Below is a guest blog from a Textiles and Fashion Business owner. Our contributor reflects on her experiences of working within the Textiles and Fashion industry as a British Muslim woman, and the problematic blurring of culture and religion for achieving gender equality in the work-place:

Why should we as women be made to feel like we’re not capable as men? Why are we seen as the weaker sex? Why does the perceptions of our biological sex stop us from being the individuals we want to be? This so-called ideal of womanhood, still manages to consume the minds of certain communities.

Over the last two years I have learnt what it is that makes women so strong. It is the innate ability to take on everything that is thrown at us. Sometimes we feel like we have to, and we get on with it, and other times we want to. More often than not, we have no choice but to push through. God made us this way for a reason.

I can talk for the world and sometimes that goes against me. But the day you’re silenced is the day you begin to bottle things up inside, which causes more harm to yourself. The perception of what a woman ‘should be’ becomes different as you go through life, as various people tell you their backgrounds and experiences. This ends up moulding your own thinking too. People don’t need a reason to make you feel out of place especially in this day and age, but it can gradually really begin to get to you as you go through your life questioning without receiving answers and wondering without closure, especially in the business world. In my own experiences as a Fashion and Textiles business owner, I have found that some men will mock you. When I say men, I mean the kind of men who have a one-sided misogynistic perspective of the ideal woman as a stay-at-home mother, who does all the household duties during the day, and tends to her husband’s needs at night. These men will see a business woman – someone who is highly driven, empowering and inspirational – but they will deliberately dishonour her in front of others, without a care. The reason behind this, I find, is mainly because they either feel threatened and unsettled by a woman in power.

Not too long ago I found myself at the doors of a major printing company that dealt with garment finishing including embroidery and screen-printing. I had been given an appointment time of 13:00 and had the director arrive approximately 45mins later than the arranged time. As soon as he entered the room and began speaking, I sensed hesitancy and even hostility from his body language and demeanour. The meeting was supposed to have led into an insightful conversation regarding types of designs, prices and order quantities. However instead he second-guessed whether I knew what I was doing in this business in the first place. The director of this successful company was clearly not expecting to be meeting a woman, and certainly not a Muslim Asian woman. Once he had established his role in the meeting as decision-maker, the director began speaking directly to my partner regarding my business. Even though my partner had made it clear that the business idea belongs to me, the director continued to disregard anything I said and carried on speaking to my partner. This made me feel very small and dispected.

Some people would argue that this patriarchal mind set doesn’t exist anymore. But if you look and listen very closely, you will find that it in fact is very much alive in a lot of businesses in the way they operate and treat employees, and particularly in the mindset of men. I find myself asking why I should need to take a male with me to discuss a business proposition purely because I should be worried about how I will come across to a man who can’t see my potential as a woman? Am I not capable of handling things on my own? This raises many questions as to why we as women are not allowed the privilege of talking for ourselves and of being taken seriously. The social expectation around women as homemakers, and nothing else, is still around today. My perspective is that women, particularly in the South Asian community are looked down on.

What puzzles me even more, is that media and politicians often equate religion and culture. These backward ideals of womanhood are wrongly associated with Islam, and of Islamic faith as one that ‘oppresses’ women. As a practicing Muslim woman, I firmly believe that these standards portraying women and their ‘traditional’ roles in society come from much more recent teachings. Has society forgotten how the Prophet Muhammad (peace & blessings be upon him) treated the women in his family? Have we forgotten that his beloved wife Lady Khadijah (may God be pleased with her) was one of the most successful business-women of her time? She raised her children whilst working and being a wife! The wives of the Prophet Muhammad (peace & blessings be upon him) had different personalities and social statuses, yet none of that mattered to him regardless that he was the best of creation. So who are the men in our society to look down on their wives, daughters, and sisters, and any other woman for that matter?

One thing I do know for certain is that whoever and however we are, as women we should never be made to feel like we aren’t good enough for the things we want, and so rightly deserve. We should elevate each other, help one another, because that’s the only way we can make a change for good.

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