It's Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race

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Thank you so much Aquib, I hope you’re staying safe and well, and I really hope that Ramadan went well for you and you were able to get a lot out of it!

It’s Not About the Burqa – Sofearless Book Review: It’s Not About the Burqa – Sofearless

We can’t make those with power share their power but it’s about time those with privilege were challenged and made uncomfortable too. Not Just a Black Woman’ taught me to distinguish between my identity related to my community, be that as a Muslimah or as a South Asian woman, and my personal identity and who I am as an individual as two entirely separate things.One particularly brilliant essay by Nafisa Bakkar examines the representation of Muslim women today and its disquieting link with capitalism. It's Not About the Burqa is an anthology of essays by Muslim women about the contemporary Muslim female experience. Explaining and expounding the ideas of giants of the liberal tradition including Locke, Mill, and Rawls as well as contemporary thinkers like Nussbaum, Kymlicka and Oshana, the book considers a variety of conceptions of liberalism and how they affect the response to the question.

It’s Not About the Burqa – Edited by Mariam Khan Book Review: It’s Not About the Burqa – Edited by Mariam Khan

The same narrow and repressive outlook, she argues, shapes the attitudes of a small group of Muslims today. For the longest time, I wanted everyone else to realise the diversity of what it meant to be a Muslim woman. Here are voices you won’t see represented in the national news headlines: seventeen Muslim women speaking frankly about the hijab and wavering faith, about love and divorce, about feminism, queer identity, sex, and the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country. From 2008 to 2016, I worked and travelled widely in the Middle East; my doctor, HR liaison and line manager all wore veils. Years later the state of the national discourse has deteriorated even further, and Muslim women’s voices are still pushed to the fringes – the figures leading the discussion are white and male.

Mariam felt that too often, only one narrative of Muslim women was portrayed within the national news headlines, and what’s more, this narrative and the conversation surrounding it are not only being lead by those who are white and male, but they exclude Muslim women themselves entirely. Raifa Rafiq’s writing encouraged me to think about how I connect with my identity and how I define it too. This meant that I wasn’t as passionate as I would have liked to be in the portions where feminism was explored in a Western context, however, Mariam Khan’s ‘ Feminism Needs to Die’ was an essay that I felt has echoed and given voice to my more recent concerns.

It’s Not About the Burqa review – courageous essays

This encounter occurred in the midst of the worldwide novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak that had not spared the southern Philippines as well. It’s Not About the Burqa not only made me feel seen and heard, but it also made me question how I connect to and define my identity. Before I entered predominantly white spaces, my race and religion didn’t play a factor in how others perceived me nor how I perceived myself. In some essays the women grapple with seeming contradictions — being Muslim and feminist, or being Muslim and queer.When Mariam Khan read that David Cameron, then British Prime Minister, had privately suggested that the ‘traditional submissiveness of Muslim women’ was a leading factor in leaving young men vulnerable to radicalisation she was ‘pretty pissed off’. Bakkar looked for every titbit of information that could reinforce the idea that women like her could be successful. Divorce is sometimes and very much a dirty word in my culture, though I’m slowly noticing the tides shifting (more so for the generation before me), and Saima Mir’s journey in ‘ A Woman of Substance’ is one for the silver screen. Focussing on the socio-legal and human rights angle, this volume provides a useful comparative perspective on how the issue has been dealt with across a range of European states as well as at European institutional level.

be a Muslim woman? Spoiler: It’s not What does it mean to be a Muslim woman? Spoiler: It’s not

This book brings clarity to what can be a confusing subject by disentangling the different strands of the problem and breaking through the accusations of misogyny and Islamophobia. Likewise, organisations like the NSPCC who feature campaigns to tackle racial discrimination for children, yet the organisation itself is rife with discrimination; this is just one of many stories where representation doesn’t necessarily create real long-lasting change that benefits the lives of marginalised groups.I wrote it because I wanted to have so many conversations with many different people and there was never a foundation to start from. It's Not About the Burqa gives voice to seventeen Muslim women, who speak openly about sex, faith, mental health, love and the reality of all that it means to be a Muslim woman in the West today. The book provides a collection of diverse experiences and opinions, a refreshing change from the staid representation in the mainstream media of the Muslim community as a monolith.