The Muslim News - Women in Black: Superficial portrayal of Muslim women

Issue 231, Friday 25 July 2008 - 23 Rajab 1423

Women in Black: Superficial portrayal of Muslim women

By Aziza Al-Yassin

The Women in Black series that recently featured on the BBC, comprising five 60-minute episodes, followed Yemeni-born British-Muslim Amani Zain as she ventured on a journey that took her back to Yemen, Dubai, Egypt, the UK and Holland to reveal what lies “behind the veil”.
Ranging from hijabi female race-car drivers to the “Hollywood wax which Muslim women have been at for centuries,” Zain’s series comes across as little more than a superficial depiction of Muslim women, all too often confusing the terms ‘religion’ and ‘culture’. Despite this, the series has attracted considerable attention, and viewers’ opinions on various online forums immediately highlight the ‘marmite’ reaction it has generated: people either loved it or hated it.
While the non-Muslim audience might have thought it was an insightful journey in the shoes of a Muslim woman that helped subvert false stereotypes currently surrounding them, Muslim women may well have found the shallowness of the culture and lifestyle presented disappointing.
In a noble attempt to dispel some myths about Muslim women, Zain indirectly finds herself stereotyping non-Muslims.
As one youtube viewer observed, “She always starts new topics with ‘most western women think...’ Where does she do her surveys? She argues that Muslim women shouldn’t be classified as one sect but happily puts all ‘western’ women together, uninformative and patronising. Awful.”
Much of the series was filmed around beauty salons, internet cafes and portals through which singletons secretly flirt. Sneaking into bars and nightclubs, Zain’s camera crew were told to stop filming by the fearful ‘perpetrators’, bringing the prevalence of the double life that many Muslims lead to the fore.
Whilst some would argue that Zain was simply offering a reflection of the reality that does exist, why did her camera crew conveniently forget to visit the universities, hospitals and numerous other professional fields in which Muslim women have flourished?
Five hours of prime national airtime could have been put to better use in answering the awkward questions that linger on the minds of many, or subverting stereotypes created by the media regarding issues more relevant to the lives of most Muslims than their favourite brand of jeans and handbags. Instead, the 5-episode series was used to tell the western world that Muslim women wear make-up, too; they also care about the way they look and like to shop just like you do. Some rays of hope came in Holland when Zain explored the identity issues of second-generation Dutch Moroccans.
It was disconcerting as a Muslim woman to be represented by a presenter who slips out of her western clothes and into her Abaya (Arab attire) in an aeroplane toilet. ‘Western’ and ‘Muslim’ culture were constantly portrayed as two conflicting entities that occasionally intermingle, yet many British Muslims are content in uncompromisingly practicing their beliefs and integrating perfectly into a society that has accepted them.
Back in the UK for the final part, Zain sets out to examine distinctions between Asian and Arab Muslim women. And so we learn that some Pakistani Muslims find niqab (face veil) wearers “frightening”, while others prefer its modesty to their traditional shalwar kameez.
Zain could have spared us the diluted message with a more serious interaction with the women featured, most notably the High Commissioner of Pakistan. Invited into the home of Dr Maleeha Lodhi, one cannot help wishing Zain had probed further than the woman’s closet.
The Oxford educated diplomat could have been quizzed on how she and the late Benazir Bhutto managed to flourish in a male-dominated political arena; instead, Dr Lodhi was left making constant references to her shalwar kameez collection.

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