Politics, media, and social media are full of islamophobic content – from jokes and stereotypes to words of hate. And even when we speak about Muslims, there is little space for the voices of Muslim women. Women, who (according to non-Muslims) are abused, non-educated, and oppressed.
“It’s Not About the Burqa” is a collection of essays written by British Muslim women of various ethnicities, many of them are from India and Pakistan. You will find essays about patriarchy (in the Islamic world and beyond), about the hijab (and why for many women it’s a symbol of the opposition to colonisation, rather than something that’s forced on them), about the image of and “ideal” Muslim woman (polite, taking care of her appearance, maybe in hijab, but certainly without a covered face), about the “acceptance” of fashion conventions, as long as it brings someone money via widening the sales scope to include Western and Southern Asia, about being a queer in Islam, and about the ways in which our “white” feminism excludes Muslim women from debate…
What’s interesting is that the collection was inspired by David Cameron, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, who said that Muslim women are “traditionally submissive.” If the Prime Minister of a Western European countries believes such stereotypes to be true, how are we to avoid falling for them as well? It’s Not About the Burqa can help you with confronting such stereotypes.
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