Acts and practices of citizenship: Muslim women’s activism in the UK

Abstract

Drawing on the growing literature on Muslim women's activism, this paper explores grammars of action that frame political mobilizations of Muslim women in the UK. By taking a broad view of political activism, we identify acts and practices of citizenship through which Muslim women activists engage with, reinterpret and challenge social norms. The article critically engages with dominant readings of post-migration minorities' political mobilization through the lens of citizenship regimes and draws attention to more processual and agency-centred perspectives on citizenship. We focus on two salient themes that Bristol-based Muslim activists were concerned with: mobilizing against violence against women, manifested in the anti-FGM campaign by Integrate Bristol, and attempts to re-negotiate the terms of participation in religious spaces, manifested in claims for more inclusive mosques. In both instances, mobilization was not confined to the local community or national level, but supported by and embedded in related transnational struggles.

Mosques as Gendered Spaces: The Complexity of Women’s Compliance with, And Resistance to, Dominant Gender Norms, And the Importance of Male Allies

“…As such, the ability to access and use mosque facilities is vital for community participation and belonging. Although only men have a religious duty to attend Friday prayer in the mosque, Muslim women in Western Europe are increasingly participating in mosques, including in Norway (Nyhagen Predelli 2008), the UK (Bhimji 2009; Gilliat-Ray 2010; Shannahan 2014; Lewicki and O'Toole 2017), and elsewhere, e.g., Sweden (Minganti 2012), France, and Germany (Jouili and Amir-Moazami 2006;Spielhaus 2012). Women's increased participation has been accommodated via the introduction of designated, gender-segregated spaces in some, but not all, mosques.…”

“…152-54) describe an increase in Muslim women's organizations and community activism in Britain since 2000, and explain the growth as rooted in women's need to counter Islamophobia and to offer alternative voices to those of Muslim men, as well as the state's co-optation of Muslim women in the so-called war on terror (see also Brown 2008). At a local level, (Lewicki and O'Toole 2017) observe the mobilization of Muslim women in Bristol in a campaign against violence towards women. In the Norwegian context, Muslim women have mobilized in voluntary associations beyond mosques, including in youth and women's associations (Jacobsen 2011a); for other contexts see, e.g., (Hammer 2012;Minganti 2012); for online activism see (Piela 2010).…”

General perspectives: citizenship, migration and participation

“…Such limitation is connected to the study of citizenship through the lens of the citizenship regimes and to the analysis of migrant participation through the use of data drawn from quantitative individual surveys or political claim-making analysis. As argued by Lewicki and O'Toole (2017), however, the aforementioned studies tend to exclude the analysis of more informal forms of political mobilization, that is, small scale resistance such as consciousness-raising acts, or social media activism which occur in informal, personal and domestic arenas. Such forms of actions can be recognized as sites of political contestation too, regardless of public authorities' "formal" authorization 20 (Isin 2009 in Lewicki andO'Toole 2017: 156).…”

The politics of hopeful citizenship: Women, counterinsurgency and the state in eastern India

“…Citizenship, therefore, is also about practices (Lewicki and O’Toole, 2016) and social acts (Isin, 2008; Kruks-Wisner, 2018), rather than just about legal or official status. Engin Isin (2008: 7, 284) argues that citizenship is inherently social because it is performed, and the performance and articulation of citizenship takes place in multiple sites.…”