rap music and muslim women they are not four words that usually come together but two women from london are breaking down the boundaries for islamic females across the world with their brand of inspirational hip hop together, muneera williams, 34, and sukina owen douglas, 33, form poetic pilgrimage   a self described 'hiphop hijabis' duo that has created a new type of rap music for the masses that addresses religion, gender and issues of identity scroll down for video  muneera williams, 34, (left) and sukina owen douglas, 33, (right) form the hip hop group poetic pilgrimage  the women, who were both born and raised in bristol to jamaican migrant parents first entered the hip hop world after they moved to the capital together to study at the university of london a decade ago since then, they have cultivated a global fan base of devoted followers from both inside and outside the islamic community the attraction for their followers is, in part, the unlikely partnership between the fact that they are muslim women who have an impressive ability to write and perform verse sukina and muneera converted to islam ten years ago, just three weeks before the 7/7 bombings, and while the path hasn't always been easy, they haven't looked back they met at school in bristol and first became friends while performing in a gospel choir, but only decided to form a group after moving to the capital to study at university a few years later, they decided to convert to islam after learning about the religion through the autobiography of malcolm x and academic books about islam and feminism muneera  and sukina formed their rap group ten years ago  like most other female muslims, they now pray five times a day, avoid alcohol and wear the hijab the marriage of their religion and their profession has both inspired and upset many people though sukina told femail: 'there are people who have messaged us from all over the world who are appreciative of the bravery in our character 'but on the flip side there are people who have been unappreciative from both the muslim community and the non muslim community 'people who have suggested were using our hijabs as a gimmick to make money and that we aren't muslim at all 'then there are people who are really derogatory in the opening lines of the al jazeera documentary we did recently, i rapped about being taken from africa as a slave to the caribbean in the opening scene 'i got comments like 'you should be grateful that we colonised you, otherwise africans would still be in mud huts' 'it's the nature of our technological society though, you get a lot of trolling' the duo's lyrics are based around feminism, islam and political issues  to say that the woman have cornered a niche in the market is an understatement   their lyrics are based around feminism, islam and political issues sukina said: 'we talk about political situations but we try and take a different stance 'for instance, with something like the palestine issue we talk about someone who has lost a husband or someone who is a mother 'so we talk about it from a female perspective' at first, the women had a difficult time convincing the muslim community that they should be onstage rapping but in the last ten years, they have turned the prejudice around sukina said: 'in the muslim community it was very difficult because the topic of hip hop is very flammable it's everything that can be wrong with the world    drugs, violence and everything 'parts of the muslim community do find it very difficult 'people have approached my husband and asked 'why do you allow your wife to do this? why do you allow your wife onstage? i would never let my wife go onstage, i would never let my wife travel without me' 'he's a rapper as well, he's in a band called native sun and he has always known me as a rapper, so for us there has never been even a consideration that this shouldn't happen 'but that is hard for people to understand 'but in the last few years people have come to understand that it is a very positive thing and we have been asked to speak on panels at conferences on islam' the pair have released an album called the starwomen  while there may have been problems with the way the women have been received, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive overall one of the biggest surprises for the women was how wide their fan base was when they started sukina said: 'when we first converted to islam we though tour main following would be young muslim girls from england 'but at that time it was the beginning of myspace   it was  the first independent platform to put your music online   and some comments we got from people blew our minds 'we had amazing comments from people like a middle aged white guy from austria or a couple from portugal 'it wasn't just people from the muslim community 'it is hard to put it into a box, we represent the voice of women, the voice of black people and the voice of people from islam' and with a huge surge in interest into their music over the last few months, their popularity is only going to grow sukina said: 'some of the reaction we've had from people is amazing    we can't get our heads around the attention we've got 'ours is not a story of sorrow, we are not women wounded, rather we have found strength in what may seem strange to overs and we wouldn't have it any other way'
poetic pilgrimage islam muneera williams muslim sukina owen douglas femail
muneera williams and sukina owen douglas are female muslim rappers  the pair, who are called poetic pilgrimage, rap about feminism and islam  they talk to femail about the fans of their music and prejudices they face 