Close Menu
CCMECCME
  • Home
  • Who are we
    • CCME
    • The President
    • The General Secretary
    • Working groups
  • News
    • News of the council
    • News of Moroccan migration
    • News of migration in the world
  • Interviews
  • Archives of the council
    • Activities
    • Media and migration
    • News
  • Resources
  • Contact us
  • Share a contribution
  • Home
  • Who are we
    • CCME
    • The President
    • The General Secretary
    • Working groups
  • News
    • News of the council
    • News of Moroccan migration
    • News of migration in the world
  • Interviews
  • Archives of the council
    • Activities
    • Media and migration
    • News
  • Resources
  • Contact us
  • Share a contribution
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
CCMECCME
  • English
    • العربية
    • Français
  • Home
  • Who we are
    • CCME
    • The President
    • The General Secretary
    • Working groups
  • News
    • News of the Council
    • News of migration in the world
    • News of Moroccan migration
  • Resources
Podcasts بودكاست Podcasts
  • Spécial SIEL 2025
  • Programmation
  • Axes
    • Voix des amériques
    • Maroc-Belgique: Histoire, Migrations et commémorations
    • Migrations et sciences sociales : où en est la recherche sur les migrations marocaines ?
    • Écritures féminines au maroc et dans l’immigration
  • Rencontres
    • Rencontres et débats
    • Rencontres philosophiques
    • Cinéma une rétrospective des films pionniers du cinéma marocain sur l’émigration/immigration
  • Vient de paraitre
  • Hommages
CCMECCME
  • English
    • العربية
    • Français
  • Spécial SIEL 2025
  • Programmation
  • Axes
  • Rencontres
  • Vient de paraitre
  • Hommages
Home»Archives of the council»Media and migration

Britain: Hip-hop hijabis challenge stereotypes

Media and migration 28 July 2015Equipe de rédaction
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email WhatsApp Copy Link
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email WhatsApp Copy Link

Growing up in a Jamaican household, if anyone had told me that when I was older I would be a Muslim, I would have laughed. Witnessing Islam in urban Britain, it felt so Asian, so male and so backward.

So now when people ask me and my hip-hop group, Poetic Pilgrimage, what made us convert to Islam, to some degree I understand the thought process. I also understand that for some there is a dichotomy between being a female rapper and being Muslim. Whether it is the idea of the East meeting the West, or the perception of women in hip-hop being overtly sexualised, in comparison to a religion where the perception is the women are overtly oppressed and desexualised – either way, it gives some insight as to why Poetic Pilgrimage is viewed as something strange.

Sukina (my band member) and I often joke about performing for new audiences and how it takes about three songs before they get over the shock of hijabis running across the stage, telling them to throw their peace signs up.

Journey of self evaluation

For us, it has been a journey of self evaluation and experimentation, however, we have now come to a point where all of our identities are happily reconciled. After all, we are British born Jamaican women, and Islam does not ask us to forsake our culture, rather it is a belief system, and a tool we use to refine our character.

The reaction to Poetic Pilgrimage is extremely polarised: courageous, oppressed, fresh, blasphemous, eclectic, brainwashed, arrogant are just some of the words that have been used to describe us.

When we explain why we converted to Islam there is at first the assumption that the men in our family force us to cover; the next natural assumption is that we converted for a man and it is at his request that we cover. Why else would two women of Jamaican heritage choose to wrap themselves in so much cloth when the hijab has now become a symbol shrouded by politics.

What is even more unfortunate is that in some circumstances there is an element of racism hidden under the cloak of righteousness or even Islam. Some people are silent to the fact that there are Muslim cultural expressions, and musical traditions all around the world, there is not a “Muslim” country that doesn’t have a musical heritage, yet when it comes to people of the African diaspora, our music is deemed as something innately deviant and wrong.

We are not here to try to convince others of the acceptability of women performing, nor are we here to convince ‘feminists’ that we are liberated. We are practising Muslims…

The fresh breeze of diversity and difference is sometimes muted by people’s culturally biased interpretation. Poetic Pilgrimage is no exception and our work has been removed from mix tapes, we’ve been kicked off tours, and generally accused of leading the heedless to the gates of hell by Muslim promoters, and largely other Muslim women.

A balancing act

We had to become thick-skinned very early in our career. Coming from a Caribbean culture, we are used to being celebrated for being women, and now in some circles we are celebrated and in others we are condemned, by both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

It really is a balancing act, but an act that has allowed us to renew our intention on a regular basis and our reason for existing as a group as well as our contribution to the genre of hip-hop.

We are not here to try to convince others of the acceptability of women performing, nor are we here to convince “feminists” that we are liberated. We are practising Muslims and the traditional scholarship that we follow allow us to be hip-hop hijabis.

While I am not convinced our story is one that is unique, it is a story rarely told. Al Jazeera English is regularly in the habit of telling such stories like ours, shedding light on those whose voices are seldom heard.

This is the reason why films like Hip-Hop Hijabis and Al Jazeera English are so essential; it casts a spotlight on real people beyond the stereotypes. In our case it shows the daily struggle that black Muslim women in the arts face and the tightrope that we walk in trying to manage our identity – as both proud western Muslims and as music makers.

Source: AlJazeera English

Related Posts

Paris Attacks: the intellectuals’ forecasts that we did not heed

30 November 2015

United States: Moroccan Taxi driver shot in the back on Thanksgiving Day

30 November 2015

Refugees welcome? How UK and Germany compare on migration

3 September 2015

Migration crisis: pressure mounts on Cameron over refugees

3 September 2015

Hundreds of migrants protest at Budapest station, want to go to Germany

3 September 2015

EU refugee crisis: World mourns Syrian toddler as Andy Burnham calls for emergency Parliament debate

3 September 2015

Our latest news

Rachid Guerraoui élu membre de l'Academia Europaea

Award: Rachid Guerraoui  elected to the Academia Europaea 

19 May 2025
الرئيس الفرنسي يعين رشيد بنزين عضوا في اللجنة الوطنية للأخلاقيات

France: Rachid Benzine appointed to the national Ethics Comitee for Life Sciences and Health

16 May 2025
مشروع قانون فرنسي يخرج الجمعيات من مراكز الاعتقال الإداري

France: A Senate bill to remove NGO’s from detention centers

13 May 2025
L'Espagne et le Maroc prévoient une augmentation du nombre d'utilisateurs de l'opération « Traversée du détroit 2025 »

 Spain and Morocco hold  the 36th Spanish-Moroccan Joint Commission meeting 

8 May 2025

النشرة الإخبارية

اشترك لتلقي آخر الأخبار

قم بتنزيل تطبيق المجلس

ولا تنس تفعيل الإشعارات للحصول على آخر الأخبار!

Download CCME books for Android
Download CCME books for IOS
Logo CCME
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn

المجلس

  • Who we are
  • The President
  • The General Secretary
  • Working groups

الأخبار

  • News
  • News of Moroccan migration
  • News of migration in the world
موارد
اتصل بنا
  • محج الرياض. ش 10 ص.ب 21481 - حي الرياض - الرباط 10000 - المغرب
  • contact@ccme.org.ma
  • +212 5 37 56 71 71 اتصل بنا​

2025 - © المجلس

  • Right of access to information
  • Terms of use
  • Contact us

Newsletter

Subscribe to receive the latest news

Download the CCME app

And don’t forget to activate notifications to receive the latest news!

Download CCME books for IOS
Download CCME books for Android
Logo CCME
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
CCME
  • Who we are
  • The President
  • The General Secretary
  • Working groups
News
  • News
  • News of Moroccan migration
  • News of migration in the world
Resources
Contact
  • Mahaj Ryad. Imm 10. B.P 21481 - Hay Ryad - Rabat 10 000 - Morocco
  • contact@ccme.org.ma
  • +212 5 37 56 71 71
© 2025 - CCME
  • Right of access to information
  • Terms of use
  • Contact us

Revue de presse

Abonnez-vous pour recevoir notre revue de presse

    Téléchargez l’application CCME

    Et n’oubliez pas d’activer les notifications pour recevoir les dernières actualités!

    Download CCME books for IOS
    Download CCME books for Android
    Logo CCME
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn

    CCME

    • Who we are
    • The President
    • The General Secretary
    • Working groups

    Actualités

    • News
    • News of Moroccan migration
    • News of migration in the world

    Ressources

    Contact

    • Mahaj Ryad. Imm 10. B.P 21481 - Hay Ryad - Rabat 10 000 - Maroc
    • contact@ccme.org.ma
    • +212 5 37 56 71 71

    © 2025 - CCME

    • Right of access to information
    • Terms of use
    • Contact us

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.