Welsh women in the Muslim community
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Gilliat-Ray and Mellor write about the life of Muslims from all over the world in Wales. One of their analysis focuses on the life of Muslim women in these Welsh communities. Welsh women of lower classes married Muslim seamen. They were clients of the boarding houses and cafés of this group of Muslim men. Often, by marrying them, Welsh women were estranged from their families, depending on their social class. Because their husbands were working at sea and were not with them for a long time, they had more autonomy. They had more independence and more responsibilities; for example, they took care of household management. Husbands left their wives in control of the house, preventing them from disrupting the household every time they returned. This situation implied that women were responsible for the religious upbringing of their children. Their behaviour was scrutinized by neighbours who policed their relationship with other men and ensured the community’s boundaries and norms were respected. Welsh women marrying Muslim men had the vital role of being interlocutors between their husbands and the white Welsh community. They were at the center of the Muslim community, holding it together in an atmosphere of trust, sociability, and mutual assistance.
When we learn about key women in history at school (if we learn about them), it is always about the white privileged women, for example, the queens of empires. It is important to learn about all women. In every community, there are always exceptional women who are forgotten by history. I wish we could learn more about people like Olive Salaman. We should be able to put at the forefront of history individuals who are not the archetype: straight cis, white, privileged people. -
Like @alice_maitlis' post, @anna_katabi's is a very interesting look at the gendered and classed status of Welsh women married to lascars.