For many, Britain was not what they had envisaged. Some found it a cold unwelcoming place & feelings of isolation and loneliness was an experience shared by most. This was especially the case amongst the women who came to join their husbands who were already relatively settled...

and working. Amber Khokhar who arrived as a child in 1967 recalls: “My mother would make me approach all kinds of people in supermarkets and streets to find out if they could…speak Urdu because we felt so isolated.” Her mother, Razia Sultana Rashid elaborates:

“I was just shocked and horrified because I had a nice life there [in Lahore] and here I was living in one room with a landlady and with an old heater […] I used to sit and cry and cry and cry.” Almost all the women who spoke to us reiterated these feelings.

Zahida Mughal who arrived in 1973 remembers: “When I got here I thought ‘Oh my God, it’s so grey & cold!’ All the buildings looked black to me, you know. Grey & old buildings. And I said, ‘Is this London?! Oh my God!’ It was all grey believe me. There was no sun, nothing.”

DM your stories! *Our Lives, Their History is a series discovering Muslim history in Britain for the Everyday Muslim Archive. #archive30 #womenshistory #womensvoices #britian #migration #exploreyourarchive #muslim #heritage #history