In this blog post I will be highlighting some of the struggles of being the target of racism, sexism and islamophobia in London, in terms of social inequalities. I have unfortunately had many personal experiences of islamophobia and racism, not only from peers or strangers but even from medical professionals and employers. Islamophobia is somehow always brushed off and the struggles of wearing a hijab in such a hateful society and constantly being treated as an outcast or intentionally alienated by people. What did this cloth do to you for you to hate me so much?
I am a Baloch, muslim, a woman and a person from a land that is no longer their own, a person longing to go back where they no longer can. My motherland, Balochistan, is one of 31 provinces in Iran bordering both Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 1947, the land was illegally occupied by Pakistan. Since its annexation in 1948, Pakistan has been exploiting Balochistan’s natural resource wealth, leaving the indigenous Baloch people in abject poverty. Pakistan has constructed the notion that Baloch people oppose freedom and are content to remain part of Pakistan’s general population in order to excuse their persecution; a false narrative concealing the enforced disappearances which still go on till date. Not very egalitarian is it now? It hurts to the core knowing I can’t do much to help, other than stand my ground and stand taller for my martyred brothers and sisters.
“If you deprive people of their birth rights, then you should always feel yourself in danger” – Nawab Akabar Bugti
Structural inequality refers to a system in which prevalent social institutions create an unequal or discriminatory divide between different groups of a society’s population. This may cause injustice or discrimination towards a person’s race,ethnicity,gender, tribe or cultural differencies.
Will we ever get to live in an egalitarian society?
Egalitarianism is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritising it for all people. Has feminism allowed for women or AFAB (assigned female at birth) people to be treaded with the principles of egalitarianism or is it just a facade of society to portray ourself as civilised or atleast somewhat developed.
Personally i believe that as a society we are far from being egalitarian and that there will never really be proper equality between races, genders, people with disabilities or people with different sexual orientations, especially in a patriarchal society such as ours. Despite all the feminist movements such as the suffragettes, western feminism doesn’t seem to apply to women of coloured and regardless of fighting for womans rights, it further dismisses the struggles WOC (women of colour). This could be in regards to things such as the hijab ban, which has affected so many women such as myself to experience discrimination and racism.
In my religion, the hijab is seen to be a symbol of beauty, but constantly having people point fingers, calling you racial slurs or even going as far as to spit at you for simply practising your religion is one of the most unsettling feelings to happen. For a country that seems so caught up with British values. Personally, I have never felt safe walking down the streets, wearing a piece of fabric covering my head with the fear of someone spewing venomous words towards you.
Zahra Sultana, Labour MP for Coventry South, recounted her experiences during a debate on Islamophobia. Sultana, recalled being treated by some people “as if I were an enemy of the country I was born in” and said she had been labelled a “terrorist sympathiser” in an emotional address. As she told the chamber: “Being a Muslim woman who is outspoken and left-wing has exposed me to this venom. It’s being treated as if I’m a traitor to the country I was born in by others. It’s as though I’m not supposed to be here.” . why is it, that in a country that claims to value liberty, why do muslim’s, and in Sultana’s case of being an an influential muslim woman is that we get bashed for practicing our faith?
This is similar in the way Vogue France’s recent instagram post about head scarfs has been under fire for praising Julia Fox. Vogue France published a message a few days ago that left muslim’s such as myself, very much discombobulated. Vogue France uploaded a photo of Julia Fox with the message “yes to the headscarf!” in a since-edited post.This is a terribly tone-deaf approach that ignores the fact that Muslim women in France are prohibited from wearing hijabs at work, in sports, and elsewhere…
In regards to our week 13 lecture on post-race and post-feminism,The phrase “postfeminism” refers to a cultural notion that many or all of feminism’s goals have already been fulfilled, rendering subsequent iterations and expansions of the movement superfluous. However i’d like to argue that the term is not very inclusive towards women of colour. Post feminism is ideologically driven, therefore there is a huge emphasis on the fight taking place within the role of media discourse and representation. And so, it’s definition of feminism in some retrospect come almost extrapolated to the lives of ordinary women. This is because these debates, assessments and explorations of the female form are often associated with specific kinds of representation that explore their own particular set of limitations, such as the role of media discourse and producing definitions of feminism. So the new question asked is if muslim women were not portrayed as oppressed, or terrorised or forced to wear the hijab in the global media discourse, would the argument change? Because as far as i believe, hijabi women will always be subjected to being alienated for covering their heads and will never not be ‘othered’ within a contemporary society.
As this essay comes to an end, I would like to leave you with two song recommendations exploring the struggles of wearing a hijab. ‘Free’ by Sami Yusuf and ‘what if I took it off for you?’ by Nemahsis, a Palestinian-Canadian singer-songwriter.
Bibliography:
BBC News (2021) “Coventry MP Zarah Sultana recounts ‘Islamophobic hate,’” 10 September. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-58515751 (Accessed: February 3, 2022).
Khan, M. (2022) “Vogue France praising Julia Fox’s headscarf is an insult to Muslim women,” Independent, 1 February. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/vogue-france-julia-fox-headscarf-muslim-b2004877.html (Accessed: February 3, 2022).
Valluvan, S. (2016) “What is ‘post-race’ and what does it reveal about contemporary racisms?,” Ethnic and racial studies, 39(13), pp. 2241–2251. doi: 10.1080/01419870.2016.1202430.