A politics of one’s own: Leisure, belonging, and momentary self-exclusion among British Bangladeshi women in East London

This paper investigates how leisure activities inform identification processes among British Bangladeshi Muslim women in Tower Hamlets, London. Focusing on women-only events organised in community centres that cater to British Bangladeshi women, we explore the significance of these spaces in the negotiation and maintenance of identity and community. Based on a two-year ethnography conducted as part of the research project Migrant Memory and Postcolonial Imagination, we argue that women-only leisure activities are part of a strategy of momentary self-exclusion, which is central to the articulation of a politics of location for participating women. The focus on leisure contributes to the literature on diaspora studies by providing a more holistic understanding of questions of belonging.