Salma Yaqoob: the women voted for me

From Comment is Free, Salma Yaqoob's rebuttal to Nick Cohen's assessment of why she was elected as Birmingham's only Muslim woman councillor (here, with my rebuttal here). She accuses the local Labour and Lib Dem (presumably Asian) activists of casting aspersions on her character and pandering to conservative male attitudes:

When the ballots were counted, we had polled nearly 50% of the vote and won with the third highest vote in the city. It was a crushing defeat for my opponents. It was only possible because we challenged the traditional conservatism that denies leading public positions to women, and challenged the old order, which treats our communities as silent voting fodder. And it was only possible because we united people around a progressive message of anti-racism and social justice.
While Birmingham has a large and very politically engaged Muslim community, its representatives are exclusively male, largely convinced that this is the right and natural order of things, and very determined to maintain the status quo. Gender played an important role in my election victory.
For my opponents, it was a point of attack. Representatives of both Labour and the Liberal Democrats pandered to conservative attitudes within the Muslim community about the position of women. At election meetings and polling booths, Lib Dem and Labour activists urged Muslim men not to vote for a woman because it was "un-Islamic". The fact that I had not adopted my husband's surname was evidence of me being insufficiently subservient (IJ: note that this is not the norm in Islam). Instead of serious engagement with the issues, smears about my commitment to my family as a mother, daughter and wife abounded. The "dishonour" of even being challenged by a woman, and the precedent that this might set, ensured that local Lib Dem and Tory supporters worked behind the scenes to support the sitting Labour councillor.

More: Amir Butler on old-guard community leaders in Australia (and note the first comment from Baybers on "professional public Muslims" who rely on Islam as a means to climb to the middle of their chosen profession or trade, and act as "public faces" of the Muslim community).