Muslim women respond to British PM's 'traditionally submissive' comments

Muslim women in Britain and beyond have taken umbrage at the clichés and Orientalist stereotypes peddled by the head of Her Majesty's Government David Cameron last week, suggesting they were "traditionally submissive".

British Muslim women, among other segments who have been deeply offended by Cameron's condescending approach, decided to organise a "Twitter storm" to challenge the many tropes made in his 18 January announcement  of a £20m ($28.5 million) fund, to teach Muslim women in the UK to speak English "to tackle segregation and help them resist the lure of extremism," as he claimed.

The author of the highly popular novel Love in a Headscarf Shelina Janmohamed, along with hundreds of other women across the UK, was personally offended by this portrayal and came up with the hashtag #TraditionallySubmissive to tweet professions, hobbies and views in order to counteract the view that Muslim women are somewhat passive and unable to express their opinions.

Dr Sukaina Hirji, who has been working hard to drum up support for the Twitter campaign, explained: "I and many others have been extremely hurt by David Cameron’s article in The Times earlier this week, specifically targeting Muslim women’s apparent inability to speak the English language and loosely linking this to radicalisation and Female Genital Mutilation."

The Twitter storm using the hashtag was scheduled to run from 6 to 9PM GMT on Sunday.

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