Muslim Women in the United Kingdom and Beyond


Book Description

The book explores experiences of Muslim women living predominantly in the United Kingdom, with contributions from other countries such as Australia, America and Sweden. Permeating themes include the impact of islamophobia and religious prejudice on the lives of Muslim living in diasporic situations.




Somali, Muslim, British


Book Description

Somalis are one of the most chastised Muslim communities in Europe. Depicted in the news as victims of female genital mutilation, perpetrators of gang violence, or more recently, as radical Islamists, Somalis have been cast as a threat to social cohesion, national identity, and security in Britain and beyond. Somali, Muslim, British shifts attention away from these public representations to provide a detailed ethnographic study of Somali Muslim women's engagements with religion, political discourses, and public culture in the United Kingdom. The book chronicles the aspirations of different generations of Somali women as they respond to publicly charged questions of what it means to be Muslim, Somali, and British. By challenging and reconfiguring the dominant political frameworks in which they are immersed, these women imagine new ways of being in securitized Britain. Giulia Liberatore provides a nuanced account of Islamic piety, arguing that it needs to be understood as one among many forms of striving that individuals pursue throughout their lives. Bringing new perspectives to debates about Islam and multiculturalism in Europe, this book makes an important contribution to the anthropology of religion, subjectivity, and gender.




The Things I Would Tell You


Book Description

Selected as Emma Watson's Jan/Feb 2019 pick for her feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf A Guardian Best Book of the Year Shortlisted for London's Big Read From established literary heavyweights to emerging spoken word artists, the writers in this ground-breaking collection blow away the narrow image of the 'Muslim Woman'. Hear from users of Islamic Tinder, a disenchanted Maulana working as a TV chat show host and a plastic surgeon blackmailed by MI6. Follow the career of an actress with Middle-Eastern heritage whose dreams of playing a ghostbuster spiral into repeat castings as a jihadi bride. Among stories of honour killings and ill-fated love in besieged locations, we also find heart-warming connections and powerful challenges to the status quo. From Algiers to Brighton, these stories transcend time and place revealing just how varied the search for belonging can be. Alongside renowned authors such as Kamila Shamsie, Ahdaf Soueif and Leila Aboulela are emerging voices, published here for the first time.




Muslim Women’s Pilgrimage to Mecca and Beyond


Book Description

This book investigates female Muslims pilgrimage practices and how these relate to women’s mobility, social relations, identities, and the power structures that shape women’s lives. Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and regional expertise, it offers in-depth investigation of the gendered dimensions of Muslim pilgrimage and the life-worlds of female pilgrims. With a variety of case studies, the contributors explore the experiences of female pilgrims to Mecca and other pilgrimage sites, and how these are embedded in historical and current contexts of globalisation and transnational mobility. This volume will be relevant to a broad audience of researchers across pilgrimage, gender, religious, and Islamic studies.




Do Muslim Women Need Saving?


Book Description

Do Muslim Women Need Saving? is an indictment of a mindset that has justified all manner of foreign interference, including military invasion, in the name of rescuing women from Islam. It offers a detailed, moving portrait of the actual experiences of ordinary Muslim women, and of the contingencies with which they live.




Muslim Women in Britain


Book Description

Perceptions of Muslim women in Western society have been shaped by historical and sociological conditions such as colonialism, patriarchy and Orientalism. In Muslim Women in Britain, Sariya Contractor seeks to reinstate the Muslimah as a storyteller who tells her own story. An exploration of the lives of British Muslim women, this book examines issues of femininity, Britishness, inter-communal relations and social cohesion. Presenting the reader with incisive narratives of Muslim women on familiar topics such as the hijab, Muslim women in the media and feminist debate, particularly in a Western context, Sariya Contractor makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature on Islamic studies, social anthropology, feminist philosophy and social cohesion. Presenting a complex and nuanced retelling of Muslim women’s realities as explored through their own voices, stories and experiences; this book will be of interest to scholars and students of Islamic studies, Women’s studies, Social Anthropology and Sociology seeking a fresh perspective on Muslim women in Britain.




Muslims in Britain


Book Description

The situation of Muslims in Britain is one of the most pressing issues facing British society today. A rise in the number of attacks on Muslims in Britain, increasing threats to civil liberties in the name of security measures, a resurgence in the activities of the far right in Britain as well as elsewhere in Europe, and a crackdown on refugees fleeing persecution place serious questions over Britain’s commitment to minority rights. The purpose of this report is to explore Muslim experience in Britain and to call for legislative and policy change.The author considers Muslims’ access to education, employment and housing, drawing upon new research and existing statistics as well as case studies and interviews. He discusses Muslims’ diverse and changing identities, their participation in politics at local and national level, their campaigns around education. He gives an outline of how Sharia law and English law conflict in some areas, but have been reconciled in others. Islamophobia and the media, and within the criminal justice system, particularly post-September 11th, are also examined. Finally, the author examines existing human rights legislation in relation to Muslims in Britain and finds that they are, for the most part, unprotected. A set of recommendations proposes some steps that could be taken to tackle religious discrimination, Islamophobia in the media, and other issues of concern.




Intersectionality in the Muslim South Asian-American Middle Class


Book Description

This book uses everyday consumption as a lens to analyze how South Asian Muslim American women negotiate racial, religious, gendered, classed, and often political identities. In particular, Ternikar examines the use of food and clothing as well as social media accounts among this important immigrant population, offering new insight that goes beyond examining Muslim American women through the lens of hijab. This timely and nuanced interdisciplinary study draws on both sociology of consumption theory and intersectional feminism and will be valuable for courses in gender and women’s studies, sociology of consumption, and women and religion.




Muslim Women in War and Crisis


Book Description

Representing diverse cultural viewpoints, Muslim Women in War and Crisis collects an array of original essays that highlight the experiences and perspectives of Muslim women—their dreams and nightmares and their daily struggles—in times of tremendous social upheaval. Analyzing both how Muslim women have been represented and how they represent themselves, the authors draw on primary sources ranging from poetry and diaries to news reports and visual media. Topics include: Peacebrokers in Indonesia Exploitation in the Islamic Republic of Iran Chechen women rebels Fundamentalism in Afghanistan, from refugee camps to Kabul Memoirs of Bengali Muslim women The 7/7 London bombings, British Muslim women, and the media Also exploring such images in the United States, Spain, the former Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, and Iraq, this collection offers a chorus of multidimensional voices that counter Islamophobia and destructive clichés. Encompassing the symbolic national and religious identities of Muslim women, this study goes beyond those facets to examine the realities of day-to-day existence in societies that seek scapegoats and do little to defend the victims of hate crimes. Enhancing their scholarly perspectives, many of the contributors (including the editor) have lived through the strife they analyze. This project taps into their firsthand experiences of war and deadly political oppression.




Muslims in Britain


Book Description

Following the events of 11th September 2001 in the USA, and more especially, the bombings on the London underground on 7th July 2005 and the incident at Glasgow Airport on 30th June 2007, an increasing amount of public attention has been focused upon Muslims in Britain. Against the backdrop of this debate, this book sets out a series of innovative insights into the everyday lives of Muslims living in contemporary Britain, in an attempt to move beyond prevalent stereotypes concerning what it means to be 'Muslim'. Combining original empirical research with theoretical interventions, this collection offers a range of reflections on how Muslims in Britain negotiate their everyday lives, manage experiences of racism and exclusion, and develop local networks and global connections. The authors explore a broad range of themes including gender relations; educational and economic issues; migration and mobility; religion and politics; racism and Islamophobia; and the construction and contestation of Muslim identities. Threaded through the treatment of these themes is a unifying concern with the ways in which geography matters to how Muslims negotiate their daily experiences as well as their racialised, gendered and religious identities. Above all, attention is focused upon the role of the home and local community, the influence of the economy and the nation, and the power of transnational connections and mobilities in the everyday lives of Muslims in Britain. Includes contributions from: Louise Archer, Yahya Birt, Sophie Bowlby, Claire Dwyer, Richard Gale, Peter Hopkins, Lily Kong, Sally Lloyd-Evans, Sean McLoughlin, Sharmina Mawani, Tariq Modood, Anjoom Mukadam, Caroline Nagel, Deborah Phillips, Bindi Shah, and Lynn Staeheli