Wild Witches of the Globe: Putting Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in Context in Hijabi Prosecution Post 9/11

Abstract

This paper contends that the Hijabi prosecution post 9/11 is an example of repetitive cultural practice within American and British socio-cultural space. A hijabi is defined as a Muslim woman who wears a headscarf or veil by prescribed Islamic laws (Mansoor, [1] “Since I became a “hijabi:” What it means to wear a Muslim headscarf”). The term Hijabi prosecution is coined specifically within the framework of this research as lawsuits involving hijab-practicing Muslim women and multinational corporations or individuals. The Crucible by Arthur Miller has been used as the primary text whereby the witch trials present the main model of prosecution fueled by inflexible dogmas, fear, and injustice against which, contemporary issues of stigmatization and discrimination have been juxtaposed and scrutinized. Furthermore, the research paper scrutinizes whether media forums and legislature could potentially serve as catalytic agents for instigating prosecution against Muslim women who wear hijab. The theory of cultural transmission has been employed to analyze the repetition of cultural practices while transnational feminism provides the parameter for examining responses to Hijabi prosecution post 9/11.