Muslim have been on the rise in Ireland. They started to come to Ireland in the ’70s as a student and some have stayed and now we have third-generation Muslim irish. But not much is known about the community especially women. According to the Islamic Foundation of Ireland on the south circular road, there are now around 70’000 Muslims.
These women are facing daily struggles, not only when dealing with a new society but also within the same Muslim community. Their fight do not stop in the house or at work but continue when dealing with Muslim labels and role. Many of them think the Irish community that they live in don’t understand their reality and feel the urgency to speak about. They also feel empowered by the struggles they go through daily.
Hanan Amar, a 55 years old from Egypt and living in Ireland for over 30 years, has been at the forefront of Muslim women struggle. In 2013 she decided to create Amal, an organisation that was set up for the struggles of Muslim women. Young and old women come together to help each other and find support.
“We have some of the older generations that are not engaging with the community and the younger lost in between there faith and the community they live In”, said Hanan Amar. “I was going to the mosques for the halaqa - a woman gathering discussing problems - and seen that plenty of ladies were in the same situation as me but the problem was they didn’t have someone supporting them. I talked to a group of ladies and had agreed we need to help each other so they can stand up again Amal means hope. The hope that they can start there life again, she added.
Hannan, a single mother, has been rising 3 children alone since her husband left in 2011. She has been dealing with the uncertainty of finding a job and the will of doing something for her community. It was after her BA degree as a social worker, that she knew what was needed for the community.
According to Amal the biggest issue with some older Muslim women is that they stay at home and don’t engage with the community and they get lost maybe its the language barrier or the culture that had put them in this position. “They do not know what the services are or even what the rights that are available for them”, says Hanan. A huge barrier is also the language, as according to Amal, the women can not communicate or even ask for help. Many women may start English class but then think of putting their kids first and drop out of the courses.
Identity struggle
“Where do I belong?”. A major problem of Muslim youths is their attempts to “ belong” to society in their own way. Balancing their identity may be difficult, as they are effectively “hybrids”, shaped by two often contrasting forces which structure their identity.
When Amal started a youth project called amal youth. The aim was “to prepare younger Muslim women to be empowered women for the next generation and give them the tools to help others”.
Amal is working with youths weekly and offering camps, trips and workshops.
“We always remind the young ladies that there are in another country but they are no different than anyone else here in Ireland”, stressed Hanan.
Youths often feel not understood by their school teachers or by older adults; obliged to feet in a “given identity”. moreover, it is difficult for them to feel themselves, or, more, to act in a way that would not clash with their cultural heritage.
When asked where do you see yourself among the Irish, Hanan Replied “I’m more Irish than I am Egyptian. I’m involved with a lot of Irish organisations to make changes and to help those who live and have become part of the Irish community.”
The biggest struggle for Muslim women especially youth and probably no surprise is racism they face when walking on the street but also in other places like work and home.
Racists attacks are frequent, but too often police or Irish law enforcement struggle to recognise the racist nature of the problem. According to the Afrophobia in Ireland report in 2015 written by ENAR and Ulster University there were 28 cases of racism only 3 were invested into by the Gardai. the Failure to respond to racist incidents, does not affect only muslim.
Lena Sameh a student was attacked on August 18th in Dundrum and she had said “I was racially attacked but the garda had denied the matter even though those that attacked me where shouting slurs at us before then jumping at me and my cousin with eggs.”
Another young woman, a Business graduate, Amina Ahmed, had seen and heard racism done to other Muslim girls in her class. “I wanted to wear the hijab to connect with my faith but it's become difficult to wear''. Amina says, adding that comments were directed to an Algerian girl wearing the headscarf. The girl decided that if wearing the hijab means getting bullied she decided that she was not able to handle it.
Muslim women are not only struggling within the Irish community but also there own. Awatif Ali an Irish Muslim YouTuber says “our faith makes men and women equal, actually women have higher power than men but the community we are in focus more on the mistakes that the women make because we have a reputation to carry. When that should not be just on us but also the men”
The men in the Irish Muslim community tend to blend in with the Irish society because they are not as noticeable; according to Lena. She said that even her Irish they tend to like to remind her that she’s not allowed to do something in her religion, asking her to justify why is she doing.
Amina is the one that struggled the most because she was from the countryside and grow up in the city of Clare. “Having no Muslim friends around me made me doing what my Irish friends are doing. You become a totally different person living a double life that isn’t making you happy, especially when the people around you got involved, like my aunties from Pakistan. This has affected me mentally,”she added.
An important point raised by the girls interviewed is that that the youth when in school they deal with other students as Irish but when at home their parents deal with them as no-Irish, which causes a problem for them. This makes them feel like they’re living a life with double personalities.
The girls also added that back in their motherland they’ll never be seen as their from there and seen as a foreigner. The same is happening in Ireland, the country they are born and raised in. According to them, they’ll never be seen Irish, as they are not as an average white Irish person.
What emerged was a portrait of life as a Muslim woman, veiled or not, who will always struggle on three things: satisfying their family, dealing with the Muslim community and “fitting” with the Irish society they are from. Many women think that It will always be burned on their shoulder.
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