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When will female Muslim achievement ever be acknowledged, praised and encouraged?

March 06, 2021
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Does a Muslim woman have the right to call herself a feminist? With all the inequality and misogyny apparently in Muslim communities, how can these two views find a happy medium?

These are the questions I was again forced to confront after listening to a radio interview last month with Zara Muhammed, the newly elected Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

I love BBC Woman's Hour.

It's not always fashionable to admit, but in the pre-internet days of my youth, the Radio 4 programme provided me a small window into a wider world. It reached beyond my own experience, and it taught me about female pioneers, trendsetters and leaders.

I learned about my physical and mental health and the reality of my opportunities in life. I respected the institution it had become. But that all came crashing down when Emma Barnett interviewed Ms. Muhammed.

There is little doubt that Emma used an aggressive style of interviewing - seemingly trying to catch out her guest. There was little acknowledgment that her new position was a sign of change and perceived 'progress' towards equality.

Yet this interview reached far beyond the studio and touched a very raw nerve with many Muslim women from all walks of life. When will female Muslim achievement ever be acknowledged, praised and encouraged?

Muslim women who are perceived to succeed in life (heaven forbid a woman chooses to prioritise her home and not have a paid career) are often cut down and attacked in this way. Their achievement is seen as 'progress' for their faith which so many view (as one Twitter user informed me) 'profoundly backward.'

We are hectored into acknowledging some Muslim men's misogyny and made to be accountable for their interpretation of our faith. The implication is that if our faith is backwards, inequitable and discriminatory, then we too must hold those views or not know any better.

There is very little space in the non-Muslim world where people acknowledge that an educated, modern, liberal woman can also be a devout Muslim. And the main reason is that most objectors are too busy attacking to listen.

But when you listen to Muslim women - you learn. You learn that one of the oldest universities in the world was founded by a Muslim woman. Female companions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) were on the battlefields tending the wounded and vocal in the community. Since its inception, Muslim women also teach and lead prayers regularly and have offered their opinion and interpretation of the faith.

READ: Why I feel Muslim women do not need to be Imams to feel empowered

Why I feel Muslim women do not need to be Imams to feel empoweredconversations.indy100.com


Imposing the necessity of a female Imam movement on the Islamic tradition according to one specific reading and understanding of feminism is just as aggressive as patriarchy's experience in our modern societies.

Additionally, a Muslim woman who was independently wealthy, owned and ran her own business had remarried after being widowed, selected and proposed marriage to a husband 15 years younger than herself at the age of 40.

She was a pioneer and an excellent role model for modern women.

But the status of Muslim women is not despite their faith. It is often because of it. Islamic teachings instruct that Muslim girls should be educated and well treated. They should be respected and cared for with love by their families and valued by society. A Muslim woman has always had the enshrined right to own her own property and wealth.

No man has any claim on her money, although she may share of her own free choice. She has the right to inherit from her relatives and the right to end her own marriage if she so chooses.

These rights are part of the faith and are found clearly in the Holy Quran. They are not new or innovative - they are the bedrock of Islam. They are why Muslim women who know their own rights acknowledge that this faith liberated them centuries before many others whispered about women's lib in hopeful secret.

We do not need the liberation of western feminism, nor do we need a man to have valued status. We do not need to compare ourselves by the standards of other faiths, which continue to debate and define a woman's value.

READ: Hijab is a state of mind and a means of liberation

Hijab is a state of mind and a means of liberationconversations.indy100.com

Acknowledged by the UK House of Commons in 2017, February 1 of each year marks World Hijab Day; a movement set up in an attempt to normalise the hijab and its practise by Muslims around the world.

Emma Barnett may wish to reduce Muslim women to the single issue of female Imams, a false notion that equates Imams with priests when they are not the same. Others may wish to believe a head covering defines a woman. However, the reality is that if you listen to Muslim women, we acknowledge that in many societies, men do not treat women in the way they deserve, or the way early Muslims demonstrated should be the case.

As an Ahmadi Muslim woman, I am fortunate to have experienced the benefits of being a woman of the Islamic faith. The women in our community have their own executive body, which decides on issues relating to women. We educate, train and assist women and do this under our own umbrella.

The head of our Community, our Khalifah, is a champion of women's rights. As a result, our community is replete with educated, confident, capable Muslim women who understand that their faith values them and the roles they fulfill. Females leading men in prayer isn't indicative of equality for them. Islam is richer in nuance than that.

Just listen, and let the women speak. They will tell you themselves.

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Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.