International Women’s Day

Baroness Gohir Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gohir (CB)]

My Lords, I congratulate all noble Baronesses on their maiden speeches. I declare an interest as a Muslim woman and CEO of the Muslim Women’s Network, because my contribution for International Women’s Day will be focused on Muslim women.

I start with a question: who gets to decide the identity of Muslim women? Too often, it is not Muslim women. For too long, others have defined who Muslim women are. Muslim women are seen as oppressed, dangerous and othered: oppressed especially if they wear a headscarf and more so if they wear the face veil. Some women may well be coerced into wearing a face veil. This can be addressed through domestic abuse legislation, but many Muslim women choose to wear it. It is hard to believe, but their choice must be respected. Their different motivations are never considered.

The clothing of Muslim women is framed as a threat to both security and British culture. It is really about not liking the look of it. No one explains how a couple of thousand women who wear the face veil, out of 2 million Muslim women, will disrupt British culture. Most of the public are unlikely ever to cross paths with them. Muslim women’s freedom to choose how they dress is often supported only when it aligns with existing biases. When Governments claim to protect Muslim women, their focus is narrow: on forced marriage, honour-based abuse or FGM. These issues matter, of course, but why is there no urgency when Muslim women and girls face hate crimes, domestic abuse, grooming and sexual exploitation? Only abuses linked to culture are taken seriously. Why is that?

A15 year-old, Shamima Begum, was not viewed through a lens of grooming or trafficking; she was viewed through a lens of terrorism. In domestic abuse cases, the explanation often defaults to culture: controlling in-laws or parents, language barriers or honour-based abuse. But abuse is not always about culture. It can be about just misogyny and male violence. Framing women’s suffering only through culture exposes an unconscious bias.

Muslim women, like all women, deserve protection from all forms of harm, not just the ones that fit stereotypes. Instead of deciding the priorities for Muslim women, listen to them. Instead of speaking for them, create space for their voices. Right now, Muslim women are deeply worried about their safety in public, online, in the workplace and when accessing services. The hostility towards Muslim women has become so normalised that it has emboldened perpetrators. One woman took her children to the park and was abused by teenagers. She went home but was frightened because she was followed. In another case, we moved a domestic abuse victim to a safe place. Her neighbours started to abuse her, so she had to be moved again by police for her own safety. In another recent case, a man signalled to a woman that she could cross the road then tried to run her over and said, “I’ll get you next time”. There are many other frightening stories.

The freedom-restricting harassment of Muslim women and girls, and the constant fear of it, forces many to self-censor, alter their behaviour and withdraw from public life. This damages individual well-being, undermines equality of opportunity and corrodes community cohesion. Research and police data show that the majority of perpetrators are white men. However, hate crime towards Muslim women is not considered by the Government as gender-based violence. The recent report published by the Women and Equalities Committee on the abuse and harassment of Muslim women confirms that Muslim women are disproportionately targeted in ways that are deeply gendered and racialised in all areas of life, resulting in lost opportunities and poor outcomes.

The Government have pledged £40 million for mosques. While I acknowledge that their security absolutely needs strengthening, not a single pound has been ring-fenced for Muslim women. This is a sexist approach. Perhaps the Government too believe the stereotype that Muslim women have no agency. Stereotypes of the oppressed Muslim woman strip away individuality. Far too little attention has been paid to Muslim women who are thriving as lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, dentists, nurses, teachers, police officers, academics, accountants, engineers, charity workers, artists, entrepreneurs, social media influencers and of course politicians, all of whom are experiencing unprecedented levels of hostility. Muslim women need your solidarity, not just when it comes to abuse linked to culture or for Muslim women abroad.

I want to end on a celebratory note. A year ago, I launched Muslim Heritage Month, to be marked every March, to tell the positive stories of Muslims in Britain and challenge the misinformation about us. I am proud to wear my Muslim Heritage Month badge and dedicate this year’s Muslim Heritage Month to Muslim women.