A weekend in Cardiff with one half of the hip-hop group Poetic Pilgrimage.
Tanya Muneera Williams started the hip hop group Poetic Pilgrimage with her friend, Sukina Owen-Douglas
The duo converted to Islam after they moved from Bristol to London
"I saw the value of being raised Christian. Part of being a Muslim is that you believe in the Bible and the Torah.
At lot of people around me in London started converted to Islam and I was rude to them. I started researching Islam to try and convince them not to convert.
But I realised a lot of what Islam talks about I was already doing - firstly the belief in God.
I'd been fasting since the age of nine with my mum. Even before becoming a Muslim I fasted during Ramadan, I felt like I was part of something that was happening in the world - part of a community of people all fasting together and celebrating at the end. Fasting became something really beautiful.
I was practicing my life like a Muslim in many ways.
From this girl who was insecure I felt like I was finding myself."
Tanya and Sukina converted to Islam three weeks before the 7/7 bombings. When Tanya was visibly Muslim she realised, "People want someone to blame and you become the representation of it."
Tanya (centre) speaking at a Gentle Radical/WOW Women's Film Club event in Cardiff
"People would swear and throw food at us. There's been situations where I've been really intimidated. I know women who've had their scarves pulled off, been kicked, spat on, and pushed down stairs."
Why Hip Hop?
"It's the tool of our generation. Some people think women shouldn't perform, but they don't have to listen. It's my duty to perform.
The hip hop I was raised on is not about violence against women. Some of the safest spaces I've been in are hip hop spaces."
Tanya said she and Sukina have had rape and death threats from all sides; Muslims who think they shouldn't perform, racists, and pan-African centric people who think they shouldn't have converted to Islam.
"I'm 100% Jamaican, 100% Muslim, 100% woman - and I'm proud of it."
