The All Parliamentary Group on British Muslims hosted a program Wednesday, March 6, in support of International Women’s Day at the Palace of Westminster.

The APPGs objectives are to help improve the condition of British Muslims from a policy perspective addressing the challenges faced, celebrating the contributions of, and investigating prejudice towards, Muslims in the UK.

The event was hosted by Wes Streeting MP, co-chair of APPG and included a number of other supporting politicians such as Naz Shah MP, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, and Rupa Huq MP.

The program featured Mariam Khan, the editor, and co-author of a book named ‘It’s Not About the Burqa,’ which is comprised of essays submitted by 18 women who identify themselves as British and Muslim, however they interpret these identities.

Opening the program Baroness Warsi began, “Every interview that I have ever done, whether the chairman of the (Conservative) party or at the foreign office, they always ask, what do you think of the burqa.”

“It’s always there. It’s that question you just get sick to death having to answer. And it kind of inspired me to do a radio program called How to be a Muslim woman. It was all about what you (Mariam) are doing here.

“It isn’t about a single or binary narrative about what Muslim women are. All of us who have grown up with a plethora of Muslim women, an aunt who tells dirty jokes, the young people who go out and invite me to shisha bars, the women who wear a burqa and how they feel it empowers them, women who dress in a different way.

“Women thinking in different ways, who eat in different ways, who live in different ways, who have relationships in different ways. The way we are British Muslim woman and Muslim women around the world are as nuanced, as complex, and have as many emotions and feelings, and get as much effed up on issues that really matter to us.

“But actually, this is never ever displayed. And I think what this (book) is about and why it is so powerful is because it is not about you or me or anyone making a judgment, its Muslim women in their own words, talking about the things they want to talk about.”