This week I binged on all 6 episodes of ‘We are Lady Parts’ with my wife, if you haven’t checked it out and intend to do so, *Spoiler Alert* maaaaybe come back to this post when you’ve done so! But if you’re not so precious, let’s go….
As a British Muslim who’s often felt like I was born to live on the fringes (partying, drinking, smoking, but still cultured and self-aware AF), I read the synopsis and welcomed this new piece of writing by Nida Manzoor.
I related to the lead singer Saira the most, unapologetically herself, tatts and all and Punk as fuck but finding time to bow down every now and then in thanking the Most-High. And then there was the shy and nervous Amina, constantly surrounded by the Muslim policing brigade, a group of do-gooder friends who had to ‘check’ her Muslim badge every now and then. The character mix up of South Asian, Arab and African experiences from the Muslim world were well reflected and represented as well as personal experiences such as Ayesha played by Juliette Motamed, the outspoken Hijabi drummer who is later revealed to be Gay.
But as a writer, actor and theatre practitioner, for me it’s about opportunity as well as representation and this is where the show left me feeling a little perturbed. Saira’s boyfriend Abdullah was played by David Avery, a non Muslim actor of Greek and English heritage and the band manager, Momtaz, was played by Lucie Shorthouse an actress of one quarter Ugandan and three quarters white Irish heritage.
In a world where the Muslim identity is constantly being policed, whether we’re talking the hijab ban in France or the halal slaughter ban in parts of Europe, I couldn’t help but wonder whether non Muslim actors playing Muslim roles is something that needs to be addressed!
Take the classic film East is East, a story about a mixed English and Pakistani family, the cast, all non-Muslim! Or the Masood family on Eastenders, all non-Muslim! Or Citizen Khan, the whole family bar Adil Ray himself and the son in law played by Abdullah Afzal, all non-Muslim.
This constant casting of non-Muslim actors for Muslim roles wasn’t such a big deal back in the days, especially if the actor was, say, a Punjabi Sikh playing a Pakistani Muslim, they look the part so what’s the big deal? We were just glad to have some form of representation on TV, albeit maybe a stereotypical one, but that’s a conversation for another time!
But in a world where Muslim women who don the hijab or niqab have been openly attacked and assaulted and we as Muslims are constantly defending our religion whilst having the actions of 1.3 billion Muslims placed on our individual shoulders, it does question the idea of lived experiences. Would I advocate the constant casting of Muslim actors to play Sikh roles wearing the Sikh turban (dastaar)? Nope; because there are Sikh male actors for whom that role would be ideal. A Muslim actor can retire from the dastaar, which to him would essentially be a prop he can take off, whereas for a dastaar-wearing Sikh man, that isn’t the case.
As I delved deeper into the credits rolling up the screen at the end of each episode and further research, it was clear that the majority of the main roles portrayed as Muslims were being played by anyone but. One could argue ‘Muslim’ isn’t always a visible identity, but if we take the example of the decision of the creators of Channel 4’s ‘It’s a Sin’ to cast only Gay characters for Gay roles (another binge worthy show), there is an argument for the same thinking to be applied to other marginalised groups. Of course, I’m not pushing for a red tape around Muslim roles to be only ever played by a Muslim, however, we aren’t talking about the odd Muslim role here and there. It is undeniable that the majority of Muslim characters on TV and films are played by non-Muslim actors and as a Muslim actor, one who is often finding Spotlight jobs now openly stating ‘this role is only open to actors of Muslim heritage’, I’m finding it hard to understand the reason why the industry continues to miscast.
We are living in an age of accurate representation and casting, and while it isn’t the end of the world when the odd brown person plays the character of another brown person, the casting of someone of say European heritage to portray my lived experience, that ain’t cool! Just looking the part will no longer suffice, not now we are talking about the lived experiences individuals. Brown skinned people are not a homogenous group, even the character of Amina’s love interest Ahsan, a young British Iraqi, was played by an East African actor of Indian heritage. Outside of the complexities of identity politics and representation, We Are Lady Parts is a great watch and smoothly breaks many stereotypes of Muslim women in society and for that I commend Nida Manzoor, let’s just be mindful of accurate representation and opportunities!