Guide for Interacting with Muslim Women in Professional Environment?

Post date: 2018-09-18 07:18:49

I am very comfortable traveling in the Muslim world (have lived in South Asia for several years). However, I am now in the position of organizing a professional exchange, whereby an Indonesian policymaker (a Muslim woman) will be spending two months at a U.S. organization doing a job-shadowing experience in a very specific scientific field. The organization has asked if I have any guides they could pass out to their staff on "do's and don'ts" for interacting with relatively conservative Muslim women. Any ideas?

The visitor in question is Indonesian, mid-30's, wears a hijab. I've met her and she is relatively conservative, but also well aware that she will be working with people of different (or no) faiths. She works with non-Muslim men in her office and doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would be overly bothered if someone made a social mistake that would fine in the U.S. but frowned upon in Indonesia.

That said, the leader of the American host organization (a conservation-based org), wants to educate his staff in order to avoid any major faux pas or awkward interactions. I can give some tips off the top of my head based on my own experiences, but I keep wondering if I'm missing anything.

To be clear, they're not afraid of being around her, but they are keenly interested in being culturally sensitive. They asked if I have any sort of guidance they could pass around to their staff, especially some field staff that may have limited or no experience interacting with foreigners, Muslims, or both.

While I trust the senior staff to use Google for much of this, they want to make sure junior staff are prepared as well.

I would appreciate any links to guides (anything Indonesia-specific a plus!), particularly anything that highlights some of the context behind certain practices/norms.

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