Outside of tight-knit South Asian Muslim communities in the UK, relatively little is known about the experiences of the South Asian Muslim woman, especially where she was born in the subcontinent. To this end, Quilliam’s latest report – ‘Immigrant, Muslim, Female: Triple Paralysis?’ – contains a poll of more than 600 unemployed South Asian Muslim female immigrants. It has succeeded in undermining assumptions about them as both unable and unwilling to work, which feeds far-right (BNP) rhetoric about ‘lazy immigrants’ who are usurping our resources and ‘oppressed’ Muslim women who are not allowed to leave the house. Our survey reveals that the majority − 57% − of women polled want to work and that 70% said it was their choice not to work.
Not one single respondent stated that their religion was the reason they didn’t work and only 2% said working would be against their izzat (honour). However, almost half – 49% – of respondents said they couldn’t work because of their domestic responsibilities. Whilst these women don’t feel that it is un-Islamic or dishonourable to work, they may well be burdened with cultural expectations and social pressures which confer the role of primary carer upon them. This is evidenced in the most frequent response to what they needed to get them into work: 1 in 4 felt they needed more support from their family. So the concept of a working mother is not necessarily antithetical to South Asian Muslim ‘culture’ as such; culturally-sensitive engagement with families as a whole are the key to (re-)negotiating the woman’s role in family life.
The concern is that the government, and its service providers on the ground, consider these women a ‘lost cause’, or at best, not a priority – 65% of respondents stated practical support would help them get into work, articulated primarily as a demand for more English language support and help with childcare. These are services that fall within the government’s remit to provide. But are these women even on the government’s radar? They have the highest rates of economic inactivity in the country yet a majority want to work – so it is less a lack of interest in finding work, rather a case of feeling, and being, ill-equipped for work.
And this is an ongoing problem. Large numbers of women – and also men – from the subcontinent continue to migrate into the UK through marriage and many will have similar (English language and other) learning needs. Yet the government has cut funding for English language support for beginners, affecting those most in need; those who are likely to calculate that they are ‘better off on benefits’ because they are only able to do low paid and relatively unskilled work and may be unaware of the availability of childcare in their area. English is not only essential for improving their employment prospects, but these women are invaluable pivots in the machinery of bridge-building and generating ‘cohesive communities’. They should be leading the way for their children, peers and the wider community – but how can they if they cannot communicate with their children’s teachers, read local press or interact with other members of the community?
Whilst these women are among the poorest in the UK – 43% of respondents stated that they wanted to work in order to have more money/ financially support their family – it is not just about improving their economic circumstances. Given the skills and resources to work, these women’s confidence will grow, as will their leverage to push back against restrictive, religiously-informed cultural barriers, where they do exist. Given a voice in the ‘British Islam’ debate, their narratives can counter those expounded by Islamists as well as conservative members of their communities. It is in the interests of the government, but also the communities themselves, to enable the next generation to grow up resilient to separatist attitudes peddled by extremists. These women are an essential part of this process.