At the Intersection: Muslim Women in the UK Labour Party

• In Event: Poster Session: Gender and Comparative and International Politics & International Relations Theory
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Gender and Comparative and International Politics

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of party membership using the theoretical framework of intersectionality when discussing the experience of Muslim women in the Labour Party. Centring these women’s voices through the use of feminist research methods, this paper discusses not just whether these women face sexist discrimination from their male counterparts in the Labour Party but discusses how this discrimination manifests and the effect this can have on their political careers and aspirations. It finds that Muslim women face discrimination in the Labour Party because they are excluded from biraderi kinship networks that the Labour Party has historically relied on for its candidate recruitment and electioneering in areas with large Muslim communities. Further, these women do not have an organisation that speaks for them within party structures, and they do not trust the party’s complaints system.

In addition to this situation harming Muslim women, it also weakens the Labour Party electorally as it is over-reliant on biraderi networks at the expense of building meaningful relationships with the wider electorate in constituencies that it has long held.

Looking towards the future, this paper makes recommendations to the Labour Party on how it can best rebuild its relationship with its Muslim women members in order to foster a more diverse political party at the local and national level, and to continue its electoral relationship with British Muslims.

Author

• Farah Hussain, Queen Mary, University of London