Voices

Views from elsewhere

After Rochdale

Asian women are suffering too.

By Sara Khan Published 20 May 2012 9:54

For many Asian women, Islam has been a path to freedom (Photo: Getty Images)

There is a line in the film Four Lions where one of the terrorists suggests bombing Boots the Chemist because “they sell condoms and make you want to shag white girls". Everyone in my local cinema laughed, yet I know that abhorrent perception exists among some Asian men and women. The furore over whether race, religion or culture played a part in targeting vulnerable white girls in the Rochdale "grooming" case, has failed to address a broader issue. The views of women who come from those northern towns has been absent in this debate. As a Bradford-born and raised Muslim woman from the Kashmiri/Mirpuri community, I understand the cultural complexities. Let’s be clear: it’s not just white women that are viewed as inferior: many from these Pakistani rural villages believe all women are second class citizens. The culture of the conservative Kashmiri/Mirpuri community has at its root a deep seated misogyny with the aim of controlling every aspect of a woman’s life and reducing her into subservience.

This misogyny manifests itself in different ways. “They ripped away my dignity, my self-esteem,” said one of the victims of the grooming ring. Another stated that “she was persistently coerced or forced into submission by them”. Although the context is different, I have heard many Kashmiri/Mirpuri women in Bradford and other towns express similar sentiments about the men and families who control every aspect of their lives. White or Western women are viewed as promiscuous, are "up for it" and are objectified as sexual objects. A small minority can take this view alongside multiple factors such as criminality, to the ultimate extreme as in cases of grooming and sexual exploitation.

There is a false and puritanical idea that all Pakistani women are "protected" at home and treated with respect. The reality is that many from this community also believe that their own women are inferior, their purpose in life is solely confined to the home serving their husbands and in-laws. Education and careers are unnecessary in a life of servitude as was the view before the early feminist movement and like white women, can also be objectified and viewed as sexual objects.

There is a cultural attitude that women are singularly and disproportionately responsible for maintaining the honour of the family and that they carry the burden of preserving morality in society. They should therefore not do anything that would destroy this honour. Mirpuri women have endured abuse within families, yet because families want to be viewed as upstanding pillars of the community, many of these women are forced into silence.

As a society we are losing out when bright girls from this community are denied the opportunity to pursue an education or career because of cultural restrictions. The psychological impact of being confined to the home for most of their lives is immense, as I was told by a woman who lived with her mother in-law and her husband, who would never let her out of the house. “I can’t even attend a women’s only sewing class,” she told me, crying. In many cases it is the older women in these communities who are perpetuating and maintaining these patriarchal attitudes. Some are still deciding third-generation first-cousin marriages and are prohibiting women from participating in public life.

In this debate, some commentators have not been able to differentiate between culture and religion. Women of my generation aspired to have an education and a career and saw Islam as an escape route. For some of these women, Islam offered freedoms to pursue an education, a career, the choice of choosing their own marriage partner, the opportunity to participate in British public life and, importantly, take control of their own lives. Moreover, the concept of rape in Islam should not be misunderstood: many of the early classical jurists, such as Ibn Hazm and Ibn ‘Arabi, viewed it as so abhorrent that it was defined as a form of terrorism.

Misogyny exists within all communities and societies. As Julie Bindel rightly says, there is no culture in the world where girls are valued on par with boys. Pakistani communities and Muslim leaders however can no longer deny the misogynistic attitudes that exist at the very heart of some of these communities. Young Pakistani boys and girls, and indeed all of our young people, need greater education about sex and women’s rights. Practical efforts that promote integration and social mobility will tackle attitudes and support women who want to play a positive contribution to our country. The enforced invisibility and subservience of women can be challenged through collective action to help dismantle the traditional and negative view that all women, whether white or Asian, are inferior.

Sara Khan is director of Inspire, a British Muslim women's human rights organisation

More from Sara Khan

15 comments

Mon, 2012-05-21 14:38 — Mrs.Josephine Hyde-Hartley (not verified)

I'm not sure what the word " misogyny" means. To a common person who should have to reach for the dictionary to find out what it means - the word " misogyny" smacks of that kind of elite classification with it's mystifying language and terminology, that some educational snobs would probably have sitting in the place of all the best jobs these days. ( as noted perhaps by Mr.E. Miliband, the leader of one of the big parties only today, I think.)

Taking a broader perspective , as a woman I wonder if one way to look at the plight of others who end up exploited so terribly is in the most classical but yet common sense term of all ie the household. There are forms of households containing women across the world. It's a basic way of protecting people who might otherwise seem vulnerable and weak. But remembering our outgoing head of the FSA who said somewhere recently, from his perspective some things don't need protecting so aggressively - Things may work just as well with an element of constructive tension when it comes to running a decent (household?) economy.

Women in particular who do not live, for whatever reason, in some traditionally formed and maintained "household" are, sadly too often, considered easy pickings for predatory targeting practice. Especially when we pop up in places where everybody else normally does something else and we don't seem to fit in. The tyranny of the majority can be the bane of one's life..In fact independent and autonomous individuals of various kinds are often to be found excluded unnecessarily because of the shortcomings of others who fail to recognise our beautiful existence in any or many shapes and /or forms. ( eg those tax credit forms where one had to tick a box to say that one was living together with somebody else " as if married" ? even though this was simply not true.)

In my view the women thing is bigger and probably better than any man made religion. I therefore tend to concur with the august opinion that women always marry beneath ourselves.. it's impossible not to really.

Mon, 2012-05-21 13:50 — islamophobe (not verified)

burn the mosques

Mon, 2012-05-21 13:04 — Des Demona (not verified)

Actually Sara the inherent mysoginy involved has been brought up elsewhere in this very magazine.However as I see it these views seem to being put forward in other threads by white males. It is refreshing to have the same views put forward by an asian woman - heck you've even got Sman kinda agreeing with you - that's a feat in itself!

Mon, 2012-05-21 10:09 — scampy

Get these evil vermin back to islamic paradise where they can continue their barbaric practices without British welfare benefits.
Vote UKIP.

Mon, 2012-05-21 09:32 — Michelle Brooks (not verified)

Great article Sara, we need to talk more openly about this issue as it is so widespread and so hidden from wider society. It was important to get the view from someone who has lived and breathed this existence, it's important to get more women in this position to stand up and reveal the breadth of the problem so that it can be tackled societally as well as legislatively. Misogyny is so entrenched we must begin with recognition and education and explain to people the gravity of tolerating this practice, something that threatens cohesive ambitions at a time when our Mirpuri communities are fighting hostile conditions on all sides on the streets of Great Britain. Let's make this a starting point.

Sun, 2012-05-20 20:38 — Eddy S (not verified)

i think we have to be open and not afraid to state the facts, otherwise that provides gaps for the BNP to exploit.

i lived in a muslim community in the midlands for a long time and also when i was a student at university. non-muslim women are definetly targets for sexual exploitation and very much looked down upon, most guys used to only eat halal meat, goto pray and then come out with lines like my only weakness is women which were non-muslims. there were debates at university on how you should get the non-muslim to fall in love you and then take advantage of and that this was OK as it was a duty of muslim men to convert or produce children with non-muslims (gotto most london islam societies hang out with the guys and you'll soon get the picture i kid you not).

Sun, 2012-05-20 17:56 — ak_in_SA (not verified)

What's good for the goose is good for the gander, right? But the gander is out there indulging in all that is not good (by his own definition), in a secretive and illicit manner, taking him farther and farther away from what he (himself) would label good. How can the good goose build a gaggle with a gander who is half-the-fowl HE knows he should be?

Sun, 2012-05-20 17:52 — ak_in_SA (not verified)

Sun, 2012-05-20 15:04 — Sman (not verified)

This piece analyses the problem from a feminist perspective.

I would only point out that culture is not the only relevant factor here. The people who show a lack of respect for women are by and large from a working class background and uneducated - this is the case in the UK as well as rural parts of Pakistan. The educated, middle-class Pakistanis tend to have a different outlook on life.

In the UK, people of Pakistani origin live in some of the most deprived towns in the country; many are uneducated and live below the poverty line. These sex-grooming incidents tend to take place in working class towns where there is high crime, alcoholism and drug abuse - people of Pakistani origin are over-represented in such towns.

Sara is correct to highlight the problem of misogyny in the Pakistani/Kashmiri community. The question is what is the cause of this misogyny? Is culture the only or main factor, or is it a complex inter-play of numerous different social factors? The solution would have to include trying to improve the financial stability and increase the educational attainment of people of Pakistani origin.

Sun, 2012-05-20 15:38 — SaraKhan (not verified)

Hi, I'm not sure what you mean when you say the article is being analysed from a feminist perspective. I analysed it from a justice and a human rights angle first and foremost and secondly from my own experiences having lived in a northern town.

As written in the article, I don't believe misogyny is the only factor that leads to sexual exploitation - there are multiple factors - such as criminality, perversion etc and they will also sometimes include as you mentioned lack of education - but not always. Rather than labelling all Pakistanis or indeed Pakistani culture in general, I talked about those traditional communities which are predominately based in the North which have demonstrated that they can be misogynistic. Increasing educational attainment is important as is greater education about women's rights. But we must also create a zero tolerance attitude to such practices which treat women like second class citizens.

Sun, 2012-05-20 16:15 — SMAN (not verified)

Agree.

I think it is a not a coincidence that misogyny is more prevalent in Pakistani/Kashmiri communities in the north of England and in rural parts of Pakistan. In the major cities of Pakistan there is more respect for women (still nowhere near enough) and in south England where the Pakistani community is better educated and live in middle class suburbs there is also greater respect for women.

Some of it is due to the conservative culture, but the environment in which misogyny thrives is perhaps the main cause - poverty, ignorance and crime would need to be addressed if there is any hope of improving the position of women in Pakistani/Kashmir communities.

The Pakistani/Kashmiri community in the UK is not as homogeneous as is often suggested. There is huge diversity according to generation (first or second generation immigrants), class (working or middle class), education (illiterate or doctorate) and location (deprived inner cities or middle class suburbs). These factors have a major impact upon the attitudes towards women in those communities.

Sun, 2012-05-20 21:30 — SaraKhan (not verified)

Misogyny in Pakistani communities isn't confined to the North - can and does occur in the Midlands as well as in Southern cities like Luton and Slough. It's interesting because even in Mirpur and other Kashmiri cities, people have progressed yet here in the UK, some are more anti women's rights than in Mirpur itself.

I agree these communities are not homogeneous. It is difficult to pinpoint what factors lead to misogyny but it is not always based on class or education. I know working class families who did everything to ensure their daughters had an education and a career. But thanks for the interesting comments.

Sun, 2012-05-20 13:43 — kalsoom bashir (not verified)

Refreshing piece that touches upon the painful realities for some amongst the Muslim community that have been denied for so long. These young men have an arrogance and sense of cultural superiority that is drummed into them from birth from within families and the community. There is a total lack of empathy for both their wives and white women. The community is complicit in its silence and preaching of a philosophy that has entrenched communities in parallel lives and a mentality that being muslim gives them the right to live with total disrespect for British law and British women -which is what both their wives and the women they abuse are.

Sun, 2012-05-20 13:43 — kalsoom bashir (not verified)

Sun, 2012-05-20 12:40 — rain (not verified)

"Practical efforts that promote integration and social mobility" We could start by dumping the divisiveness of multiculturalism and stop pretending all cultures have equal worth, then they clearly do not? The enforced invisibility and subservience of may women inside many Muslim communities can be challenged, and needs to be. Misogyny does still exists within all communities and societies. But Anglo-saxon societies and attitudes are light years remove form many Muslim communities in regard to women and their fundamental right to equality.