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Background
The upcoming London 2012 Games mark a cultural watershed in London and the UK's history. In the 60 years since the 1948 Olympic Games, the role and place of Muslim women in the UK has changed from an invisible minority to being at the forefront of all aspects of British society, including sport. This has taken place against a backdrop of the dismantling of the British Empire, immigration, changes in the role of women in society, the fight for equality, and the deconstruction of the concept of British identity.These changes provide a rich and interesting backdrop on which to chart the changes in the roles of Muslim women in our society, through the voices of the girls and women who have lived through these changes.
Project aims
Our youth-led heritage project, funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, seeks to empower young women (aged 16+) to explore and preserve the hidden history of the changing role of Muslim women’s participation in sporting events in the UK since 1948 to the present day. The project will use a mix of archive research and oral history interviews with different generations of Muslim women. It will chart the changes in society and also provide a platform for the hidden voices of Muslim girls and women in the UK. The project's historical findings will be presented as a youth-led short film comprised of archive images with voice over narratives from the project's young Muslim women and extracts from interviews. The main exhibition space for the film will be at our partner, The Women’s Library (based of London Metropolitan University) which houses the most extensive collection of women's history in the UK.
The project has four key objectives are:
- Through a youth-led methodology, to explore, document and preserve the heritage of the UK’s Muslim women’s participation in sporting events covering the period of 1948 – today.
- Skill-up and provide an opportunity to young women, including young Muslim women to lead on the project, and learn, reflect and document their 60 years history in sports
- To ensure that amidst the sporting achievements of the Games that history and culture of one of the UK’s minority groups is not forgotten but documented, disseminated and celebrated
- Create bonds between different generations of Muslim women and encourage the exchange of ideas, historical facts, cultural historical facts and historical challenges
The final product of the young Muslim women's work (youth-led film with oral history material and images) will be exhibited in the Women's Library, part of London Metropolitan University.
The group have produced a presentation to chart their progress on the project to date:
Current Activities
A group of young Muslim Women aged 16-25 were recruited in July 2011 to document Muslim women’s participation in sport from 1948 to the present day and preserve the current views of Muslim girls and young women towards sport. These volunteers received training from both The
Over the past few months volunteers on this project have conducted numerous interviews with Muslim women living in London about their participation in sport and undertaken archival research at The Women’s Library in East London. Our group of volunteers have now completed the archive research and oral history interview filming. Three days of editing took place in February 2012 and the group are now finalising the voice over and credits for the film. Film screening event currently being arranged at the Women's Library to take place on Tuesday 1st May 2012.
This project is funded by Heritage Lottery Fund
