On Monday 11 March, Q-Step at Kent is very pleased to welcome Hind Elhinnawy from the University of Kent to give a pubTALK entitled, ‘Secular Muslim Women’s Activism in the Age of ISIS’.

The talk will take place at The Old Buttermarket, Canterbury, at 19.00 for 19.30.  All are welcome – come and share a drink and join in the discussion!

Experiencing abuse, harassment, and sometimes death threats from ‘radical Islamists’, and accused of collaborating with Western imperialism by importing alien ideas and practices, secular Muslim women activists challenge discriminatory laws within Islamic texts, reject and condemn the jihadist political message, and assert that human rights laws have precedence over religious and cultural considerations.

In this presentation, Hind Elhinnawy will focus on two organisations run by two secular Muslim women activists; “Inspire” a counter-extremism and women’s rights organisation; and “Mother’s Brigade” a French organisation that provides support for traumatised mothers of foreign fighters working to save children from recruitment in extremist and jihadist groups. In doing so, she hopes to unravel many of the tensions, conflicts and ambiguities that mark the nature of activism of Muslim women in the West opposing what they define as “violent Islamist Extremism”.