My (probably unpopular) opinion on arab refugees

[Regina]

Their parents protested and the compromise was that they could still wear colorful clothes, but would also wear hijab. Since moving away (mostly to New York state) some of them have gone back to scarves.

Bold mine, I think this is an interesting point. It's actually something I've heard quite a few times before when a Muslim woman has started dressing more conservatively. I think it's an important thing to highlight, because the stereotype usually goes something like "did your Dad make you wear that?". While that is sometimes the case, there are also men who literally hate seeing their female family members pressured into dressing so conservatively by the mosque.

I think the problem in the West though is that Western media only allows this one kind of "authentic Islam" to come out, this image of an excessively conservative pious father and a veiled mother and daughter, and that gets typecast as being "authentic" Middle Eastern culture. Both the Right wing and the regressive Left promote this for different reasons, for scapegoating and for "we have to respect their culture" respectively.

The problem is, that's the exact same narrative the Islamists use to tell those Somali girls that they are not "true" Muslims because they're dressed too modern. So on both sides, even in the West, Muslims and Muslim-perceived people have no space to explore, and selectively choose the degree to which they want to practice (or not practice at all).