Muslim Women, Islamic Discourses and Public Participation in Britain

I have worked with Muslim communities (men and women), through various professional jobs and charity commitments for the past 20 years. In that time, there has been a rise in Muslim women entering further and higher education (Basit 1997; Afshar et al 2005) and so in theory increasing their social capital and capacity for public participation and societal integration (Phillips 2009; Hopkins and Gale 2009). However, the transition from education to career or just entering the labour market generally remains incredibly low amongst Muslim women (Haw 2009, 2010). Making use of my experience as a practitioner in the field of social cohesion and interfaith relations, the proposed research is an attempt to understand why that is still the case and in particular whether, to what extent, and in which circumstances the use of Islamic discourses can legitimize this.

This research contends that the authorized and more individual interpretation of Islamic discourses about the perceived role and the part that a Muslim woman plays in public life (Doi 1989; Turabi, 1991; Darsh 1995) have very definite implications for her social interactions and relations with the rest of British society (cf. Suleiman 2012). Revisiting key texts in the Islamic sources (the Qur'an, Sira, Hadith and related legal and historical literature), and seeking to understand to what extent the spectrum of views concerning the segregation of Muslim women and any limit on their public participation has been defined and redefined in different historical-cultural-political contexts, I will then seek to investigate empirically how in the hands of Islamic scholars and community leaders, but especially different groups of British Muslim women themselves, such interpretations have shaped and influenced their engagement with wider society in Britain today.

The research methods of investigation and analysis adopted are qualitative. Centrally, I will employ a discourse and thematic analysis of at least 30 in-depth naturalistic interviews conducted with at least 10 UK based ulama (clerics) and academics, as well as interviews/focus groups with different constituencies of at least 20 Muslim women in one or more selected localities in the UK: i) some of whom work outside the home, ii) some who choose to stay at home and iii) those in senior leadership positions in community organisations and wider society.

My research questions are as follows:

1) To what extent is Muslim women's involvement in UK public life influenced by a) their own and b) others' readings and interpretations/understandings of Islamic texts and traditions?
2) How (if at all) has such thinking and decision-making developed and changed over their lifetime? For what reasons?
3) How do different Muslim women in Britain explain any discrepancies between such 'expert' and 'everyday' Muslim views, opinions and experience?
4) What other factors/barriers may be involved in limiting Muslim women's involvement in public life in the UK?

My working hypothesis is that Islamic texts say much less than scholars and communities have read into them with respect to segregation of the sexes, female leadership and involvement in public life (cf. Mernissi 1991; Roald 2001; Barlas 2003; Ramadan 2004; Wadud 2007). Rather today's "Islamic" ideologies and practices of segregation and gender inequality are the product of complex intersections of religion, culture, politics, social exclusion and patriarchy (cf. Mahmood 2005).