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

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One issue often overlooked is that religious clothing can excite provocation even within the ranks of minority groups themselves – examples include the radio talk show presenter Maajid Nawaz and the author Ayaan Hirsi Ali – who find currency as self-appointed reformers. Elsewhere, clothing manufacturers such as Nike or Jo LaMode take an apparently atheistic view of religious apparel, while women who are veiled or cover their hair with mitpachats have been accused of monetising their faith or aiding radicalism. I’m not here to speak on behalf of all Muslim women,’ Afia Ahmed writes in Clothes of My Faith, an essay in which she explores the notion of choice towards wearing a hijab. Ahmed remarks that this piece of clothing has become a politicised, fashionable contradiction far removed from what she believes are its theological roots: a statement of faith and Islamic identity.

It’s Not About the Burqa – Mariam Khan in conversation It’s Not About the Burqa – Mariam Khan in conversation

I loved this essay, and now, reviewing this, I’ve realised just how much Nafisa Bakkar’s essay continues to resonate with me and will continue to do so. The Clothes of My Faith by Afia Ahmed And if they do not give us the mic to speak, we build our own stage – I was never a fan of their stage anyway; how correct it stood, how sturdy and mute, how cold it was.” – Raifa Rafiq It’s Not About the Burqa by Mariam Khan (Editor)The writers cover a panoply of subjects, including immigration, mental health, terrorism, divorce and feminism, as well as veils. In one fascinating essay, Sufiya Ahmed, whose mother divorced shortly after she was born, finds insight in the sixth-century life of Khadija bint Khuwaylid, a successful 40-year-old merchant who married the 25-year-old prophet Muhammad: “It was the disparity between the life of Khadija and the lives of some modern British Muslim women, still repressed under cultural rules in the 21st century, that inspired me to become a women’s rights activist.” Also writing about sexuality and Muslim women, Afshan D’Souza Lodhi explores queer spaces as a hijabi woman of colour. Navigating these spaces, especially when wearing that all-defining piece of fabric, has interesting consequences.

It’s Not About the Burqa’ review: Politics around the veil ‘It’s Not About the Burqa’ review: Politics around the veil

Another striking piece of writing comes from the journalist Saima Mir in a bracing essay on marriage and independence. At 25, Mir had been married and divorced twice. Her first husband, a Muslim doctor in Mississippi, was 11 years her senior; the couple had met only once before their wedding. Mir was 23 when she married her second husband, also a Muslim. The relationship took the form of a bond of servitude. “A few months in and I was cooking all the meals and cleaning the house, waiting on everyone hand and foot.” 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. We are all Muslim women – but that doesn’t mean we have the same opinions or personalities and through editing and events and the friendship we’ve built amongst the INATB sisterhood I’m grateful that we are all Muslim women but each individual with different opinions and views and we aren’t afraid to respectfully explore each other’s views. As much as this book is a dialogue with the reader, we, the contributors were speaking to each other too. Similarly, Saima Mir’s ‘ A Woman of Substance’ – if I can just stop with the starry-eyed dreaming and giggling (vom!) for a second – is one of the most romantic stories I have ever read. 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. Her essays showcases that love is possible even after divorce. Honestly, even the coldest of hearts will be melted by this. I even heard Kaz Brekker say, “ Awwwww!” Can you believe it? On the Representation of Muslims by Nafisa BakkarContributors: Mona Eltahawy, Coco Khan, Sufiya Ahmed, Nafisa Bakkar, Afia Ahmed, Yassmin Midhat Abdel-Magied, Jamilla Hekmoun, Mariam Khan, Afshan D’souza-Lodhi, Salma Haidrani, Amna Saleem, Saima Mir, Salma El-Wardany, Aina Khan OBE, Raifa Rafiq, Malia Bouattia, Nadine Aisha Jassat MY REVIEW Goodreads Summary: When was the last time you heard a Muslim woman speak for herself without a filter? For the longest time, I wanted everyone else to realise the diversity of what it meant to be a Muslim woman. That’s why this book exists but along the way, I cemented this belief for myself too. I really embraced how different we all are.

It’s Not About the Burqa, edited by Mariam Khan Picador

In 2016, Mariam Khan read that David Cameron had linked the radicalization of Muslim men to the ‘traditional submissiveness’ of Muslim women. Mariam felt pretty sure she didn’t know a single Muslim woman who would describe herself that way. Why was she hearing about Muslim women from people who were neither Muslim, nor female? In this engrossing collection of essays by mostly young British Muslim women, contributors come from all areas of life – law, journalism, human rights, academia, fashion, gay rights and activism. Writers include the public speaker and author Mona Eltahawy, Guardian journalist Coco Khan, the beauty and wellness social media influencer Amena Khan and Malia Bouattia, a former president of the National Union of Students. As much as Islamophobia, another prominent theme that is interwoven throughout the collection is feminism. I have generally been avoiding white feminism because it doesn’t serve me, and the more I inhabit spaces outside of my community, the more I realise that my gender doesn’t seem to be much of the issue, but more so my faith and race. 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.

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But I remember the aunties. They liked to gather around and compare notes on minor ailments as a leisurely pastime; an opportunity to flaunt their martyrdom and indulge in a touch of the Bollywood melodrama they enjoyed so much. The sweet spot was having a condition that was in no way chronic or serious (that would be a mood killer) but still involved substantial effort to power through. And the more unnecessary that effort, the better.” This is a vital book for non-Muslims and those seeking to understand Muslim feminism in the West. It will also add to an already rigorous body of writing about veiling. More insightful analysis can be found in Pious Fashion: How Muslim Women Dress by Elizabeth Bucar. Readers should also turn to Leila Ahmed’s bold Women and Gender in Islam, published in 1992. Where is the space for Muslim women to comment? To share their own thoughts, truths, opinions and realities? Feeling as though the voices of Muslim women were being pushed increasingly into the very fringes of the conversations of which they were the subject, Mariam set into action, and It’s Not About the Burqa began to take shape. Here, Mariam tells us what she’s learnt in the last year.