Pedagogy, Culture & Society Vol. 17, No. 3, October 2009, 265–278 ISSN 1468-1366 print/ISSN 1747-5104 online © 2009 Pedagogy, Culture & Society DOI: 10.1080/14681360903194301 http://www.informaworld.com Giving Muslim girls ‘a voice’: the possibilities and limits to challenging patriarchal interpretations of Islam in one English community Amanda Keddie* School of Education, Roehampton University, London, UK Taylor and Francis RPCS_A_419603.sgm 10.1080/14681360903194301 Pedagogy, Culture and Society 1468-1366 (print)/1747-5104 (online) Original Article 2009 Taylor & Francis 17 3 000000September 2009 AmandaKeddie a.keddie@griffith.edu.au This paper presents the philosophies and practices of ‘Laura’, a young English community liaison worker and former religious studies teacher who has recently converted to Islam. Drawing on data generated from a qualitative and predominantly interview-based research project that investigated issues of pedagogy and social justice in English schools, the focus is on Laura’s efforts to support Muslim girls through an Islamic discussion group. The paper highlights how Laura draws on Islamic beliefs to support the girls’ questioning of patriarchal interpretations of Islam within their Pakistani immigrant community. The paper also provides insight, however, into some of the tensions and limitations of Laura’s liberatory approach in terms of her positioning as white, western, and middle-class. Against this backdrop, a self-reflexive approach that is sensitive to how ‘ethnic-specific sociability’ shapes understandings and enactments of gender is advocated. Such an approach is presented as central in considering how spaces of gender justice might be mobilised within community environments where unprecedented levels of multi- cultural fragmentation and diversity have amplified tensions and conflict between and amongst racial and religious groups. Keywords: Muslim girls; Islam; community; gender; social justice; ethnicity Introduction Unprecedented multi-cultural diversity, increasing population shifts and new concentrations of group identities have amplified tensions and conflict between and amongst racial and religious groups within the UK (Naval, Print, and Veldhuis 2002; White 2007). Amid this change and uncertainty, South Asian Muslim commu- nities, and more specifically, minorities of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage, have faced the greatest hostility. The patterns of racial and religious exclusion and discrimination that have contributed to these minority groups’ underprivileged status in British society, while characteristic of their early immigration and settlement experiences, are no less pronounced today (Abbas 2005; Peach 2005; Anwar 2005). Indeed, these patterns have worsened following the September 11 and subsequent terrorist attacks, with a new wave of suspicion and hostility towards Muslim groups and sharp rises in racial and religious-based harassment and attacks (Modood 2005; Abbas 2005). In response to such hostilities, within a broader atmosphere of social and economic exclusion, identification with Islam has been strengthened amongst the *Email: a.keddie@griffith.edu.au