Why do Muslim women with their face covered are often misunderstood as people who can’t speak English?

Question

I finally get to know a few of Muslim women as such and had found out the fact that other than impressive academic qualification, they actually have good brain and English too.

Maybe not all of them, but many do.

Answer 1

because some people are ignorant and suspect things from their minds when looking at people

Answer 2

It's difficult to get to know someone who won't even show you her face. That veil (niqab) says to me "Don't you dare try and speak to me strange man". That is the answer to your question. This is indeed why face veiled women are often misunderstood.

Answer 3

Because it's not that common, so people assume that they can't speak English. If more were doctors, teacher or other public figures people would realise this more.

Answer 4

I think we just associate non-English speaking people with people who dress in ways that are culturally different from ours, because they look so much more "foreign" in their cultural Muslim head scarves and long dresses.

Answer 5

Muslim women are still fairly recent immigrants here in the U.S. If Americans go to Islamic countries, many people might assume that we didn't speak Arabic.

Answer 6

Even if the women can't speak English, that doesn't mean they don't have impressive academic qualification.

When I was in Mexico, I met a man who barely spoke English, and the tourists were treating him like garbage. Turns out, he knew French (and I was able to speak to him in that language), Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, and a few others I don't remember. The man was a genius!!

Just because someone doesn't speak English, it doesn't mean they're stupid. That's the worst misconception ever. What many English speaking people don't understand (especially on Yahoo) is that while someone might not be perfect at typing or speaking English, they can type or speak their own language perfectly. I sure can't speak Arabic...can any of you? Many Americans like to run around thinking they're pros at their own language. Look around...observe the spelling errors and grammatical s***w ups from people who grew up with the language. How dare they have the nerve to judge someone who's a.) smarter than them and b.) probably have had to work harder for their knowledge?

The thing about the women's faces being covered - I've never judged someone's intelligence based on what they're wearing. Ever. That's absurd.