Veiled Threat: On being a visibly Muslim woman by Nadeine Asbali
Nadeine Asbali would be the first to say that a scarf on a woman's head doesn't define her, but in her case, that's a lie. For Nadeine, her life changed overnight. As a mixed-race teenager, she had unknowingly been passing as white her entire life. Until she decided to wear the hijab. Then, in an instant, she went from being an unassuming white(ish) child to something sinister and threatening, perverse and foreign. Written in a sharp and illuminating voice, Veiled Threat is a necessary exploration of what it is to be a visibly Muslim woman in Britain today; a nation intent on forced assimilation and integration that views covered bodies as primitive and dangerous. From being constantly bombarded by racist stereotypes to being subjected to structural inequalities at every level, Nadeine asks why Muslim women are forced to grapple the twin oppressions of state-sanctioned islamophobia and patriarchal norms within their own community, all while being told by white feminists that they need saving. Full of passionate and personal argument, Veiled Threat is an indictment on a divided Britain that dominates and systematically others Muslim women at every level.