‘Assalam u Alaikum. Brother I have a Right to My Opinion on This’: British Islamic Women Assert Their Positions in Virtual Space

Abstract

This chapter explores linguistic practices of second- and third-generation young Muslim women in a specific context: an Islamic on-line community based in Britain. This particular chapter is part of a larger ongoing study of British Islamic women’s identities in multiple spheres such as Islamic study circles, Islamic Magazines, Public Speech and Television Documentaries. This study examines particular linguistic practices of Muslim women who participate in discussion threads along with Muslim young men. The study will demonstrate that these young women argue and debate with other on-line participants, contest main-stream notions and depictions of Islam, and display their knowledge during on-line discussions. In doing so the study aims to contribute to the theoretical discussions on language and gender, where gendered identities are conceptualized in ways that do not always set women apart from men. Furthermore, the study shows that even women who express themselves in Islamic ways can have varied identities such that they can be religiously inclined and assertive in the same instance. Additionally this chapter focuses on commonsense understandings of Muslim women as passive, subordinate and having limited access to knowledge.