Muslim Women In Mainstream Media
British Muslim women are changing the way they are perceived in mainstream media by being a part of it, helping to battle stereotypes to show what it means to be a true British Muslim.
Aamiliah Begum
Aamiliah Begum is a radio presenter at Unity FM who started very late when entering the Media industry with no degree or experience, but the drive to start dialogues and discuss topics that were important for women, both Muslim and non-Muslim because she felt there was not enough of that happening. This led her to reach out to Unity FM and start a show called Women’s Hour where she discusses a variety of topics, from health to sexual abuse.
Introduction
Aamiliah had gone through many obstacles that are usually kept behind closed door in the Asian community, but with the biggest being her health. She was diagnosed with endometriosis and fought the battle alone after divorcing from her husband, but has used her own experiences to talk to other women and men about these topics to help them understand and see that they are not alonea. She feels that as a British-Bangladeshi Muslim woman she brings new perspective that others cannot.
“It’s the organic information that I bring into the conversation, so it's not the perceived Muslim women, here you have the real Muslim woman, the difficulties that I’ve encountered in life, the challenges that I’ve encountered in life, I bring those into the conversation, so it's not an objective opinion of Muslim woman going through X, Y, and Z but it’s actually a Muslim woman saying well no we're not going through that, your opinion is completely flawed but this is what the reality of it is.”
Bringing "organic" representations
Aamiliah Begum and radio station Unity FM
Creating change
Despite the controversy there is of Asian women talking about certain topics, Aamilah feels these controversial conversations need to be had despite the difficulties, however, she does take into consideration the sensitivity of certain topics and discusses them carefully.
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“Conversations need to be had no matter how difficult they are, no matter what the topic is, what the subject is, be it grooming domestic, violence, endometriosis we have to have the conversations and sometimes I do go in there thinking, oh my gosh how am I going to talk about this? how am I going tackle this? am I going to be judged? but then I think you know what we have to have these conversations and so I just carry on the way that I would, I don't let being a Muslim woman get in the way of what I want to talk about.”
Even though Aamiliah has worn a headscarf for many years, she does feel there is a judgment around it and finds that it encourages her to interact with people so that she can challenge perspectives by just being present and speaking for herself.
“There's no denying there's a narrative out there, that Muslim women are oppressed, or Muslim women aren’t educated, Muslim women don’t know how to make choices, Muslim women don’t know how to engage in intellectual conversations and the list goes on, and I think its really important that we are out there and show that actually this conversation about Muslim women who are oppressed and not intelligent etcetera, that its not correct and that we are like any other women, and we can bring to the table what any other woman could bring to the table.”
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She grew up listening to stories of Muslim women throughout history making change and they motivated her to be strong and not to fall into stereotypes and cultural views of what a Muslim woman should be.
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"You've got values that belong to a certain culture, it's their way of living, it's the way their system works and religion got mixed into it, Religion for me is simple for me Islam is the Quran, which is the word of god, then its the Hadith that's what I see religion as but then you have all this cultural stuff that says oh no women should be in doors, but then you look at Islam, you have women were Islam who were in politics who were in education who were in the medical field, they were found in every realm of life, so when you look at Islam it's the religion that elevated the status of a women.
"The more authentic Muslim women we bring into media and showcase what Islam is really about then we can start dissolving off this cultural perception people have of Islam."
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Aamiliah Begum speaking at international women's day event
She grew tired of the conversation not being had in her community and realised that the media industry is male dominated and when there were women on community radio stations, they spoke about "airy fairy" topics such as cooking.
"I thought there's so many things that affect us Muslim women in Birmingham, we need to have these meaningful conversations, we (women) are already empowered, as Muslim women our religion gave us that empowerment and we just have to look 1400 years ago at the examples of the women that we had, you've got the very first women who embraces Islam was a business women, a very successful business women Khadija, I wanted to do a show that re-empowers Muslim women and remind them about who they are what their strength are."
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She has first-hand felt the power of what she does when leading an Islamic counselling course and a woman came and gave her a big hug because Aamiliah had unknowingly made a women’s husband realise the silent pain his wife was going through despite being married for years with three children.
“I said (on air) ‘you need to support those women in your household, the people that you know, the women that you know, whether that’s your friends, or your family you really need to support them because this is a tough journey,’ she (the women) said ‘for the first time, her came home and he asked me how’s your health,’ that was an amazing for me.”
Aamiliah Begum speaking at Parliament about endometriosis
Advice
"You have to start with self-belief and that with anything, you have to believe that you can do it and you have to believe you have the right skill set, the right intention, and that you have the right motivation. Also, being a women of faith, I believe that my lord places me where I'm supposed to be and if your lord is opening up the doors of media for you, then that's where you're placed to be, and when you know yourself, you know your values you have that self-belief, confidence oozes out of you and people notice that and it shaves off a lot of the prejudice opinions that they may have of you and I encourage women to do it.