Private citizens also participate in surveilling Muslim women for offending American cultural values when they wear the hijab in public. They are often told to "go back home" by their fellow citizens, an act that contests their claim to an American identity. Muslim women have to defend wearing the hijab to strangers who feel empowered to approach them and question them about their American values. They often have to explain to people that wearing the hijab is a choice—rather than something forced upon them—in order to dismiss the assumption that they are oppressed by their faith (Gjelten 2016). … The surveillance of Muslim women's bodies in public represents how the clash of civilizations between the West and Islam has seeped into the American public's consciousness. As a result, private citizens surveil Muslim women who wear the hijab for transgressing what they think are American cultural values.

Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, loc. 61