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.
Haseebah Ali:
Introduction:
Haseebah Ali is an artist and a workshop facilitator. She took the traditional route of studying art in college and following it on to an illustration degree, enabling her to secure a job in running workshop classes. She has successfully had her work showcased at galleries in the West Midlands.
Financing her passion:
Working in the creative industry was not always what Haseebah wanted to do, knowing how unpredictable it is, but her love for art is what drove her to pursue it.
​
"With a creative, yes you have money, as a thing to live off, but you don't do creative stuff to make money, you do creative stuff to be creative."
​
Haseebah has found ways to fund her passion and social life, as the creative industry is not always the most lucrative career.
​
"The industry is so unpredictable so with me, yes I want to produce art and I want to sell my art but there's a side of where I can go into teaching as a backup because I like teaching but it's also a way for me to pay the bills."
​
Along with her artwork, Hassebah does workshop classes but also likes the idea of teaching children in the hope to inspire the next generation.
​
"With the curriculum, how they're kind of stipping more with the creative subjects and focusing more on academia, it's important for them to go to a place, to go to a class, for them to trust the teacher they're with and just explore their creative side.
Haseebah Ali
"I loved my art teachers, I thought she was wacky, and it give them (children) a chance, the kids that aren't so academic to flourish, for them to be happy with what they're doing and to feel safe and I know that's weird to say with art but sometimes kids, with school, when they feel pressurised with other subjects and they feel they're not good enough, or not smart enough it's a chance for them to feel safe. to feel happy"
Creating for herself:
She is the first person in her family to enter the creative field and it has not effected her relationship with her family but it has not been something her family has taken seriously.
“It's a funny one, because they still don't take it seriously and I know that's sad to say but they don't, for example, I had my solo exhibition opening at the Gap and one of the people there wanted to buy a piece and my grandad's was like 'he wants to buy a piece,' and I said yeah you can get money out of this, its an actual profession, my mum understands it but they still don't understand why I want to work in this field.”
Art has created conversations throughout history and Haseebah is doing the same and feels that it is a conversation starter, that a good art piece can attract more attention than lengthy articles, as she herself uses her art to create conversations on what she has seen. For her final year project at University, Hassebah did an art piece about the refugee crisis with the desire to increase diversity within art. She felt there was not enough people from her background creating art, and she wanted to utilise her time to create conversation about what people were facing. This was criticised by someone who did not agree with her chosen topic, who claimed that art should not be political.
Haseebah Ali at one of her exhibits
“If someone speaks to me and has an automatic response, it’s just about educating them, that's all you need to do, and if they still have that opnion then that’s their opinion at the end of the day. You kind of have to have that thick skin when it comes to being the creative, for me personally I don't do work please others I’ll do my work to please myself and if people like it that's a bonus but it does not always end result of I have to make something to make people to like my work or people to like me, or I won’t change my persona when I go to a place just to make it to seem like I’m a liberal Muslim, I'll be whoever I want to be.”
Marriage:
A government report shows that Muslim women in the UK are more likely than all other women to be economically inactive, one of the main reasons being after education many parents encourage daughters to get married and motherhood, and the role of a women in south Asian communities are more to do with taking care of family, 18% of Muslim women aged 16 to 74 recorded are “looking after home and family” compared with 6% in the overall population. Being 22 Haseebah has already felt the pressure of people around her talking about marriage but she has decided to put her career first and feels it should no longer be an obstacle anymore for Muslim women.
“There's no point thinking about marriage, if it happens it happens like your destiny is already written for you all you have to do is go along with it and I’ve seen artists like I saw one person on Instagram and she's a printmaker and she had her child on her hips but she was also printmaking, that’s so badass to do.
one of the Syrian refugee art Pieces created by Haseebah Ali
“You can still do it, it's going to be hard but you can still do it, it's not impossible and don’t put yourself into that marriage box I know people are going to say that stuff, I know with me (people say) you're at that age now, you need to think about marriage and I’ll just nod my head but won't pressurise and make that my party right now because I care about my career.”
We are here:
The controversy with social media influencers and YouTubers has always been an intense topic of debate, but Haseebah feels it is what has the narrative of Muslim women giving them a chance to be seen.
​
"You'll see in social media, these hijabis are killing it, they're absolutely killing it, I'm seeing more Muslim women bloggers and artists especially on social media it becomes more of a positive thing.
​
"It's nice having hijabi bloggers, anything hijabi really, it's nice to have it there because it shows that we're here."
Advice:
"Keep on doing what you're doing and don't be afraid of what people are going to say, because people are going to talk no matter what you do, don't be afraid of pushing those barriers, whether it's culturally or even in your own family, represent who you are and then you won't feel any regrets about that."