If Theresa May is serious about “global Britain”, a post-Brexit political and social climate should moderate its obsession with how a minority of Muslim women dress and instead embrace the ethical and economic opportunities presented by the global sharia culture.

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The writers cover a panoply of subjects, including immigration, mental health, terrorism, divorce and feminism, as well as veils. In one fascinating essay, Sufiya Ahmed, whose mother divorced shortly after she was born, finds insight in the sixth-century life of Khadija bint Khuwaylid, a successful 40-year-old merchant who married the 25-year-old prophet Muhammad: “It was the disparity between the life of Khadija and the lives of some modern British Muslim women, still repressed under cultural rules in the 21st century, that inspired me to become a women’s rights activist.” Also writing about sexuality and Muslim women, Afshan D’Souza Lodhi explores queer spaces as a hijabi woman of colour. Navigating these spaces, especially when wearing that all-defining piece of fabric, has interesting consequences. Another striking piece of writing comes from the journalist Saima Mir in a bracing essay on marriage and independence. At 25, Mir had been married and divorced twice. Her first husband, a Muslim doctor in Mississippi, was 11 years her senior; the couple had met only once before their wedding. Mir was 23 when she married her second husband, also a Muslim. The relationship took the form of a bond of servitude. “A few months in and I was cooking all the meals and cleaning the house, waiting on everyone hand and foot.” Taking one of the most politicized and misused words associated with Muslim women and Islamophobia, It’s Not About the Burqa is poised to change all that. Here are voices you won’t see represented in the national news headlines: seventeen Muslim women speaking frankly about the hijab and wavering faith, about love and divorce, about feminism, queer identity, sex, and the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country. Funny, warm, sometimes sad, and often angry, each of these essays is a passionate declaration, and each essay is calling time on the oppression, the lazy stereotyping, the misogyny and the Islamophobia.I loved this essay, and now, reviewing this, I’ve realised just how much Nafisa Bakkar’s essay continues to resonate with me and will continue to do so. The Clothes of My Faith by Afia Ahmed In her essay, Nafisa Bakkar remembers an obsession of finding someone who looks like yourself in an unusual position. Bakkar recounts the time she discovered the CEO of PepsiCo was a woman of Indian heritage. Bakkar looked for every titbit of information that could reinforce the idea that women like her could be successful. Reading this collection, I found many women like me, all of whom have found success in some way.

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This is a vital book for non-Muslims and those seeking to understand Muslim feminism in the West. It will also add to an already rigorous body of writing about veiling. More insightful analysis can be found in Pious Fashion: How Muslim Women Dress by Elizabeth Bucar. Readers should also turn to Leila Ahmed’s bold Women and Gender in Islam, published in 1992. It’s Not About the Burqa is a timely collection of essays by Muslim women in the U.K. — poets, writers, journalists, lawyers, engineers, researchers – on a panoply of subjects ranging from clothing and sex to marriage, divorce, discrimination, immigration, mental health and representation. Contributors: Mona Eltahawy, Coco Khan, Sufiya Ahmed, Nafisa Bakkar, Afia Ahmed, Yassmin Midhat Abdel-Magied, Jamilla Hekmoun, Mariam Khan, Afshan D’souza-Lodhi, Salma Haidrani, Amna Saleem, Saima Mir, Salma El-Wardany, Aina Khan OBE, Raifa Rafiq, Malia Bouattia, Nadine Aisha Jassat MY REVIEWA lot of people want to listen and a lot of people don’t want to listen. It’s by default become my job to point out privilege and challenge how and by who by Muslim women are represented in society. I’m here to challenge people – if you feel challenged by the book and by me then good because I’ve been uncomfortable with Islamophobia and racism and sexism for a long time. We can’t make those with power share their power but it’s about time those with privilege were challenged and made uncomfortable too.’