At the beginning of the year the Prime Minister launched the National Muslim Women's Advisory Group. The group, set up by the Department for Communities and Local Government, aims to discuss issues directly relating to Muslim women while trying to empower them to reach out to individuals in their community at risk of being radicalised.  

As Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at the launch: "Muslim women have a huge role to play in helping us build a stronger, better society." The group of 19 women - who encompass many different traditions, communities and professions - aim to focus the issues of employment, education and cultural barriers, such as access to mosques, honour killings and arranged marriages.  

Prime Minister Brown said of the advisory group:

"They will be role models, showing the breadth of Muslim women's achievements, and ambassadors for the grass roots, speaking direct to the heart of Government on vital issues such as education and employment. I wish them every success in this important work."

There are at least 800,000 Muslim women living in Britain today and, due to their role at the heart of the family, they have the potential to make communities stronger by helping to address the rise in extremism, particularly the radicalisation of young people. The group - formed under the Government's PREVENT directive - will meet several times a year and aims to address the issue raised by the Muslim community that the voices of moderation were not being heard. As a result, the group comprises of leading Muslim women from a variety of fields such as Adeeba Malik, who received an MBE in 2004 for her work with ethnic minority communities, Fareena Alam, the editor of the popular Q-News magazine, and Rokshanna Fiaz, whose company, the Change Institute, specialises in interfaith issues. The group will also discuss the progress of the existing projects designed to stop the radicalisation of young adults under the  PREVENT scheme and report back to the Government with their suggestions.  

The Government's hope is that this new program, while reducing the treat of extremism, will provide positive role models for Muslim women and encourage women to take on greater roles in civic life - such as magistrates, school governors and local councilors.

The specific remit of the group will be to:

• act as ambassadors for Muslim women at grass roots and represent their views and concerns to Government; 
• provide leadership to communities and act as positive role models for Muslim women in society; 
• empower Muslim women to engage more with the media on a wide range of issues and help dispel myths around the role of Muslim women in society; 
• meet in the form of a round table to discuss issues and concerns that are affecting Muslim women eg. access for women in Mosques;
• and map out what work is currently taking place across the country to empower Muslim women and then draw up specific action plan for each region and work out where the gaps are.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears commented that "all too often the voices of Muslim women go unheard" and added "we have to get better at listening to Muslim women, valuing their contribution to [Britain's] economic, cultural and civic life". By listening to people with first hand experience of the problems and issues facing them, the Government will be able to introduce specific changes that will have a greater impact on the Muslim community.