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Friday, 8 March 2019

Neither oppressed nor trailblazing, Muslim women need to be heard | Raifa Rafiq

The representation of us in media and politics is too often decided by others – but we can speak for ourselves

The politics of the Muslim woman remains wrapped up in “debate”. The oppressed-terrorist-bride complex is rampant within our societal infrastructures – and it’s still deeply ingrained in the consciousness of the supposedly reasonable “man on the Clapham omnibus”. Are we now, though, seeing any visible difference in the representation of Muslim women within mainstream media and politics? I’m inclined to think not.

Her identity is still up for discussion by others: if she is perceived to be oppressed, then the secular, white British media must highlight the oppressive nature of her religion and save her from it; if she is on the terrorist-bride-Shamima-Begum side of the scale, she must be reminded that she is not an actual citizen of this country and resides here at the mercy of public and political opinion.

Any visual indicator of ‘Muslimness’ is now argued to have no place in contemporary society

Related: Long before Shamima Begum, Muslim women were already targets | Shelina Janmohamed

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from Islam | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2UrG1LJ

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