Written evidence from Muslim Girls Fence [GIS0030]
The submission has been written alongside Muslim Girls Fence participants aged 15-18 and the Muslim Girls Fence project team. Muslim Girls Fence is a collaboration between Mas2laha and British Fencing which aims to facilitate spaces at a grassroot level for Muslim girls and women to challenge assumptions and narratives relating to their gender and racial, religious identities through both physical and creative methods. We are submitting evidence to questions 2, 5 and 6.
2) What impact does Islamophobia have on women and girls, their communities and wider society?
Muslim women are among the least heard members of British society, marginalised and often silenced in public discourse. We are often stripped away from our bodily autonomy, pathologized, demonised, censored, punished, our bodies are policed whether that is because of sexism, racism, Islamophobia, the patriarchal and colonial powers. Consequently, we are also among the least well understood, especially by fellow citizens who do not share our social position, cultures or beliefs. It is disturbing to read, in the Muslim Girls Fence project diaries of young people of the casual and ignorant prejudice faced by women and girls who took part. Male teachers feeling they have the right to touch students hijabs, faces and bodies without their permission; trying to persuade students not to fast and questioning them on their weight and diets during Ramadan; strangers question a woman wearing the niqab about her faith and community and if she is ‘oppressed’; students being asked if their dad is a ‘uber driver or a terrorist’ by teachers in front their peers; a student being told that if they are going on holiday to see their grandparents they better not come home a terrorist. These men feel entitled to ask a Muslim woman to justify herself on their terms, and in doing so enact a belief that she is—compared to themselves—a second-class citizen, a terrorist, a stereotype, a girl without bodily autonomy and agency.
As a 17 Muslim girl we work with explained when asked this question, “Misogyny is used as a weapon for Islamophobia, Muslim women are seen as weak and vulnerable, like we need help to remove our hijab. It’s like I don’t have the same individual choice that other women do. But my hijab is my choice and it’s my strength.”
Not only do Muslim girls face gendered Islamophobia, they experience adultification. According to a young person we work with who is 16, “When you’re a visible Muslim girl, they treat you like you’re an adult, they expect you to make no mistakes. When we make mistakes, we get judged harder. We don’t have the same freedom to make mistakes and learn from them as other students” This level of surveillance, the lack of bodily autonomy and the impact of policies like Prevent can make young people feel like they are suspects and can be a form of adultification.
Muslim women and girls are not a monolith, even though we are not one race, we are still racialised - our treatment is based on assumptions about our beliefs, behaviour, relationship to our body and politics. Muslim women and girls therefore have become an expression of anxieties of race, religion and gender. Muslim women and girls are often spoken as if we are not in the room, not part of the country as seen with the anxiety of the ‘Muslim vote’ and the view of us being oppressed, not part of the country, not seriously impacted and silenced by how we are constantly othered.
Evidence for Islamophobia as structural is reported by Runnymeade 2024 which shows that Muslims are more likely than the general population to be exposed to a range of social and economic risk factors and determinants for poor mental health, including poverty, financial precarity and inadequate housing. 40% of the Muslim population in England live in the most deprived local areas, and a third live in overcrowded homes. When seeking support, Muslims can face stigma, discrimination and a lack of faith-responsive services. According to the Centre for Mental Health and Woolf Institute in 2023 Muslims face some of the greatest mental health inequalities, yet too many encounter significant barriers to support. Only 2.6% of Muslims referred to NHS Talking Therapies completed their treatment course in 2021-2022. This raises the questions as to why Muslim are unlikely to finish treatments, potentially because of lack of support/ Muslims also experienced lower recovery rates than other religious groups. According to a survey by the lantern initiative found that 1 in 5 people felt judged or dismissed as a Muslim by structured, formal counselling and 84% expressed their desire for faith informed counselling. This highlights the realities of structural Islamophobia, beyond its most violent expressions but how our health care systems often fail people within our community, but what we need is more culturally and faith informed mental health support that understands the realities of Islamophobia in our day to day lives.
In addition to all the typical challenges that come with being a young person like body image, beauty standards, expectations and pressures from school and family, Muslim teenage girls we work with have to deal with Islamophobia, racism and sexism this means they are more susceptible to struggle with feelings of anxiety, low self-esteem and isolation. It is important that mental health providers think about how their Muslim students’ safety is at risk when Islamophobic rhetoric is high and terror attacks are blamed on Muslims, but also the long-term impact on their mental health on how the news and the portrayal of Muslims by media and politicians not only impact them but impact how others, services, mental health providers and schools treat them too. Islamophobic rhetoric often makes Muslim women and girls from the media and politicians feel dehumanised and not in control of their image and their body, which can lead to body image issues, lack of confidence.
This summer we saw this anxiety intensify amongst young Muslim girls we work with being afraid to leave their homes due to the racist riots of last summer. They were an example of different forces coming together to ignite the violence of normalised racism, Islamophobia, anti-migrant rhetoric. A lot of young people we work with, were not surprised, but despite this did affect their sense of belonging, safety and mental health.
An example of a community space we work with trying to tackle gendered Islamophobia through creative means is Skaped an artisivist charity that works with young people in East London to educate them about community building and human rights through the creative arts. They shared
"We cannot expect women from marginalised communities to report to the police when systemic failures persist. To tackle gender Islamophobia, it requires more than a policing-based approach —it demands meaningful investment in community empowerment and education.
Muslim women, particularly those who wear visible religious attire, are disproportionately targeted; they face a "triple penalty" in employment, experiencing discrimination based on gender, religion, and ethnicity - Many Islamophobic hate crimes go unreported, and we cannot sugar-coat IT IS due to fear, mistrust in authorities, and the normalisation of abuse perpetuated in media narratives. Islamophobia is on the rise, with reported incidents increasing by 73%. Women, often perceived as more vulnerable, bear the brunt of this hostility. It is unjust to expect victims to trust a system that has consistently failed to protect and support them. Addressing this crisis requires urgent systemic change, accountability, and investment in grassroots organisations and communities rather than merely relying on law enforcement."
Whilst it is important to recognise the verbal and physical harassment faced predominantly by Muslim women in public spaces. Gendered Islamophobic violence and assault – needs to be understood beyond just acts of violence as more than interpersonal prejudice. We see Gendered Islamophobia as structural as it informs the way public bodies, the mainstream media, and some Government policies such as Prevent, censor Muslim communities and prevent them from fully engaging in society.
5) Are there any steps, including legislative, that the Government should take to help address Islamophobia?
Young people we work with think it’s vital to include mental health and wellbeing into the curriculum, but if this is done by using a ‘generic’ approach – meaning the approach does not consider structural and environmental factors and its impact on wellbeing – it will not address all the harms present, the distress that is caused, and how to repair and receive help in light of these structures. It’s important for Muslim teenage girls to think about their identities and backgrounds but this has to be linked to how certain identities have been historically and are presently marginalised and racialised, so that their experiences in the world are made sense of.
We need more spaces led by marginalised communities for their communities whether that be Muslim women creating sports spaces, art, creative, support groups for them to bring their full authentic selves without fear of censorship, judgement and Islamophobia and sexism. They can be in a space and create change and campaign to make things better in their community for Muslim women and girls. This means more investment in youth spaces, creative spaces, green spaces, art sector and sport sector and community spaces.
Policies like Prevent embed Islamophobia in our workplaces, health sector, education and at the border are policies like Prevent. In many cases, those worst affected are among society’s most vulnerable and marginalised people. According to Amnesty, Prevent is having a racist and discriminatory impact. For example, children, neurodivergent people and Muslims are most often wrongly flagged up as carrying a high risk of being ‘drawn into terrorism’ – even though they have never committed a crime. The reasons why people have been referred to Prevent are often shrouded in secrecy and there is no clear way to challenge referrals. Prevent leads young Muslims to censor themselves, not bring their full sense in schools, mental health services in fear of punishment, securitisation and surveillance. Which impacts their mental health and trust with services such as healthcare, education. Amnesty found that 109 out of 153 respondents who openly identified as Muslim modified their behaviour to avoid being seen as too radical or extreme (p63) which suggests that the Muslim community are censoring themselves from fear of surveillance and punishment. According to a teenage 16-year-old girl we work with she explained, ““Prevent criminalises young Muslim students, it means we’re not allowed to talk freely as other students are, because we’re immediately seen as a threat.” We want all young people, regardless of faith and gender to bring their whole selves to school and feel safe in school.
The UN Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, stated in 2009 that, “United Kingdom anti-radicalization initiatives seeking to include Muslim women as counter-terrorism agents on the basis of their position ‘at the heart not only of their communities but also of their families’ may reinforce stereotypical gender norms about roles of women within the family.” Moreover, according to Amnesty, report “The Prevent strategy, in its different iterations, furthers gendered stereotypes about Muslim women, including about their role within families as mothers who are inherently peaceful, disempowered by Islam and lacking agency. Simultaneously, Prevent fails to account for the role of government policies in creating greater insecurity for women, even as young Muslim women in the UK (particularly visibly Muslim women) have faced disproportionate anti-Muslim racism and discrimination as a result of such policies.”
Instead of policies like Prevent, we want investment and alternative ways of serving our community. An example of this having more creative, sport, art spaces led by Muslim women for Muslim women to explore their identity, issues impacting them such as racism, sexism and Islamophobia in a space where they can bring their full authentic selves without fear of repercussions and surveillance of policing and Prevent policy. We want as a community to build trust with each other through culturally competent and anti-racist services.
6) What can schools, sports clubs and other community groups, trade unions, places of worship and workplaces do to help tackle Islamophobia and to support Muslim women and girls?
There can be no doubt that Muslim women and girls face specific and complex barriers that contribute to their experience of both Islamophobia and sexism. They arise as the consequences of historical and political choices and processes which, even where they do not directly concern Muslim women, discriminate against them through ‘prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping’—in Macpherson’s words— which target and disadvantage them, as well as from actions, such as the public speech of politicians and media, journalists, that often directly concerns and condemns Muslim women. Barriers also arise from social, economic and political aspects of their lives, over which they may have varying degrees of control. If the causes are varied, the outcome is much less so. It is that many women lead constrained lives with fewer choices and opportunities than are enjoyed by other citizens.
At Muslim Girls Fence we try to make a space for Muslim women to explore feelings about identity, representation and discrimination based on gender, race and faith in enjoyable, creative ways. By combining art, self-expression and fencing, they found a novel pathway to voicing their experience on their own terms. At its heart is about the relatively low level of participation in community-based sports activity by Muslim women and girls. That is often rationalised by resorting to unverified assumptions about their lives and interests. The reality is much more nuanced and concerns practical and intangible barriers to access, ranging from cost, timing, and location, to how the offer is marketed. But at the heart of this complicated project, Muslim Girls Fence, is a profoundly simple idea: listening to each other is the beginning of everything. Through the discipline of fencing, the creativity of art and the politics of discussion, there is a safe space in which women can meet, speak and simply be themselves. Their only obligations are to each other, and they arise, freely accepted, from solidarity and community. We hope there can be more investment in community led spaces for Muslim women to explore sports, creativity, art, gardening and activities designed and led by Muslim women.
Sports sector
Survey conducted by Muslimah Sports Association highlighted that for British Muslim Women:
· 33% said that past experiences have negatively impacted their participation in sports
· 43% said that current sports facilities are not appropriate for them
· 80% said they would be likely to attend women’s only sports sessions if they were available
· The report noted that 57% of women surveyed would like to give sport a go but the barriers of “finding appropriate facilities that allow them to participate in sports while adhering to their religious belief, cultural barriers and discrimination based on their religion.” Stop them.
According to Virginia Bailey Director at British Fencing, she thinks that sports could address gendered Islamophobia by:
· Be confident in advertising activities that centre the needs of Muslim women – the data shows us Muslim women want to be active but there are barriers to understanding this. We need to be confident in prioritising Muslim women and girls who need to access spaces to be active in.
· Working on the ground with local partners and people – Ladywood Leisure Centre in Birmingham is an example of how national and local partners have worked together to facilitate an environment where Muslim women and women from a range of religions can come together to be active and feel safe, how:
o Leisure centre staff taking the time to listen and understand about the importance of a female only space and what that looks like e.g. men not allowed to spectate or enter into the space.
o Displaying positive imagery around the venue to celebrate the women, their culture and religion as women living in the local community.
· Through partnership working, have a range of people from different organisations involved to bring different experience and expertise to the table – one of the successes of MGF is the expertise and experiences of BF and Maslaha coming together to provide the right support and access to opportunities to that might not already be provided to the groups we work with. Using sport, fencing in particular and creative activities to create environments for conversations to take place about some of the experiences that many of the women and girls have faced around racism and islamophobia, allows them to express themselves both creatively and physically in a way that they have not experienced before.
· Always putting the women and girls first – MGF has always put the women and girls before the needs or aspirations of either organisations, adapting and addressing what is going on at both a local, national and international level. During Covid, many of the women, both coaches and participants, told us that the weekly calls, access to councillors and the guaranteed on-going support of the both BF and Maslaha was a lifeline.
· Look beyond short-term interventions – Don’t look at a short 8-12 week programme, look at long term opportunities that can be embedded in communities. Muslim Girls Fence in Birmingham has grown into its own fencing club, Binni’s Bladez, welcoming in the LGBTQ community and women from all religions into the group.
Finally, I find myself saying two things a lot:
1) “Don’t do to, do with” I would never assume I know what is going to work in 1 community will work in another and will always ensure the women we work with are involved in planning and decision making.
2) “Muslim women and girls are hard to reach” – no they aren’t, sport hasn’t necessarily listened or asked or engaged and fall back on the saying “ they are hard to reach”. They aren’t!
Mental health services
We know that young people from racialised backgrounds are disproportionately affected by mental health crises due to the multiple inequalities that they face. Muslim girls in particular experience unique challenges such as racism, sexism, Islamophobia and the pervasive effects of government policies like Prevent. Generic, one-size fits all approaches to mental health lack the multi-dimensional and accurate reflection required to meet the distinct needs of these communities.
Through our work we hear how Muslim girls and women often distrust mental health services, because they believe ‘they won’t get it’ ‘will judge me’ ‘won’t understand me’. We need culturally relevant services, services that understand faith and services that reflect the diversity of the community they are working with. A survey published by the British Islamic Medical Association found that half of Muslim women surveyed had experienced problems with wearing a headscarf in theatre (51.5 per cent), with some feeling embarrassed (23.4 per cent), anxious (37.1 per cent) and even bullied (36.5 per cent). This suggests that the lack of diverse mental health and health professionals can cause a barrier of feeling safe and trusting of mental health services.
Therefore, it is important for there to be mental health spaces led by Muslim community, but also creative spaces, green spaces, youth spaces and community spaces where people can show solidarity, community and communion with others in the efforts to improve mental health. This might be like Muslim Girls Fence where we run community iftars, celebrate Pride with LGBT+ fencing groups in order to find solidarity and community with others.
Schools
Following a High Court ruling in April 2024 to uphold a decision by the Michaela School in Brent to ban Muslim ritual prayer, many children we worked with, specifically Muslim girls, were afraid to pray in school and were more aware of their identity.
According to a 17 Muslim girl we work with she explained, “I don’t think schools are safe for Muslim girls, especially hijabi girls. When I first started wearing the hijab, I would get pulled out of class and questioned if I was being forced to wear it. I started to get treated like I was a completely different student, like they are watching every little mistake you make.” We want to create schools to be a safe place for students of all faiths.
According to a 16 year old Muslim girl we work with, we asked her what would she change in education she said, “We all want to see changes in the education system, teachers need to stop singling us out and make us feel like we’re different to other students. They need to stop making Islamophobic comments, this really impacts our mental health and how we see ourselves” and she explained “ We need to get rid of Prevent, Prevent criminalises young Muslim students, it means we’re not allowed to talk freely as other students are, because we’re immediately seen as a threat. I wish there wasn't a Prevent in school…Having police in schools is also just a reminder that if you’re Black and brown, if you make one mistake they will call the police on you. We see how the police act differently towards white students. I saw Black students being assaulted by the police in my school. They’re not there to help us” The impacts of policies like Prevent, racist policing make students feel unsafe in schools and feel unable to fully participate as students.
In schools we often hear about young people wanting less Eurocentric and colonial teaching content, as Muslim women and girls are not often included in curriculum and if they are seen as victims of oppressions. We want better accommodation for religious provision, e.g. halal food and prayer space and considerations during Ramadan; think about religiously appropriate social events; think about the impact of over-surveillance legitimated by the Prevent duty. We want schools to recognise that many Muslim students hold intersectional characteristics, multiple marginalities become a signature characteristic of Muslim student experience.
For schools interested in taking an anti-racist approach and ensuring that they are meeting their Public Sector Equality Duties, it is vital that they understand the intersection between mental health and race, gender, and religion - this could be through anti-racism training for staff and trustees. It is important for their wellbeing to have safe spaces where they can explore their identity through open discussions, creativity and physical activity in schools in order to tackle gendered Islamophobia. Maslaha currently provides training in this area.
April 2025