ASRA Club, founded by GEM member Sahra-Isha, is “a community space centring Muslim women in sports, wellness and sisterhood”.  Given the group’s foundational aims of creating an inclusive environment of care and community, it is angering and upsetting that they are still faced with the forms of violence and harm described in their statement below. 

We note also that whilst the incidents described below involved various forms of Islamophobic, racist and misogynistic abusive language and behaviour, in addition to this, a Black Muslim woman was singled out for particular anti-Black abuse.  And as ASRA point out, this anti-Blackness is sadly not only coming from external abusers – it occurs, consciously or unconsciously, even within Muslim spaces.

With deep sadness, anger and frustration at its need, we share the following statement from ASRA in solidarity with their call out for community support; as they rightly state, these abuses do not occur in a vacuum, and as such there must be a change in and support from the wider community to ensure Muslim women can create safer spaces.  Finally, it is fundamental that any space claiming safety and inclusivity  for Muslims must actively ensure that this always extends to Black Muslim women.