Feminism, Interrupted by Lola Olufemi

Author:Lola Olufemi
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Pluto Press

Government response

CONTEST, the UK’s Counter Terrorism strategy was introduced in 2003 by a Labour government. The supposed purpose of the strategy is to stop individuals from being ‘pulled into’ terrorist or extremist activity. It is split into four streams, Prevent, Pursue, Protect and Prepare. The Prevent strand of this strategy is intended to help ‘identify’ the early signs of radicalisation. One of the key ways this is achieved is by monitoring the consumption and activities of those deemed ‘most at risk’ in order to screen for ‘anti-Western’ sentiments. The government has mandated all public institutions to comply with the Prevent Duty. The state has given schools, universities, the NHS and other public institutions keys to our civic lives to determine what they deem ‘extremist’ behaviour and use any means necessary to prevent it. In a world where the constructed figure of the extremist is coded as Muslim, this kind of legislation encroaches on the privacy and rights of Muslims, cordoning off their lives for scrutiny and inspection.

Muslim women are viewed as complicit in the ‘radicalisation’ process. They are perceived as the gatekeepers of their communities and reproducers of cultural values. In the eyes of the state, they give birth to the next generation and influence the conversations that happen in their homes and the ideas that their children engage with. When Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron announced a government roll out of English classes in 2016 especially for Muslim women in an effort to ‘curb’ radicalisation, he not only revealed that the government viewed extremism as a specifically ‘Muslim’ problem but that Muslim women could be utilised by the government to exert their agenda.

Because she does not belong to herself and she does not exist outside of her role as child-rearer, spouse, mother, the Muslim woman is the perfect symbol for anti-radicalisation measures. Not only is this deeply sexist, it leaves no room to understand how Muslim women exist outside of the family. It leaves no room to view them as human beings with conflicting sets of desires, thoughts and needs. When women’s lives are considered only in relation to what they can do for others, they are not viewed as worth protecting in their own right. This thinking should ring alarm bells in the minds of critical feminists and yet has been actively encouraged by mainstream feminism. In 2015, Grace Dent gleefully argued that young women groomed by ISIS ‘shouldn’t be allowed back into the country ever’5 and in 2018, Polly Toynbee argued that the niqab was a symbol of religious fundamentalism.6 In our fight for agency, we must not fall into the trap of viewing Muslim women simply as vehicles for extremism. A staunchly secular way of thinking about our lives and bodies limits Muslim women’s ability to understand themselves and our ability to provide meaningful solidarity when they become the targets of far-right extreminism.

In 2003, The British government entered into an alliance with the Bush White House to invade Afghanistan with the expressed desire to ‘liberate’ women from patriarchal ‘barbarians’.

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