Europe's Muslim Women: under cover and under pressure?

British Council debate organised in partnership with the European Policy Centre and the European Muslim Network.

Tuesday, 16th March 2010, Brussels, Hotel Stanhope

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Queues quickly began forming in the courtyard of Brussels’ Stanhope Hotel as guests waited to attend the second Our Shared Europe debate in the self-proclaimed capital of Europe. The time was already 10:15, so British Council, European Policy Centre and European Muslim Network colleagues at the registration desk threw their hands in the air and told the remaining participants to forget signing in and grab as seat in the room already filled with 200 guests.

Martin Hope, British Council Director Brussels/Netherlands welcomed the speakers and gave some background to the Our Shared Europe project.

He then handed over to Shada Islam of the European Policy Centre who as moderator took her seat between the panellists: to her right, Malika Hamidi, Director General of the European Muslim Network, and Wassyla Tamzali, Author and former Director of Women’s Rights at UNESCO; and, to her left, Parvin Ali, CEO and founder of the FATIMA women’s network and Sajjad Karim, MEP.

The packed room, which included journalists from the New York Times/International Herald Tribune, La Libre Belgique, Feature Story News, Pakistani television network GEO TV and others, listened as each of the panellist gave a 5 minute reaction to questions posed by Shada on the pressures that Muslim women face from within their own communities and from society in general, the complex economic, social and cultural challenges facing women as they struggle to become active citizens in Europe and whether Muslim women in today’s Europe can truly be considered to have equal rights and opportunities. This was followed by an animated question and answer session.

The first issue raised was how Islam is practised in Europe, and Malika Hamidi said there was a new generation of Muslim intellectuals, reinterpreting the religious scriptures to reach a “form of Muslim feminism”. Sajjad Karim, insisted that in each continent – in Africa, the Middle East, Europe or Asia, “Islam is practised according to cultural conditions, so there should be a European form of Islam”.

Although the aim was to look beyond the issue of the veil/hijab/niqab/burqa it inevitably cropped up again and again throughout the morning’s discussions. Most of the speakers agreed that wearing the niqab was a cultural not a religious symbol. As Malika Hamidi, said, “this is not related to Islam, as many Muslim veiled women denounce this”. Wassyla Tamzali, former Director Women’s Rights at UNESCO, agreed saying “you should be able to dress as you want – it is a European freedom. I oppose the niqab/burqa as it is a symbol of oppression of women, and sexual segregation”. Sajjad Karim, came out strongly against, saying “As a Muslim I feel that it is against fundamental European norms for Muslim Women to choose to wear it”.

The third main issue of the day was how to encourage more Muslim European women to enter the field of employment. Parvin Ali said “some Muslim women do not want to follow the Western model of women working, as they feel their primary duty is to their children. We need a new paradigm for the workplace”. Malika Hamidi, said the veil should not prevent women working as “there must be laws to accept women with different religious symbols”.

The integration of European Muslims is the subject of intense debate across the European Union, and within Europe’s Muslim Communities, and these discussions are particularly intense when addressing the issue of Europe’s Muslim Women. This second Brussels Our Shared Europe debate was no different; however, there were some conclusions to be drawn as the speakers expressed possible ways of moving forward.

Parvin Ali insisted that to change the situation, young Muslims in Europe need “political and economic employment, not just social and cultural equality”. Wassyla Tamzali insisted that the debate must “not be highjacked by issues of racism or discrimination”, judging Muslim women in a “neo-colonial way”. Looking at the growth of far-right parties, Sajjad Karim, said it had been a mistake in the UK to ignore the far-right British National Party, when it had fielded candidates for the European elections, as challenging them would have enabled the electorate to see the weakness of their arguments.

Watch a 3 minutes video from our Brussels debate Europe and Islam: Whose Identity Crisis? in November 2009, or a 24 minutes version (580 Mb).