Muslim Women in Britain, 1850–1950: Unpacking 100 years of untold stories

British Muslim women were foundational to the early history of Islam in Britain.

This is the central message of Muslim Women in Britain, 1850–1950, a ground-breaking new volume edited by Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, a sociologist of Islam, and Jamie Gilham, an independent historian.

Professor Cheruvallil-Contractor is the author of Muslim Women in Britain: Demystifying the Muslimah, and Dr Gilham has written Loyal Enemies: British Converts to Islam, 1850-1950, among other books.

Muslim Women in Britain, 1850–1950 highlights the important, often hidden role played by women in the establishment of early British Muslim communities and makes a valuable contribution to the growing literature on British Muslims in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which has so far primarily focused on men.

The nine contributors to this volume illuminate the lives of women from the Victorian period to the early post–Second World War era. The contributors include a café owner, an aristocrat, and a World War II spy.

This anthology re-centres women as authors of their own stories — writers, travellers, and activists who were transformative figures in their time.

Their biographies are reconstructed by drawing upon a wide range of contemporaneous sources, including newspapers, diaries, magazines, journals, unpublished private papers from surviving descendants, BBC audio-visual footage, oral history records at the National Archives, and documents held at various universities.

The stories of these remarkable female figures reflect the diversity of women’s lives over a period of 100 years, spanning different social classes and ethnicities.

They explore their resilience in the face of racism, patriarchy, financial hardship, and prejudice towards their marriages and mixed-heritage children.

Stories of Muslim female converts and activists in Britain

The biographical sketches are organised thematically and begin with an introduction explaining why Muslim women’s histories need to be written.

The introduction tells the story of Olive Salaman (1921-2007), affectionately remembered as the ‘mother of Cardiff Yemenis.’

Olive, a popular Welsh convert, resisted social conventions by marrying an Arab Muslim sailor and became renowned for her community service.

In recalling Olive Salaman’s story, the chapter challenges popular Islamophobic tropes that suggest women like her were cultural renegades coerced into converting to Islam solely to marry Muslim men.

Instead, we learn about Olive’s resourceful character and her ability to synthesise her Welsh and Muslim identities to overcome the racism directed at her family.

Many aspects of her life will resonate with modern English women who choose to become Muslim but face racialisation and questions about their loyalty as citizens.

In one BBC interview, Olive reflected on her experience of learning her husband’s mother tongue, saying, “I think the Welsh and the Arabic languages are very near to one another — that made it much easier for me.”

Chapters two to four detail the roles played by women in the establishment of early British mosques.

The first of these chapters covers the life of Fatima Cates (1865-1900), one of the first known female converts in Britain, written by Hamid Mahmood, joint author of a book on Fatima.

Mahmood explains how Fatima was a crucial early member of the Liverpool Muslim Institute (LMI), which coalesced around William Abdullah Quilliam.

The next individual profiled is Nafeesah Mary T. Keep (1844-1925), a fiercely independent figure in the LMI and a former member of Alexander Russell Webb’s Islamic Mission in America before moving to Liverpool in 1895.

Nafeesah was considered knowledgeable in Islamic teachings, and her lectures were reproduced in the LMI’s two regular publications, The Crescent and The Islamic World.

She was vocal on a number of political issues of the day, but unfortunately, her relationship with Quilliam and other members of the LMI deteriorated after she shared her concerns about the LMI with Yusuf Samih Asmay, a visiting journalist from Turkey who would later write unflatteringly about his observations of the community in his book.

Chapter four provides a glimpse into the life of Nawab Sultan Jahan (1858-1930), the Begum of the Indian princely state of Bhopal, who took an interest in nascent Muslim communities in England after a visit in 1911 and was keen to renovate Woking Mosque, which her mother had helped to fund.

Sultan Jahan was a remarkable model of Muslim femininity; she governed a large state in India, maintained an alliance with the British, and was an advocate for Islam.

In her publications, she articulated the superiority of female leadership skills, concluding that ‘administrative capacity is more inherent in women than in men,’ and that ‘nature specifically intended them for rulers.’

The fifth chapter details the intriguing life of Hannah Rodda Robinson (1854-1948), one of the first Victorian female converts to Islam.

Her story is particularly interesting because there are multiple versions of it. It is agreed that she achieved upward social mobility from the slums of Bethnal Green, London, to eventually marrying Dr Gholab Shah, an alleged Afghan warlord, at the LMI in 1891.

Her marriage to a Muslim man was met with strident public criticism, seen as undermining ‘cultural and racial homogeneity,’ and hostility was interlaced with Islamophobia.

After their marriage, the couple left the UK to start a new life in Turkey, prompting some newspapers to suggest that if other English women did the same, it would lead to ‘our free, Christian women being transplanted into Mohammedan harems.’

Chapter six introduces the life of Bertha Cave (1881-1951), a significant working-class feminist campaigner who fought for the right of women to practice law in Britain — a right they were barred from until 1919.

Bertha was an educated and ambitious individual who converted to Islam in 1905 and married a fellow lawyer, Colonel Ali Altof Khan, in a religious ceremony.

Once again, public opinion defaulted to racist and anti-Muslim stereotypes, suggesting that ‘white women needed protecting from these types of marriages’ because they were thought to be ‘immoral and irresponsible.’

The union would also not have been warmly received in India, as it breached the social distance expected between rulers and the ruled.

Chapter eight focuses on British aristocrat Gladys Brooke (1884-1952), whose unconventional conversion to Islam aboard a plane in flight from London to Paris in 1932 made headlines around the world.

The event was overseen by prominent English Muslim Khalid Sheldrake (1888-1947), surprising many who would not expect this decision given Gladys’s social position and former attachment to Catholicism.

Unfazed by the negative attention, she declared her attraction to the ‘beauty of the teachings of Islam’ and was ‘struck by the purity, logic, and simplicity of the religion.’

She went on to become a writer and founded a monthly publication called Informations Islamiques, which won praise from Marmaduke Pickthall, the famous English translator of the Quran.

The final chapters survey female Muslim travellers from South Asia to Britain from the 1890s to the 1930s, based on travel accounts and diaries written in Indian languages.

Challenging colonial views and shaping Islamic history

These travelogues and literature were produced by women from elite and upper-middle-class backgrounds with the financial means to make their journeys.

Their observations of English culture provided sharp comparative cultural analyses to help Indians decide which practices to adopt and which to reject.

This attitude is revealing, given that many Indians perceived the ruling British as part of a superior civilisation.

The approach of these women writers illustrates a critical appraisal of the colonial heartland by female ‘natives’ who were not passive subjects of Empire.

In conclusion, this book is an important milestone in early British Muslim studies and places the contribution of female Muslims at the heart of pioneering Islamic institution-building.

The stories of women who boldly declared their faith at a time when it was both unfashionable and at times unsafe to do so demonstrate incredible courage and independence.

As the editors have stated, this text plants the seeds for more storytelling — and it is up to other researchers and writers to continue the task. This volume is a must-read for anyone seeking to learn more about our hidden history.

Dr Sadek Hamid is an academic who has written widely about British Muslims. He is the author of  Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism

Follow him on X: @SadekHamid