Discrimination

The event included an exhibition by a British Muslim woman photographer and photojournalist, Parveen Ali who shared some of her struggle, “I’m a photographer and a photojournalist. As I am a Muslim woman, when I attend events in London, I am often pushed aside, viewed as a protestor, not taken seriously as a photographer, even though I’m wearing a press card.

“The police will always ask to see my press card. A lot of mainstream photojournalists have mentored me actually (they) have spoken out, for example, a journalist with The Times has said, ‘she’s with me, she’s ok.’

“This project came about… I had been attacked on a Friday, I was really depressed, I felt so alone. So that weekend I locked myself in, hibernating in my own apartment. I wanted to document how I was feeling. I took over a hundred photographs, (to capture my) state of mind. And I felt in a way, it was my way of expressing what was happening, and it helped. It helped me to release that negativity. A form of therapy.”

Joining the group, Rupa Huq MP shared an incident from some years ago highlighting the struggle women in general face even at an institutional level.

“We need our parliament to reflect what our society looks like… There are whole swathes of this building that are MPs only. Our colleague Dawn Butler (MP) was once told in MPs only lift by a white Conservative (party) male colleague, ‘this (lift) is not for cleaners you know.’ So that stuff happens and it is about changing it from the inside,” she said.

Addressing Islamophobia

Wes Streeting MP stressed that it is important for non-Muslims and Muslims to work together to address Islamophobia.

“The experience of Muslims living in Britain is not as good as it should be on many levels. Whether it is over Islamophobia or discrimination that takes place, or the unconscious bias or the hidden discrimination that we want to shine a light on,” he said.

“We also feel very strong, certainly myself, and for Anna (Soubury MP) and the other non-Muslim members of the APPG, when it comes to tackling discrimination and injustice, its not the job of the people who experience that injustice to tackle it. It is not just the job of Muslim parliamentarians to speak up, for and on behalf of Muslims. We have a responsibility to speak up for all of our constituents, understand their experiences, their priorities, their hopes and their aspirations, and to be a champion of them. This is a team effort.”

Naz Shah MP added some important context, “Somebody asked me the question yesterday, have we progressed or have we regressed. And as a Muslim woman in the age of Trump in the age of Brexit, we really have gone massively backward. And while we have lots more women taking their spaces, I also think we have challenges that are much bigger.

“We’ve managed to legislate, we’ve managed to get women to in politics, breaking barriers. But then where are we? My worry is that my daughter if she decides to wear a hijab, what will the reaction be to her in central London? Would she be a Muslim woman able to grow up in a large city? As the Muslim MP who receives the most abuse on Twitter, I can tell you there are times that I have really despaired?

“The one things we have achieved is that we have got past International Women’s day being just about white middle-class women. What’s reflected today is that this fight now belongs to the women who are on the peripheral of the group. What it has to do is include women who are refugees and asylum seekers, who are entering the mainstream. 10, 20 years ago when I first started campaigning for women’s rights it was mostly white women, we now have Asian women, black women, we have women from all parts of society.”

International Women’s Day is an important annual nudge, for us as human beings to try and rebalance inequality, be it in the workplace, in the home environment, in society in general.

From roles as leaders, businesswomen, teachers, medics, as well as housewives, farmers, traders, advisers, and so much more Prophet Muhammad ensured that a woman’s gender was not an obstacle for her to achieve. And when the patriarchal society would object, the Prophet would correct their objection.

As Muslims, we already have the foundation for equality, and International Women’s Day should be a reminder to us all, on how to support women’s freedoms and to better live our lives.