Prevent and post-16 education: the implications for Muslim women

Abstract

ABSTRACT The “Prevent Duty” requires that UK public sector bodies have a statutory responsibility to stop individuals from supporting terrorism or becoming terrorists, including within education settings. Despite existing research that highlights the experiences of Prevent for Muslim students, the topic of Muslim women students appears to have been largely neglected. This paper addresses the lack of empirical research that focuses on Muslim women in the post-16 education sector and the impact of the Prevent Duty. I add to existing research on Prevent within education by focusing upon Muslim women’s experiences concerning the strategy, by utilising Critical Race Feminism’s counter stories. The research draws on counter stories deriving from focus group and interview data to demonstrate the lived experiences of Prevent for young Muslim women in further and higher education within England. Within the empirical data collected, three themes were identified: 1) self-censoring; 2) the “visible Other”; and 3) the responsibilisation of Muslim women. The findings of this research demonstrate that there is a gendered impact of the Prevent strategy within post-16 education and it occurs in different avenues. Accordingly, I call for a concerted effort to draw further attention to the future of Prevent, particularly within the education sector.