It’s Not About the Burqa, edited by Mariam Khan Picador, Croydon, 2019

Abstract

Education is one of the most powerful tools within our society, it is a wholehearted political commitment to practicing freedom (hooks 1994). Now, in 2021, at the time of writing, education is both formally and informally widely accessible in Western societies. In this review, we harness what we believe to be the power of a book; a phenomenally accessible item and often free through public libraries, book swaps, book phone boxes, Google eBook store, Project Gutenberg, the Open library, PDF Books World, etc. Both of us, the authors of this paper, Shrehan and Dylan are avid readers, in fact some might call us book junkies. When it was first released, in 2019, Shrehan read ‘It’s Not About the Burqa’, edited by Mariam Khan. The book is an authentic collection of essays from the lived experiences of Muslim women, on faith, feminism, sexuality and race. It continues to be a reference book Shrehan goes back to frequently and more recently she shared the book with Dylan, a good friend and physical education (PE) colleague. The rest of this piece shares why we read the book, what we learnt and the relevance for PE as our chosen disciplinary area.