The American government permanently identifies Layla as a Muslim by treating her as a second-class citizen.
Initially, this involves forcing her and her family to observe a nightly curfew. But later on, government repression takes on a more sinister aspect when Layla and her family are rounded up and sent...
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to an internment camp.
Such internment camps—or concentration camps, as they could just as easily be called—are a relatively modern phenomenon. They are dehumanizing institutions in that they treat their inmates not as human beings, but as dangerous criminals from whom society needs to be protected.
Layla's no criminal; her only crime under this hard-right regime is to be a Muslim, to be Other. Simply by virtue of following a minority religion, she has been flagged by the authorities as a threat to national security. As such, she is to be monitored, controlled, and separated from the rest of society.
Not only that, but along with all the other internees at the internment camp, she has an ID number stamped on her wrist. This is a further example of dehumanization in that Layla's being treated as a thing, an object, rather than the human being that she actually is.