Theory on Western Hijabis vs. Western Male Muslims on Social Media
During a browsing session on Twitter as well as Facebook, I stumbled across a conclusion which I'd like to lay on the table for you all to discuss, nit pick and criticise.
If you take the average Muslim young female Hijabi living in the West who has a relatively active Social Media account, you'll see that she would share significantly more religious content than her male counterpart who is also Muslim and living in the West.
The reason why I find this interesting and also possibly true is that I was recently reading the best seller book called "influence" by Robert Cialdini and in it were a few chapters which highlighted that whenever one declares their position on a matter, they are more inclined to see it through (and not change their mind) as the risk involved is to appear unreliable to people which would significantly lower your value.
So, joining the dots, the Hijabi girls in the West walk around day to day with their Hijabs as a numeric minority waving loud and proud (voluntarily or involuntarily) the flag of Islam. Ultimately they walk around as symbols of Islam, or advocates of the whole religion, system, creed, practises etc. If we refer to Robert Cialdini's book, we could see that those Hijabi Muslim girls would have to continue to promote their religious inclinations as - whether they like it or not - they would rather convince themselves they're on the righteous path than be living one reality and believing in another.
Now, to the other side of the coin which is essential or the puzzle to be completed. Yes, there are multiple Western Muslim males on Social Media who flaunt the flag of Islam - however, I would hypothesise that proportionally, they are less. By this I mean that out of 100 Western Muslim Males on social media, a lower percentage of them would be advocates of religious content and promotions relative to their female counterparts. Why? Because they don't wear the headscarf.
So what does this mean?
There are countless conclusions that can be drawn from this theory (assuming it's true or close to truth). One conclusion is that symbols do work. Symbols/flags/emblems etc. are effective forms of cult following commitment tools, as the individual is constantly being reinforced with the idea that he/she is part of group X.
Another conclusion is that these poor Muslim girls will probably always be under the pressure of following Islam regardless of their true inner beliefs. If she's been brought up in an environment where her parents "motivated and aided" her in wearing the Hijab from a young age, then the poor girl would not be inclined to ever walk away from a symbol she has carried with her for a relatively long time (assuming she started wearing it at age 13 and at age 20 she began to doubt her religion). Muslim girls living in the west who are brought up in Eastern/Third World cultures are victims.
As to the males, they aren't under such pressure. Regardless of their race, when they walk down the road, their respective religious choice is anyone's guess, giving them more freedom and less need to reinforce their religious conformity publicly.
What do you guys think? I'm very eager to hear your responses, particularly from the social sciences people here.
I think what you are saying sounds pretty reasonable. When a girl voluntarily/involuntarily picks up a headscarf it IS a symbol as you say. However, this situation may not be as static as you think. Some girls stop wearing the headscarf but still choose to identify as Muslim as they get older. Of course this tends to lead to a backlash but if they play it smart things tend to work out in the end.
They typically try to bend the meanings of the legislative texts in the Qur'an and Sunnah or try and find loopholes. This is also a slippery slope and we all know what it may lead to...
I get where you are coming from though, which is why I'm totally against the fact that my little sister is wearing a headscarf as a preteen. We don't label children as socialists, liberals, right-wingers when they are young so why give them a religious label?
Topic: Theory on Western Hijabis vs. Western Male Muslims on Social Media