Right, this might be long. Let me just talk about being a visible Muslim women working in the film and television industry in Scotland. I have been asked, at an event for women in the industry, why I was at the event, the woman asking couldn't understand how someone 'like me'
wasn't at home producing a million babies and being restricted by my parents. I have been at festival openings and seen an open bar but not a single option for free non-alcoholic drinks. I have been told that if I was to change my lead character to a white woman then they'd take
on the project, a south asian woman just won't sell. For a while, every event or opportunity felt like it had added struggle to it, a need either conform to the stereotypes OR be really bold and clear my own space and firmly occupy it. When I decided I was going to work in this
industry my dad said he didn't think it was the place for me. What he meant was that he didn't know if I'd be welcomed, he didn't know if I would want to make a life out of writing Muslim characters that were oppressed, victims and total stereotypes, everything he had worked hard
to make sure his daughters weren't. I told him to trust me. I was going to do this. As I learnt how the industry worked, as I navigated it and met people in film and television, and I saw the interest they had in my voice, I also noticed that when I started to challenge a lot of
what had come before that it made some people uncomfortable. Being told that Asian stories have been told before (I'm sorry, but does anyone say that white male stories have been told before?), being told that the films I should watch for inspiration are ones in which either
Muslim or South Asian women are victims. I don't write victims. So the fight is to convince them that what they've seen previously isn't true. You would think a Muslim South Asian woman standing in front of them saying all of this is enough, but it really isn't for some. However,
I'm lucky that I've found the people that get it. The people that look to me to get the details right, that want to help me dismantle the negativity that exists around the Muslim community, the South Asian community and Muslim women in general. However, when you have publicly
funded broadcasters once again recycle that same old narrative of Muslim = extremist and this is the only type of representation of that community, then you're saying to hundreds and thousands of young Muslims that want to be a part of this industry that all they can be part of
is the narrative that puts the world against them. You allow those parents to feel that their children won't ever have a positive experience in such a career so they navigate them away from it. And then you call in people like me to ask why we don't have more diversity in film
and television. The industry is now being is held to account when it comes to diversity, or so they tell us. However, you can't throw in a stereotype and think that'll tick your box. If you're failing at representing communities authentically and constantly throwing the myth of
the white saviour at us then we might as well be going back to the days of the empire. We have a voice and experience that isn't the one that you assume. This Muslim woman is not oppressed. Not brainwashed by men in the community. This Muslim woman has men in her family that have
dedicated their lives to raising strong independent women. How unfair and disgusting that what you're feeding the general public is the opposite of that. How disgusting that you are the reason that some Muslim women are going to be the victims for Islamophobia, of hate speech
thrown at them, at actual physical harm. Possibly, worse still, at creating divisions between communities because you paint one group as the enemy because you really don't know how to do it any other way. Storytelling is not difficult, you have it in your power to create
compelling stories without throwing an entire group under the bus. I'm just so disappointed.
However, I'm not disheartened, because I've seen the number of people calling it out and I hope that we do that every single time this happens. That we use things like @theriztest to
However, I'm not disheartened, because I've seen the number of people calling it out and I hope that we do that every single time this happens. That we use things like @theriztest to
hold to account the funders that don't question representation on screen. We live in divisive times and the power of the media is SO strong. The power of story is SO strong. Don't use it to divide. Use it to allow us all to understand each other better, use it to re-write
dishonest narratives, use it to break down walls, not build them.
And apologies for the several typos!
