It's Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race by Mariam Khan

When was the last time you heard a Muslim woman speak for herself without a filter?  

When Mariam Khan read that David Cameron had linked the radicalization of Muslim men to the 'traditional submissiveness' of Muslim women, Mariam felt pretty sure she didn't know a single Muslim woman who would describe herself that way. Why was she hearing about Muslim women from people who were neither Muslim, nor female? Years later the state of the national discourse has deteriorated even further, and Muslim women's voices are still pushed to the fringes - the figures leading the discussion are white and male.

Taking one of the most politicized and misused words associated with Muslim women and Islamophobia, It's Not About the Burqa is poised to change all that. Here are voices you won't see represented in the national news headlines: seventeen Muslim women speaking frankly about the hijab and wavering faith, about love and divorce, about feminism, queer identity, sex, and the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country.

These essays are funny, warm, sometimes sad, and often angry, and each of them is a passionate declaration calling time on oppression, lazy stereotyping, misogyny and Islamophobia.

What does it mean, exactly, to be a Muslim woman in the West today? According to the media, it's all about the burqa. Here's what it's really about.

'An intelligent and much-needed book' Red

Paperback / 272 pages