8
ISSUES: Racial & Ethnic Discrimination
Chapter 1: Racism & discrimination
Muslim women and discrimination
in Britain
An article from
The Conversation
.
By Julian Hargreaves, Research Associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge
T
he controversy surrounding a
now-infamous “I confronted a
Muslim” tweet – and a subsequent
race-hate charge – reminds us that
tackling discrimination against British
Muslims remains as big a challenge as
ever.
Forthosewhomissedit,PR-manMatthew
P Doyle took to Twitter to announce: “I
confronted a Muslim woman in Croydon
yesterday. I asked her to explain Brussels.
She said ‘Nothing to dowithme’. Amealy
mouthed reply.”
Police were alerted to the incident
when Doyle’s ill-judged comments
about the encounter were retweeted
by bemused Internet users. While
charges were eventually dropped, the
story is a prime example of the type of
discrimination encountered on a daily
basis bymany BritishMuslimwomen and
an exception to an otherwise overlooked
phenomenon.
Everyday incidents of anti-Muslim
discrimination rarelymake headline news
– but recent research from the University
of Cambridge’s Centre of Islamic Studies
found that discrimination is the daily
norm for many British Muslims.
While previous research in this area
has often focused on acts of physical
violence, none of those interviewed for
the Cambridge study had experienced
crime of this type. But almost all, whether
male or female, felt they had experienced
prejudice. As one Muslim man living in
the north of England stated: “… there’s
an atmosphere, there’s definitely an
atmosphere.”
Interviewees shared numerous accounts
of being ignored in shops, being stared
at onpublic transport andbeing targeted
by discrimination. While they were
seldom criminal in nature, these acts
were described as always hurtful – and
often leading to dramatically increased
fears of criminal victimisation, particularly
among older Muslimwomen.
Muslimvoices
One Muslim woman gave an account of
discrimination from supermarket staff
packing groceries:
“When we’re shopping … right away
from the person who’s serving you…he
or she [is] serving someone who’s white
you get a full conversation out of them,
but the minute they see you with a hijab,
right okay, pack yourself.”
Another gave one of many examples of
discrimination on public transport:
“When I’m in my normal get-up … I can
sit in the bus like everyone else and I’m
fine, people talking away just getting
on with it, you know, you’ll even find
someone sitting next to you trying to
strike conversation … wear a hijab and
it’s almost like … nobody even wants to
smile at you…theywant to keep at arm’s
length from you.”
These troubling accounts echo previous
victim and discrimination studies
undertaken by the centre. Analysis of
data from the Crime Survey for England
and Wales (previously the British Crime
Survey) revealed that levels of personal
crime (crimes ranging from verbal abuse
to serious attack) and crimes including
some form of physical violence are
broadly similar for all minority religion
groups (with the sad exception of Jewish
communities who face higher overall
levels of crime).
A forthcoming study of discrimination
data from the Ethnic Minority British
Election Study 2010 (EMBES), a large-scale
survey of ethnic minority communities,
tells a different overall story. Data from
EMBES suggests that non-white Muslims
who experience discrimination are more
likely than non-white Christians to suffer
it on the street – but perhaps no more
likely than Hindu and Sikh communities.
(Muslim victims may appear to suffer
more discrimination on the street than
Hindus and Sikhs but the differences are
not statistically significant and so should
not be used to describe larger national
patterns.)
However, there are stark differences
between female discrimination victims
within the EMBES data. Non-white
Muslim women appear far more likely
to suffer discrimination on the street
than their female non-white, non-
Muslim counterparts. These differences
are large and statistically significant,
therefore provide a more reliable
estimate of differences throughout the
UK. The experiences shared by female
Muslim interviewees in the recent study
offered strong support for the statistical
evidence.
Visible difference
One probable explanation for the
increased risks faced by British Muslim
women is of course the higher visibility of
those who choose to wear a headscarf or
face veil (as many of the interviewees do).
Several interviewees drew direct links
between daily incidents of discrimination
and the abundance of negative news
stories concerning Muslims and Islam.
Others (the lucky few perhaps) were
careful to stress a growing resilience to
everyday forms of discrimination and
an increased reliance on their religion,
culture and community as a means
of coping. This finding of resilience
is perhaps the study’s most original
contribution to academic research in this
field.
Regardless of how we might as a society
analyse, explain and cope with everyday
forms of discrimination (against any
individual or group), what the study
makes clear is that as the furore around
Doyle’s crass foray onto Twitter begins
to fade, encounters of this sort are
happening all over Britain and continue
to be for many British Muslims the
unreported reality of daily life.
1 April 2016
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The above information is reprinted
with kind permission from
The
Conversation
. Please visit www.
theconversation.com for further
information.
© 2010-2017,
The Conversation Trust (UK)
