Where writers are going wrong & how to make it right
Photo by Ciromaa_shots Umar
In modern times, media plays a significant role in shaping our views of the world. Books, TV shows, and films serve not only as sources of entertainment but as essential learning tools, exposing us to different cultures, religions, lifestyles, societies, and worldviews. While some people are able to separate reality from fiction, many around the world are heavily influenced by what they see or read in media produced by the imagination of individuals who may, or may not, have real knowledge of the people, places, and experiences they portray.
The representation of female Muslim characters is a topic very close to my heart. As a Muslim woman who has personally felt the impact of our portrayal in the media, I believe this is an issue of critical importance. Historically, these characters have been confined to a narrow corridor of stereotypes, tropes, and misconceptions, failing to capture the true essence of Muslim women’s experiences and identities. Muslim women are often portrayed as a monolith, fitting into a number of Islamophobic and misogynistic stereotypes, with little nuance or individuality written into their characters. At a time when Islamophobia is at an all-time high, examining the portrayal of Muslim women in the media is not only relevant but absolutely imperative. This essay aims to explore where writers are falling short in their depiction of female Muslim characters, as well as to propose pathways towards more accurate and respectful representation.
Female Muslim characters are exceedingly underrepresented, and when they do appear, they are frequently misrepresented. There is a clear gap in cultural understanding and sensitivity among writers, leading to stereotypical and one-dimensional portrayals. To foster a media landscape that truly reflects the diversity and complexity of Muslim women, it is crucial for writers to commit to thorough research and to seek out authentic voices, rather than relying on their own prejudiced views or limited knowledge. This is vital for providing an enriching narrative and a valid reflection of the reality of Muslim women, instead of perpetuating harmful stereotypes and imagery.
The representation of Muslim women in literature, TV, and film has been the subject of various studies and analyses, offering significant insights into their portrayal and presence across these mediums.
In film and television, a landmark study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative examined 200 top-grossing films released between 2017 and 2019 across the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand (The Stream, 2021). The study found that Muslims accounted for less than 2% of all speaking roles, despite comprising 24% of the world’s population. This severe underrepresentation, which is a travesty in itself, is compounded by incredibly stereotypical and harmful portrayals, where Muslim women are typically depicted as submissive romantic partners or relatives (Khan, Pieper et al., 2021).
Additionally, a report by the Pillars Fund notes that over half of the primary and secondary Muslim characters in films are portrayed as immigrants, migrants, or refugees, which consistently casts Muslims as ‘foreign’. It also highlights that nearly one-third of Muslim characters are depicted as perpetrators of violence, while over half are shown as targets of violence. “Muslim women, in particular, continue to be represented in stereotypical and submissive ways” (Pillars Fund, Ahmed, 2023).
In addition to the common tropes depicting Muslim women as submissive, uneducated, and oppressed, another recurring character we often see is the hijabi woman who falls in love with a white, non-Muslim man who ‘liberates’ her from both her oppressive father and her hijab. The character of Nadia in Netflix’s Élite is a prime example, sparking outrage among Muslim women who are exhausted by portrayals that insist they need a white saviour to liberate them. The notion that we can only be ‘liberated’ by removing our hijabs is particularly tiresome.
Another trope appears in Bodyguard. When Netflix avoids the white saviour narrative, it resorts to the oldest trick in the book: the terrorist trope. In Bodyguard, Nadia is an engineer and a ‘jihadi’. This terrorist cliché may have attempted to subvert the liberation trope but ultimately reinforced negative stereotypes about Muslims and, in particular, Muslim women. These clichés of terrorism and ‘liberation’ perpetuate the idea that Muslim women cannot simply exist without being oppressed by their families or becoming terrorists, as though these are the only narratives available. (Oladele, 2020)
The study conducted by Pillars Fund also examined the ethnic backgrounds of Muslim characters, revealing that over 85% were depicted as Middle Eastern, North African, or Asian—completely disregarding the reality that Muslims come from all ethnicities across the world.
Literature, regrettably, is no different. In his paper, ‘“An Imperialism of the Imagination”: Muslim Characters and Western Authors in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,’ Robin Miller’s research reveals that Western literature tends to portray Muslim men in one of three ways: “the bad Muslim,” the “good Muslim,” and the “white Muslim.” These archetypes reflect the tensions inherent in the East-West binary constructed by Orientalist perspectives, which romanticise the former perceived greatness of traditionally Islamic regions while simultaneously dismissing Muslim individuals and their unique experiences. This results in Western author’s inability to depict Muslims as fully realised characters (Miller, 2013). Although Miller’s study focused solely on male Muslim characters, his analysis can similarly be applied to female Muslim characters.
According to Hind Alem (2023), “Western culture has a long history of depicting Muslim women. Scholars refer to it as gendered Orientalism. In both visual and written media, Muslim women are consistently presented as culturally unique, mirror opposites of Western women. In the nineteenth century, Oriental women were typically shown as either slaves in harems or persecuted victims: imprisoned, isolated, veiled, and regarded as liabilities, as well as subjects of the gaze of lascivious and violent men, as Nader explains in ‘Orientalism, Occidentalism and the Control of Women (1989).’”
Fast-forward to the present, and little has changed. Muslim women continue to be portrayed as the stark opposites of ‘Western women,’ despite there being millions of Western Muslim women. A paper by Clare Bradford, ‘Representing Islam: Female Subjects in Suzanne Fisher Staples’s Novels,’ refers to Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s essay, ‘Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,’ noting that “Mohanty identifies three analytical frames that shape Western representations of Third World women: first, the assumption that such women form ‘an already constituted, coherent group with identical interests and desires’; second, an uncritical acceptance of ‘proof’ of universality and cross-cultural validity; and third, the notion of an ‘average Third-World woman’ defined as ‘ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, domestic, family-oriented, victimised’ in contrast to Western women, who are implicitly represented as ‘educated, modern, as having control over their own bodies and sexualities, and the freedom to make their own decisions’” (Bradford, 2007).
We also observe a recurring fixation on removing Muslim women’s clothes and leading them to ‘sexual liberation’ across various forms of media. Many “equate the veil with the Orient’s backwardness and lack of civilisation, and the unveiled Western dress code with modernity” (Abu Lughod, 2002; McDonald, 2006). Dina Abdo (2002, pp. 235-236) highlights that Arab female characters are frequently “humiliated, demonized, and eroticized.”. Shaheen (2001) notes that Arab women are often portrayed as either “gun toters or bumbling subservients, or as belly dancers bouncing voluptuously in palaces and erotically oscillating in slave markets” (Eissa, Guta et al., 2022).
The only female Muslim characters I have encountered in literature who are not overly sexualised, oppressed, terrorists, victims of violence, or simply uneducated, are those written by Muslim authors. There is a significant call for more authentic and diverse representations of Muslims, moving beyond the aforementioned stereotypes, as well as narratives where Muslims reject their faith or require liberation by non-Muslim characters. The discussion is also expanding to include portrayals of Muslims who enjoy being Muslim and have interests beyond their religious identity. Books like ‘All American Muslim Girl’ by Nadine Jolie Courtney and ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know’ by Samira Ahmed have been recognised for challenging these stereotypes and offering more nuanced portrayals.
These findings and discussions underline the need to shift how female Muslim characters are portrayed in the media, emphasising the importance of nuanced, accurate, and diverse representations that reflect the real-life experiences and complexities of Muslim women. Muslim women are not a monolith, and it is surely time for the world to move beyond colonialist stereotypes and racist tropes.
So, how can writers do better?
1. Unlearn your biases
First, we need you to unlearn everything you think you know about Muslim women. There are nearly a billion Muslim women in the world, representing approximately 12% of the global population (Dale, 2022). That alone should tell you that there is no cookie-cutter mould for a Muslim woman. Differences in ethnicity, culture, religious practice, geographical location, socio-economic status, education, political persuasion, as well as general likes and dislikes, mean that we are all individuals—a concept readily accepted for white, Western characters, who are afforded nuanced descriptions and lives.
2. Research
The most important step to writing better characters is to research the character you want to write. If you’re writing a Muslim woman, you must talk to and engage with Muslim women. Where is your story set? I can guarantee that a Muslim woman from West London will be completely different from a Muslim woman from a small village in Algeria or a Muslim woman from Texas. Find Muslim women from the location you’re writing about and talk to them.
Social media is an excellent tool for connecting with people and gaining a sneak peek into their lives. Find Muslim women on social media, follow them, and engage with them. Listen to their stories, opinions, and pet peeves—everything! The internet has opened up the world to us, so make use of it. Seek out blogs and books written by Muslim women, both fiction and non-fiction. There’s a treasure trove of insight to be discovered.
If you plan to write about a Muslim woman from a particular culture, research that culture as well. This doesn’t mean simply identifying the most common aspects of the culture and haphazardly cramming them into your writing. Instead, weaving in nuanced details—such as clothing, celebrations, food, manners, and more—will add depth to your story and character. Even if you’re writing about a Muslim woman in the West, many of us (though not all) are descendants of immigrants and retain elements of our ancestral cultures, no matter how ‘westernised’ we may be.
3. Treat us as individuals
It is, sadly, a recurring theme in both written and visual media to depict Muslim women as one-dimensional—reduced to being ‘just’ Muslim or ‘just’ a hijab. We have personalities, hobbies, and skills, just like everyone else. Give your Muslim character depth. Individuality. Nuance. “No single character should be an ambassador for an entire group or culture” (Tanquary, 2016).
Ethnographer Moyra Dale explained it very succinctly when she wrote the following: “If we talk about ‘Muslim women’ as a single undifferentiated category, we run the same risks of reductionism. Muslim women are united by gender and by religion, but there are many other factors which shape them. […] In each encounter we need to ask, who is this woman? What is her experience, and what influences have shaped her life to this point? These may include her class background, education, family wealth and family connections, and also her status within the family— whether she is married and has children. Which branch or sect of Islam she belongs to, which geographical location she is from, and her ethnicity, will all substantially affect her life experience, opportunities, and expectations” (Dale 2022).
4. Get Muslim women beta readers to check your work
Muslim women can point out anything you may have misunderstood or misrepresented. Listen, learn, and adjust.
Conclusion
To conclude, while the current situation regarding Muslim female characters across media remains dire, a movement is emerging that promises to create change. The Muslim Blueprint is actively working to improve Muslim representation in film and television. They are currently running the ‘Muslim Visibility Challenge’, urging the film industry to “transform on-screen representation of Muslims with two urgent actions.” The first is to cease using storylines centred on violent Muslim terrorists, and the second is to involve Muslims in the creative process to “create more well-rounded and accurate stories” (Pillars Fund, Ahmed 2023).
In literature, the demand for more diverse and authentic Muslim characters is being addressed by Muslim writers themselves. However, it is hoped that, over time, more writers will incorporate authentic Muslim characters into their work, allowing millions around the world to view Muslim women as human beings and individuals, rather than stereotypes or the product of racist, sexist tropes.
______________________________________________________________________________
Bibliography:
ALEM, H., 2023. The Representation of the Oriental Woman in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry: Liberating the Veiled Body in “Purdah” and “Ariel”. Theory and practice in language studies, 13(4), pp. 1023-1030.
BRADFORD, C., 2007. Representing Islam: Female Subjects in Suzanne Fisher Staples’s Novels. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 32(1), pp. 47-62.
DALE, M., 01/, 2022-last update, The diversity of Muslim women: Afghanistan and beyond. Available: https://lausanne.org/content/lga/2022-01/the-diversity-of-muslim-women [12/01/, 2024].
EISSA, E.A., GUTA, H.A. and HASSAN, R.S., 2022. Representations of Arab Women in Hollywood Pre- and Post- 9/11. Journal of international women’s studies, 24(5), pp. 1-20.
KHAN, A., PIEPER, K., SMITH, S.L., CHOUEITI, M., YAO, K. and TOFAN, A., 06/, 2021-last update, Missing & Maligned:
The Reality of Muslims in Popular Global Movi. Available: https://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/aii-muslim-rep-global-film-2021-06-09.pdf [11/11/, 2023].
MILLER, R.K., 2013. “An Imperialism of the Imagination”: Muslim Characters and Western Authors in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Student Publications, (197),.
OLADELE, B., 16/09/, 2020-last update, The representation Of Muslim Women On Netflix. Available: https://www.lappthebrand.com/blogs/culture/the-representation-of-muslim-women-in-netflix [02/02/, 2024].
PILLARS FUND and AHMED, R., 2023-last update, The Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion. Available: https://themuslimblueprint.org/ [12/11/, 2023].
TANQUARY, K., Jan 7, 2016-last update, 7 Tips for Writing About Other Cultures. Available: https://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/7-tips-for-writing-about-other-cultures [12/01/, 2024].
THE STREAM, 2021. What will it take to boost Muslim representation in film? Al Jazeera.
