Issue 16
London’s Muslim Girl Power
By Naomi Colvin
Photo by: David Gannon
If you want to see where London’s future lies, look to its Muslim demographic. Today, about 40% of Britain’s Muslim population resides in London, where they make up just below 10% of the residents. And half of the city’s Muslim population is under 24—the youngest age profile in the capital. According to the BBC, over half of all British Muslims were born in the U.K., making this subgroup an increasingly intrinsic part of British society. “We’re the second generation, we’ve grown up here like the kids around us and we haven’t faced the strains most of our elders felt such as not understanding English,” says Warsan Nur, a 19-year-old anthropology student at the University of London, and aspiring journalist. “Racism isn’t so common because people are growing to accept us, so the possibilities for this Muslim generation are endless.”
Even so, young Muslim women, perhaps more than any other population in London, have had to think hard about who they are, and what image they want to project to the rest of the community. They are too often seen as a helplessly passive group that needs help “integrating” into mainstream Western society. In 2006, former Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw revealed that he routinely asks his female Muslim constituents to unveil themselves when they meet with him, and Tony Blair called the veil a “mark of separation” that “makes other people from outside the community feel uncomfortable.” Even seemingly positive images of Muslim women, such as the Bangladeshi protagonist of Monica Ali’s much-heralded debut novel, Brick Lane, render this population literally speechless in an Anglophone society, segregated in one of the most diverse cities on earth.
Photo by: (left) Dario Taraborelli; (top right) Dario Taraborelli; (bottom right) “Cardio” by Dario Taraborelli
But the reality suggests something altogether different. Recent research commissioned by the British Home Office shows that Muslims are the most active members of the population, in terms of volunteering and setting up community organizations. “A massive shift developed after 9/11,” explains Nur. “There’s a change in the community. It’s becoming really multicultural and people are leaving the tradition of ‘sticking to your own,’ which is a really positive move in the right direction.”
Photo by: (left to right) Jorn Tomter; “Pure Purple” by Dario Taraborelli; Jorn Tomter
Experts estimate that 20,000 British citizens have converted to Islam in the last decade. Kalisha Hyatt, 16, was born into an Afro-Caribbean family and made the decision to become Muslim while still in primary school. “I was about 10 or 11 years old, and during the month of Ramadan I could feel the atmosphere—such a strong link between people of different races, purely because of religion,” says Hyatt. “There are definitely people out there who are picking up on Islam just because it’s fashionable. There are a lot of people generally interested in Islam now.”