Resisting the imposition of ‘British values’: conservative gender norms in evolving British Salafi communities

Despite much interest in the gender dynamics of Salafi movements, a discussion on Salafi gender discourses and norms and their evolution has been largely missing from scholarship about religious, political and cultural change in Salafi communities. This contribution addresses this understudied area by analysing the evolution of gender dynamics within Salafi networks in the United Kingdom between 1984 and 2024. Based on interviews with British Salafis, participant observation in Salafi spaces between 2017 and 2020, and content analysis of Salafi websites and social media, it argues that although Salafi gender norms are undergoing some slight reinterpretation and adaptation, Salafi approaches to gender have not evolved as much as some other aspects of Salafism. This, I argue, is due to the critical role that gender plays in opposing and challenging the securitisation and state regulation of British Muslims. Specifically, I conceptualise the adoption and propagation of conservative gender norms as a form of constructive cultural resistance through which Salafi leaders not only resist the assimilation of British Muslims through highly gendered ‘British values’ but also work towards the construction of alternative norms and subjectivities that they believe can meaningfully contribute to the construction of ‘British values’ and to British society more generally.