As part of the British government's Prevent strategy following the July 2005 attacks in London, Muslim women were engaged and empowered as allies to tackle violent extremism. This empowerment greatly improved the social and economic status of Muslim women in Britain. However the primary objective, to prevent the escalation of violent extremism, was not achieved. Furthermore, the way in which Prevent was implemented significantly damaged relations between those who were involved in the strategy and those who were excluded. The overarching research question was: 'How has the role of Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim women in British society changed from the period 1995 to 2010 as a result of the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist attacks and the government's Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) strategy or Prevent agenda?' This, and a number of sub-questions, were examined using a mixed methodology approach, which included information drawn from academic literature, open source reporting and journalism, as well as surveys, interviews and focus group discussions with British Muslim women. The study concludes that Muslim women took advantage of the opportunities offered to them by the British government as part of the Prevent strategy, not particularly with the intentions of preventing violent extremism, but more because their progression was an assertion of their own human rights. However, during this time, many Muslim institutions were being ostracised by the government because of their Islamic school of thought, older Muslims and Muslim men were excluded, and Muslims experienced resentment from non-Muslim communities that had lost their government funding due to the exclusive focus on the Muslim community. The findings of this study imply the need for further research into some of the issues highlighted above, also advocating the commissioning of an urgent review of the British government's Prevent agenda, to include the policies that conflate Islam and violence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:675590 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Ahmed, Zareen Roohi |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=228047 |
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