Women wearing hijabs rejected from Nevada's Biden-Harris campaign event

Two women wearing hijabs were turned away from a Biden/Harris re-election campaign event in Nevada this week, causing widespread outrage in addition to questions over how the Democrats can navigate the 2024 election cycle amid growing disapproval of the administration's support for Israel's war on Gaza.

The incident, which was videotaped and quickly went viral, took place at the entrance to a "get out the vote" event featuring Vice President Kamala Harris in Las Vegas on 27 October. A man at the door told the women, who displayed wristbands showing they were invited that they couldn't enter. They then asked him if it was because they were Muslim and wearing hijabs.

"Why are you choosing us not to go in when we have an invite?" one of the women asked. "You specifically singled us out?" The other woman added. "That's racist. Is it because we have hijabs?" the first woman asked. The women then accused the man at the door of racism and Islamophobia. He then said he was sorry, to which the first woman asked, "Are you?"

This was followed by an awkward silence as the women, affiliated with the group Nevadans for Palestinian Liberation, told attendees at the entrance that the campaign wasn't letting them in because of their hijabs. The Biden administration responded, though this only raised more questions by critics.

"These individuals were among the group of people not allowed to attend Saturday's event after previously disrupting and shutting down events with Democratic elected officials," wrote a member of the Biden administration's rapid response team Ammar Moussa, on X (formerly Twitter), three days after the event.

"If that was the case, why weren't they told at the time?" Robert McCaw, government affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The New Arab.

Though the administration's explanation for rejecting these two women from the event might have been the case, it also raises questions over their tactics for their campaign tour moving forward amid Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians (including in the occupied West Bank).

Instead of listening to ceasefire advocates and considering their position, which according to polls reflects the view of most Americans, will the administration continue to prevent them from being heard at campaign events? 

In response to the viral video, many have already pointed out that it's not just Muslim women who have been disrupting the administration's campaign events, meaning that an informal ban of hijab-wearing women would not stop protests, given the growing diversity of the ceasefire movement.

"I bet it's because they think Muslim women are a bigger risk to disturb the event by shouting about Palestine/for ceasefire or similar. which just goes to show why it's so important other ethnicities, especially white people, speak up at such events," wrote X user Mak.

In another response to the video, X user Prof Zenkus wrote, "Looks like Dems just instituted a Muslim ban at their campaign events. How lovely."

News of the Muslim women's disinvitation to the event follows repeated disruptions by ceasefire advocates at campaign events.