MEND Book Club Reads “It’s Not About the Burqa”
Categories: Past Event Articles
Wednesday June 10 2020
Our staff and volunteer Book Club has completed its second book, It’s Not About the Burqa, which is a collection of essays by Muslim women edited by Miriam Khan. Attendees of the Book Club have expressed how much they are enjoying these sessions as they are able to express their own thoughts on texts relevant to British Muslims whilst hearing the insight of others.
Participants of last week’s Book Club particularly enjoyed Nafisa Bakkar’s chapter ‘On the Representation of Muslims: Terms and Conditions Apply’. Using this chapter to foreground our discussions, we explored what kinds of representations are available to Muslim women and whether this is in line with the objectives of Islam as a religion. Further to this, we questioned how open ‘Influencer culture’ is to Muslim women and what restrictions apply, as well as how ethical this cultural development is.
The Book Club also addressed Mariam Khan’s essay ‘Feminism Needs to Die’, through this we discussed ‘Islamic feminism’ and individuals within the club expressed their own takes on this and whether it applies to them.