Muslim Women, Community Organisations and Local Governance

South Asian immigrants of Muslim background (from Pakistan, later Bangladesh) began arriving in Britain in the late 1950s and continued to come and go until the early 1970s when immigration law was tightened and, as Commonwealth citizens, they were no longer allowed to enter Britain freely. They were mainly male workers and it was not until the mid-1970s’ energy/economic crisis, when labour migration was halted by the British government, that Muslim women and girls from South Asia arrived, as dependents, to join male relatives under family reunification rules. Muslim communities came to be permanently established from the mid-1970s. Given this history and the highly patriarchal structures of South Asian communities, it is not surprising that the civic and political organisations which emerged from these communities were entirely male-dominated. Thus, Muslim women’s organisations, community and political leadership have a recent history and relatively small presence in Britain. Moreover, Muslim women are not considered credible interlocutors by the state, media and other agents in the public sphere where stereotypes of this group as ‘subjugated’, ‘passive’, uninterested in/uninformed about life beyond their doorstep predominate. Following the 7/7 London bombings, the Labour government targeted Muslim women as potential ‘bridge-builders’ between radicalised sections of their communities and majority society. The state’s call to Muslim women to become active and ‘empowered’ in the public sphere, accompanied by financial resources, led to the emergence of numerous Muslim women leaders and organisations. This paper maps the rise of these organisations and Muslim women’s leadership after 7/7, examines the interaction between these organisations, statutory and other agencies/actors in the face of various hurdles and assesses the impact (if any) they have had on local governance structures, processes, policy. It also explores the effect of increased civic and political participation on Muslim women.