IN a spot of Queens, New York, last week, a diminutive woman waved her hand from a car door, giving a sign to approach. When a Tempo reporter approached her, the door was opened quickly so the reporter could get in, then the car sped off. “They threatened to kidnap me,” said Faridah Abdullah, the woman who had just waved her hand, initiating the conversation.

What has kept Ida—the name she goes by—from freely going shoppi