Muslim Women and Misogyny: Myths and Misunderstandings w/ Samia Rahman & Leyla Jagiella

Join us at the Common Press to welcome Samia Rahman and Leyla Jagiella for an in-conversation event to celebrate the release of Samia’s new book, Muslim Women and Misogyny: Myths and Misunderstandings.

Muslim women are among the most fetishised and objectified groups in society today. Much is assumed and imagined about their lives, and it is all too easy to succumb to orientalist myths. For too long, Muslim women have been reduced to two-dimensional stereotypes: empowered heroines rejecting patriarchal religious teachings, or victims of a misogyny believed to run deep within Islam. But why is this neatly packaged view so pervasive? Are oppression and subjugation actually so central to Muslim women’s lives? How is this misogyny influenced by white supremacy and Islamophobia? And where do the biggest threats to Muslim women’s freedom and safety really come from?

In this bold new book, Samia Rahman explores the relationships between misogyny and Muslim women’s experiences in Britain today, untangling complex issues such as Muslim feminism, representation, toxic masculinity, marriage and sexuality. Based on extensive interviews with both women and men from Muslim communities, she offers a powerful, much-needed response to the misappropriation of female voices, revealing the many faces of Muslim womanhood within the UK.

About the speakers

Samia Rahman is a writer, scholar and journalist, whose research focuses on Muslim women, patriarchy and structures of power. The former director of the Muslim Institute and former deputy editor of the quarterly Critical Muslim, she is studying for a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Leyla Jagiella is a cultural anthropologist and scholar of religion, working on orthodoxy and heterodoxy in Islam and gender and sexuality in Muslim societies. As a Muslim trans woman, she has also been a community activist for several decades and works as a social worker with LGBTQI refugees in Germany.