Convert to Islam: British women - part 2

Around 5,000 British people convert to Islam every year – and most of them are women. 
Six of them talk about prejudice, peace and praying in car parks.

Anita Nayyar, social psychologist and gender equalities activist, 31, London

 

  

Anita Nayyar:

'One of the biggest challenges I face is the prohibition of women from the mosque.'

 

 

As an Anglo-Indian with Hindu grandparents who lived through the partition of India and Pakistan, and saw family shot by a Muslim gang, I was brought up with a fairly dim view of what it was to be Muslim.

I was a very religious Christian, involved in the church, and wanted to become a vicar.
At 16, I opted for a secular college, which is where I made friends with Muslims.

I was shocked by how normal they were, and how much I liked them.
I started debates, initially to let them know what a terrible religion they followed, and I started to learn that it wasn't too different from Christianity.
 In fact, it seemed to make more sense.
It took a year and a half before I got to the point of conversion, and I became a Muslim in 2000, aged 18.

My mother was disappointed and my father quietly accepting.
Other members of my family felt betrayed.

I used to wear a scarf, which can mean many things.
It can be a signifier of one's faith, which is helpful when you don't wish to be chatted up or invited to drink.
It can attract negative attention from people who stereotype "visibly" Muslim women as oppressed or terrorist.
It can also get positive reactions from the Muslim community.

But people expect certain behaviour from a woman in a headscarf, and I started to wonder whether I was doing it for God or to fulfil the role of "the pious woman".

In the end, not wearing the scarf has helped make my faith invisible again and allowed me to revisit my personal relationship with God.

One of the biggest challenges I face is the prohibition of women from the mosque.
It's sad to go somewhere, ready to connect with a higher being, only to be asked to leave because women are not allowed.

In the past, I have prayed in car parks, my office corridor and in a fried chicken shop.
The irony is that while my workplace would feel it discriminatory to stop me praying, some mosques do not.