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| Cameron has alienated the very people he must ally with: Muslim women | Cameron has alienated the very people he must ally with: Muslim women |
| (7 months later) | |
| You’d think, from the way politicians tend to frame the issue, that there were legions of misguided voters passionately intent on protecting the right of controlling men to isolate their wives from all influence but theirs. David Cameron, in 2016, sounds no different to David Blunkett in 2002, when he insists that immigrant women must be empowered to learn English, or else. Except that they don’t say “migrant women”. They say “Muslim women” when speaking of the “alarming picture of forced gender segregation, discrimination and social isolation”. Misogyny, it seems, is only a problem when it’s Islamic misogyny. | You’d think, from the way politicians tend to frame the issue, that there were legions of misguided voters passionately intent on protecting the right of controlling men to isolate their wives from all influence but theirs. David Cameron, in 2016, sounds no different to David Blunkett in 2002, when he insists that immigrant women must be empowered to learn English, or else. Except that they don’t say “migrant women”. They say “Muslim women” when speaking of the “alarming picture of forced gender segregation, discrimination and social isolation”. Misogyny, it seems, is only a problem when it’s Islamic misogyny. |
| Just to be clear, it is not controversial to declare that Islamic misogyny is a particular and large problem. Islam is a highly patriarchal belief system. Muslim feminists argue that their religion does not have to be practised in a way that oppresses women. But the fact is that Islam is used again and again, by nations, cultures and individuals, to justify the negation of the rights and freedoms of women. This is not unsayable, and authorities from Cologne to Rochdale who believe that such assertions should not be encouraged or confronted are part of the problem. | Just to be clear, it is not controversial to declare that Islamic misogyny is a particular and large problem. Islam is a highly patriarchal belief system. Muslim feminists argue that their religion does not have to be practised in a way that oppresses women. But the fact is that Islam is used again and again, by nations, cultures and individuals, to justify the negation of the rights and freedoms of women. This is not unsayable, and authorities from Cologne to Rochdale who believe that such assertions should not be encouraged or confronted are part of the problem. |
| Yet, 15 years apart, both Cameron and Blunkett chose to give the impression that they were saying the unsayable. Their problem is not, of course, what they are saying but the way that they say it. They claim to be trying to help individual women when what they are actually doing is placing individual women at the centre of vast geopolitical problems. | Yet, 15 years apart, both Cameron and Blunkett chose to give the impression that they were saying the unsayable. Their problem is not, of course, what they are saying but the way that they say it. They claim to be trying to help individual women when what they are actually doing is placing individual women at the centre of vast geopolitical problems. |
| What’s more, the people this type of rhetoric alienates most are the Muslim women who understand what is being said. Who are the people in the best position to provide solutions to this problem? Other Muslim women. What is the point of highlighting a problem in a way that upsets the people who are your best allies? What’s more, Cameron’s rhetoric doesn’t just upset Muslim women. It’s a bit anti-woman in general. It’s annoying, hearing women declared “economically inactive” because they run homes and bring up children. Working at bringing up a family, rather than earning money, is a valid choice, whether you can speak English or not. This too makes it sound like a problem with women rather than a problem with misogyny. | What’s more, the people this type of rhetoric alienates most are the Muslim women who understand what is being said. Who are the people in the best position to provide solutions to this problem? Other Muslim women. What is the point of highlighting a problem in a way that upsets the people who are your best allies? What’s more, Cameron’s rhetoric doesn’t just upset Muslim women. It’s a bit anti-woman in general. It’s annoying, hearing women declared “economically inactive” because they run homes and bring up children. Working at bringing up a family, rather than earning money, is a valid choice, whether you can speak English or not. This too makes it sound like a problem with women rather than a problem with misogyny. |
| Politicians actually make these sorts of declarations quite often. The great fight over migrants and English is one that theoretically, at least, was over long ago. Generally, we’re in favour. We just wish politicians would put their money where their mouths are. When Cameron was interviewed on the BBC’s Today programme this morning, it was quickly pointed out to him that his own government had cut funding for adult education in general and English classes in particular. Cameron has changed his mind, and now has found £20m to spend on this programme. According to him, there are 190,000 Muslim women in Britain who speak little or no English. So that’s roughly £100 per woman. | Politicians actually make these sorts of declarations quite often. The great fight over migrants and English is one that theoretically, at least, was over long ago. Generally, we’re in favour. We just wish politicians would put their money where their mouths are. When Cameron was interviewed on the BBC’s Today programme this morning, it was quickly pointed out to him that his own government had cut funding for adult education in general and English classes in particular. Cameron has changed his mind, and now has found £20m to spend on this programme. According to him, there are 190,000 Muslim women in Britain who speak little or no English. So that’s roughly £100 per woman. |
| Talk is cheap. Education, of course, is considerably more expensive. | Talk is cheap. Education, of course, is considerably more expensive. |