UK Muslim Women Speak Out on Prejudice

Date: 11 October 2017 - 20:18

News ID: ۴۵۱۵۹

LONDON (Dispatches) -- From a jaded TV chat show host to a Mideastern actress who longs to be cast as a ghostbuster, not endless Takfiri brides, the stories in Sabrina Mahfouz’s anthology of British Muslim women all do one thing: challenge stereotypes. Mahfouz, a poet and playwright, brought together 22 women, with roots ranging from Pakistan to Palestine, to lift the lid on their minds and lives, which are often invisible in Britain.
"There is such a narrow perception in the UK of who a person of Muslim heritage can be, act, think or look like and I wanted to challenge that in any way that I could,” London-born Mahfouz told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"At a time of such extreme Islamophobia, the more literature can do to challenge this destructive narrative, the better.”
More than three percent of Britain’s 65 million population are Muslim, with the highest proportion living in London, government data shows.
Police said hate crimes against Muslims rose after a series of Takfiri militant attacks, including an attack on London Bridge and during a music concert by U.S. singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in northern England.
"The Things I Would Tell You” includes poetry, essays and short stories from award-winning novelists, such as Leila Aboulela and Kamila Shamsie, emerging talents and new writers.
Journalist Triska Hamid describes the frustrations young Muslim women have finding love via Islamic dating apps that allow them to swipe through photos, chat online and meet up.
The poems of Sudanese-born Asma Elbadawi, 27, who successfully lobbied the International Basketball Federation to allow players to compete in hijab, reflect on the dual identities of many immigrants in Britain.
"Our parents picked a better life for us over being with our families,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, describing how her parents moved from Khartoum to Bradford when she was just a year old.
While most British Muslims were born overseas, the majority identify as British, according to the Muslim Council of Britain, the country’s largest umbrella Islamic group.
Women are the main targets of anti-Muslim prejudice, accounting for six out of ten complainants, according to Iman Atta, director of Tell MAMA, a British organization that monitors such incidents.
In addition to enduring abuse for wearing Islamic clothing like headscarves and face veils, Muslim women often face a triple economic disadvantage, according to a 2016 parliamentary report, being female, Muslim and from an ethnic minority group.