The book looks at how ‘the Muslim woman’ is socially constructed through an analysis of contemporary racialized and gendered policy narratives in the UK. It is focused on Prevent, the UK’s counter-terrorism agenda, established after the London bombings in 2005. It examines specific initiatives to ‘empower Muslim women’ to combat terrorism. It also considers how Muslim women are positioned within broader debates about multiculturalism, integration and Britishness. It argues that together such characterisations represent a form of gendered Orientalism which produces and legitimates anti-Muslim r ... More

The book looks at how ‘the Muslim woman’ is socially constructed through an analysis of contemporary racialized and gendered policy narratives in the UK. It is focused on Prevent, the UK’s counter-terrorism agenda, established after the London bombings in 2005. It examines specific initiatives to ‘empower Muslim women’ to combat terrorism. It also considers how Muslim women are positioned within broader debates about multiculturalism, integration and Britishness. It argues that together such characterisations represent a form of gendered Orientalism which produces and legitimates anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia more generally in society. Moreover, there are particular negative effects on Muslim women which can be seen through increasing discrimination in employment and incidents of racial violence. In addition, this book looks at how women, who were themselves directly involved or affected by these initiatives, navigated and negotiated these top-down policy narratives. Using original empirical research, therefore, the book deconstructs simplistic representations of Muslim women solely as victims of their ‘culture’. The book calls for a more intersectional analysis when considering Muslim women’s lives which takes into account differences in class, race, ethnicity and citizenship status as well as racism and sexism in wider society.