What it is to be a Muslim in Today's Britain

a talk given at Hove Town Hall 29 June 2005

By Sarah Jung

I am a 21 year old British Muslim and I have lived in Brighton nearly all my life.  As a young Muslim woman living in Britain today I realise that to the outside world I am very much defined a headscarf.

People see a woman in hijab and they make assumptions. I am often asked if I am Arab and people sometimes doubt my grasp of language (one of my final year essays was 4000 words on teaching English as a foreign language so in fairness I think I'm quite eloquent)

During my degree I've been working as a sales assistant and I noticed that people are a little reluctant when they approach me...their slow iterated words reflecting their uncertainty as to whether I will understand them...I always find it funny how incredibly surprised people look when they realise that not only can I speak English, but that like them, I'm quite opinionated and can think for myself.

More seriously, a headscarf is seen by many as a symbol of a foreign 'other'...which is not the case. I am no less British than anyone else. I love our grey weather I am as integrated as is possible without compromising my beliefs.

My friends and I often joke that people think that a hijab somehow impedes my ability to have an independent opinion...or do my own thing...Taxi drivers seem vaguely surprised when on asking what I do and I mention I'm at university (they seem more surprised when it turns out I'm not doing medicine!) but I am by no means an unusual case. Universities are full of young Muslims, particularly in the south of England .

Shortly after the occupation of Iraq begun I was stopped in the street and asked my views. I was with 6 other people at the time, two of them Asian but I was the only one asked. I looked as grungy as the rest of my friends, my jeans were just as battered and my trainers just as scuffed but I was the only one asked and I was the only one in the headscarf.

People expect me to have views on the occupation of Iraq , the war in Afghanistan and the crisis in the Middle East . And of course I do but I also have views on the cruelty of animal testing and the exploitation of child workers in India . I'm greeted by a look of bafflement if I argue about the injustice of the Chinese occupation of Tibet or the brutality of the fur trade.

When I started my degree my film tutors made a point of telling me that I was the first Muslim to take up the course...and they thought that was wonderful. Society benefits vastly from doctors, teachers, engineers, lawyers but I personally think it's really important for Muslims, esp. my generation to be present in all aspects of society...for many people, we are the only Muslims they ever know and it is imperative that we leave a positive impression wherever we go. I AM the only Muslim many of my colleagues have ever come across and I hope that I have dispelled any misconstrued attitudes they may have picked up from newspapers. I am not an illiterate foreigner, I am not a rude or lazy asylum seeker, and I am certainly not a terrorist who chants 'death to the west'.

I'm hoping that my degree will lead to a role in the media. As Muslims we complain a lot about media portrayal of us and to an extent and we have a right to do so, but if we don't take jobs in the media this will never change...no one's going to change it on ur behalf. It's up to us.

I do feel that if anything has ever held me back it is not my religion...but other people's perceptions of me. People wrongly perceive My whole persona on the basis of an item of clothing, and decide that I must be forced to do this, that, the other. I have to fight to show that I am not subjugated. I am not oppressed and I am not just a girl in a headscarf. I am my own person with my own identity and I am very much part of this society.