Abstract

Focusing on the ‘#HandsOffMyHijab’ movement, this chapter discusses representations of Muslim women, the hijab, and the niqab, and how these items of clothing are received in Western society. #HandsOffMyHijab is a recent social political movement supporting Muslim women who wear the hijab to respond to legal bans imposed in several countries, including France. This chapter will highlight the active role British Muslim women writers are taking to counter the misrepresentation and marginalisation of Muslim women’s voices in the West. The chapter examines the ways in which negative perceptions of Muslim women and the hijab are being challenged in contemporary British literature. This chapter also includes a close textual analysis of Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan’s Postcolonial Banter (2019). This collection of poetry explores identity, racism, and Islamophobia. Her poems discuss the process of decolonisation and inequality in academic and economic spaces. Manzoor-Khan expands on the idea of ‘transforming the conditions of structural violence, exclusion and inequality’ (Postcolonial Banter 2019, p. 82). Engagement with writers includes reference to an interview conducted via Instagram live. The inclusion of this interview alongside a textual analysis of Manzoor-Khan’s work enables a dual focus on her use of literary form to engage with wider social and political discussions.