through these terrorist databases. However, Muslim women who wear the hijab were subjected to profiling by TSA agents. The women I spoke to told me they were repeatedly stopped and had their bodies and personal belongings searched at the airport security line by TSA agents.

QUESTION: The gendered asymmetry is striking — men tracked via databases, women via physical profiling. Worth asking whether this disparity reflects broader policy assumptions about Muslim threat.

Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, loc. 56