IOUCRIS 104 2023

Mohammed Mizanur Rahman

Hijab &
Sexualisation
in UK schools
Following policy changes by Chief
School Inspector, Amanda Spielman.
 Amanda Spielman 2017
Chief Schools Inspector, Head of Ofsted, UK

“…creating an environment where

primary school children are expected
to wear the Hijab could be
interpreted as sexualisation of young
girls…”

» School Inspector policy

» Interrogation of hijabi schoolgirls
Reaction to Policy in UK
» “unlawful discrimination” as “it applies only to
Muslim pupils,” (Islamic Human Rights Commission,
2017)
» “Normalised hate speech and hate crime” (National
Education Union, 2018, p. 2)
» Increase in hate crimes targeting Muslim girls
demonising the Hijab (Stand Up To Racism, 2018)
» Calls for Spielman to resign
Supported by feminists: “Ofsted is protecting the liberties
of those girls”
Some Muslims supported: “when a girl child is covered
up, she is being sexualised in exactly the same way as a
girl child in a padded bikini top or belly-dancing outfit”
(Alibhai-Brown, 2017)
Backed by UK government
Spielman remains in her role today, in
2023.
 Background Timeline

» 2010: Counter-terrorism policy: ‘Prevent’ introduced

monitoring children susceptible to ‘radicalisation.’
» Young Muslim girls routinely referred to Prevent, citing
Hijab as evidence.
» 2014: ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal
» Birmingham schools leadership ‘infiltrated’ by ‘extremist
Muslims’ to ‘Islamize’ schools
» Crackdown on Muslim habits, attitudes, and values in
schools across the nation
» Muslim children faced state interrogation about their
views on homosexuality, evolution, headscarves, and
their religion.
» 2015: 15-year-old Shamima Begum & schoolfriends flee
to Syria
» 2017: Spielman policy on hijab inspection
 Amanda Spielman Controversy

» Denies Islamophobia
» Acknowledges success of Islamic faith schools
» Supported Hijab ban in primary school as “right
decision”
» Labels Muslim protests against primary school sex
Insert or Drag & Drop your photo
education as not ‘progressive’
» Opposes “sense of religious / cultural entitlement”
» Criticized separation of boys and girls in Islamic faith
schools as extreme case religious identity limiting
individual liberties
Research
Questions
Research Questions

Q1: What were the intended aims, according to Islamic Q4: Are young girls in the 21st Century sexualised by
scriptures, of wearing the ‘Hijab’? their clothing, and how?

Q2: Were there any classical Islamic interpretations of Q5: Have young Muslim girls been, or are they more or
the Hijab that involved sexualisation of young, or older, less likely to be, sexualised in the UK?
girls?

Q6: Where else, besides the above, might Amanda

Q3: Are there any contemporary Muslim Spielman have obtained the notion that the Hijab
interpretations of the Hijab that entail sexualisation? sexualises young girls?
 Methodology

Primary Data
» Survey Interviews of Hijab-wearing women in UK
» Views and experiences of sexualisation
» General experiences of Hijab, positive & negative.

Secondary sources
» Interviews and speeches by Amanda Spielman
» Review of Qur’an and Sunnah on hijab & sexualisation
» Review of historical origins of orientalist sexualization
of the hijab
» Global and local data on sexualisation
Results: Giving hijab-wearing women a voice

84.7% all respondents were female

150 respondents globally (127 women)

100% UK respondents were female

32 UK respondents (29 hijab-wearing)

91% UK respondents wore hijab

9
Results: Giving hijab-wearing women a voice

10
 Results: Trends in UK Hijab Experience

Negative experience: 44% 94%

Positive Experience:
Common Themes Common Keywords
» 44% UK respondents mentioned negative » “Good”
experiences (29% globally) » “Respect”

» “Safety”
71%
» “Protection”
» 71% of these negative experiences
» “Empowerment”
mentioned Islamophobia (78% globally)
Matches 84% of global interviews

11
Results: Sexual Harassment Trends

86%

44% of UK respondents Described reduction

mentioned experiences of In harassment when
sexual harassment wearing hijab
(20% of global respondents)
12
Hijab in Islamic
Scripture
In the context of sexualisation
Hijab in Islamic Scripture – Does Hijab sexualize children?

» Children are asexual [24:31, 24:58] Male responsibility for gaze [24:30]

» Hijab in asexual contexts: prayer, Tawaf, mothers of

Discourages even accidental glance
believers [33:53, 7:31]
[Muslim]
» Aim of Hijab is to combat sexual harassment [33:59]

» Prohibition of exploiting women for sex [4:19, Condemnation of misogynistic men “with diseases in
their hearts” [33:60]
24:33]

» Emphasis on marriage and consent [Bukhari 6968] Protected female spaces [Bukhari &
Muslim]
Employment for skills not sexuality [Abu Dawud 3426]
Sexualisation of
Girls
in the 21 Century
st
Sexualization of Girls in UK Schools - (Department for Education, 2021)

Schoolgirls
described
awareness 92% Sexist name-calling 79% Sexual assault
of frequent:

81% Sexual rumours 64% Unwanted touching

Unwanted Sexual Pressure to perform

80% 68%
Comments sexual acts

16
Causes of Sexualization - APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls

Media Clothing:
» 70% TV content has sexual content
Massive sexualising factor
» 24 sexualising incidents per programme
Children’s dolls in “miniskirts, fishnet stockings”, and
» Movies thongs marketed to 7 year-olds

» Music videos & lyrics (Zurbriggen, et al., 2007)

» Pornography – 90% teenage boys exposed to 30% of preteen girls’ clothes on sale were sexualised

» 93% of pornography portrays violence towards Emphasizing “a sexualized body part.”

(Lamb & Koven, 2019, p. 4)
women
Wearing shorts and crop tops, exposing flesh
(Ringrose, et al., 2019, pp. 20-21)
Conception Age Data: UK - (Heap, et al., 2020)

Under-18 Conception rate

Causes of reduction per 1000
30
» Increase in abortions 25
20
15
» Increase in South Asian and Black teenagers in cities 10
5
0
» “ethnicity may act as a proxy for religion;” 1998 2008 2017

» 91% of Pakistanis, 90% of Bangladeshis, 14% of Indian are Muslim South Asian Teens in
London
» “teenage Muslim or Hindu women are less likely to have had 24%
22%
intercourse by age 18 than their Christian or non-religious 20%
18%
counterparts” 16%
14%
12%
10%
1998 2017
 » Islamic scripture targets reduction in sexualization

» Sexualization of girls is high in UK schools

» Caused by prevailing media and pornography

» Caused by revealing and suggestive clothing

» Hijab-wearers have a positive experience

Conclusion
» Suffer decreased sexualization

» And increased Islamophobia

Hijab is not the problem, but part of the » Spielman has an orientalist / Islamophobic bias
solution to sexualisation in UK schools
IOUCRIS 104 2023
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman

Thank You
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman
International Open University