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. 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. I didn’t write or curate INATB to be liked. I wrote it because I wanted to have so many conversations with many different people and there was never a foundation to start from. This book is the book I wish my younger self had. 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.” 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.

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

In her essay, Nafisa Bakkar remembers an obsession of finding someone who looks like yourself in an unusual position. Bakkar recounts the time she discovered the CEO of PepsiCo was a woman of Indian heritage. Bakkar looked for every titbit of information that could reinforce the idea that women like her could be successful. Reading this collection, I found many women like me, all of whom have found success in some way. It’s Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race is a riveting set of essays by multiple voices, each unique. The collection, edited by Mariam Khan, follows a trend (I’m thinking of The Good Immigrant) in which peripheral voices are finally given centre stage. 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. 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? 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.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. But while some essays are very good, some others, such as Afia Ahmed’s and Raifa Rafiq’s, pale in comparison.

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

We wanted to be able to encourage a conversation that wasn’t always made up of Muslim women talking about the hijab or why they weren’t oppressed. Amaliah was created as a space for Muslim women to exist on their own terms, whether that was talking about dodgy dates, mental health, significant cultural moments or smashed avo on sourdough.” 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.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)

It’s Not About the Burqa review – courageous essays

Morning Digest | PM Modi, President Biden welcome progress in defence ties; Ukraine war unlikely to end in immediate future: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and more What does it mean, exactly, to be a Muslim woman in the West today? According to the media, it’s all about the burqa. Here’s what it’s really about.”

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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.”

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

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 Bakkar 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. Goodreads Summary: When was the last time you heard a Muslim woman speak for herself without a filter? Taking one of the most politicized and misused words associated with Muslim women and Islamophobia, It’s Not About the Burqa is poised to change all that. 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. Funny, warm, sometimes sad, and often angry, each of these essays is a passionate declaration, and each essay is calling time on the oppression, the lazy stereotyping, the misogyny and the Islamophobia.

If Theresa May is serious about “global Britain”, a post-Brexit political and social climate should moderate its obsession with how a minority of Muslim women dress and instead embrace the ethical and economic opportunities presented by the global sharia culture.