Female Muslim Actress Who wears Hijab!!!

'I want to open people's minds'

Sara's aunt is an actress in Iran and inspired her
Sara Kohal is no ordinary aspiring actress. The 20-year-old wears the hijab, the traditional head-covering worn by many Muslim women.
She freely admits she is a wannabe, scrambling to get a foothold in a notoriously difficult profession.

But as a practising Muslim, she faces all sorts of obstacles when she portrays a character. She does not drink or smoke, she must be careful about touching men - and obviously she cannot show anything other than her face and hands.

She contacted the BBC News website because she was frustrated by the lack of opportunity and because she wants to see greater representation of Muslim women on stage and screen.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the age of 13, Sara joined the Junior Television Workshop in Nottingham and has performed on stage, both at school and at university, since then. She was also selected for a part in the ITV children's series Dangerville.

In her gap year, she auditioned for Rada and got through to the final interview. Now she's studying genetics at Bristol University - the fall-back plan, she calls it - but is still approaching agents and directors for work.

If you are going to walk in and most of your head is covered and you're not going to remove your scarf, that is your blank canvas

Jean Rogers, Equity
The response has not always been encouraging. One agent replied saying there would be no scope for someone who wore the hijab.

"If you wear your headscarf all the time I would also advise you that a career in acting would not be suitable," it reads.

"Not only are actors required to be flexible with their image you may also find yourself compromised in terms of content in scripts."

Sara says her image should not be the only thing a director sees.

"I've never seen it as a restriction, for me it's a creative challenge how I can make it believable and yet get around it," Sara says.


Sara sees the constraints of her religion as creative challenges

She points out that she knows some parts would not work -"I would never put myself up for the part of Juliet, I will always go for the nurse" - but says there are few parts she doesn't think are open to her, providing the director has the imagination.

But surely that's the problem? She is asking a director to limit his or her creative freedom. Jean Rogers, vice president of Equity, says Sara is limiting herself because drama is a visual industry - and so there is always going to be an element of discrimination.

"People make suppositions on what they see. Unless you get the chance to be told what they are after, most actors try to play down anything they think will put people off. You try to be a blank canvas.

"If you are going to walk in and most of your head is covered and you're not going to remove your scarf, that is your blank canvas.

Sara points out that she can wear a wig or a hat to cover her head. And she's hardly alone in creating restrictions for herself: plenty of actors have nudity clauses in film contracts, for example.


A career in genetics beckons if acting does not work out

Sara's views go beyond her own career though. She wants to see a broader representation of Muslim women on stage and screen.

There are female Muslim detectives, nurses and office workers in modern Britain, she says. "That's not represented at all.

"I've never seen a Muslim woman in a drama or anything, playing a part other than either a terrorist, a drug smuggler or a woman being abused at home. I think that's wrong - that's not what Muslim women are about. It's a minority image of them."

She wants to see a nurse on Casualty wearing the hijab, for instance. "The first one you will see will be 'Wow, we've never seen this before', but people will get used to it."

Opening minds

Ms Rogers points out that we have a tradition of experimental theatre in Britain - but that commercial TV, for instance, will not branch out.

But she believes Sara has a point about ethnic minority representation. "A lot of ethnic minorities could say the same. There's got to be a 'token black person'."

The BBC says it is committed to reflecting diversity.

We see lots of women adopting traditional dress and yet very rarely represented within drama both in terms of TV or live theatre

William Harris, lecturer

Sara says: "I do want to start opening people's minds about it because even if the roles are small, you can catch people's eyes. Even if you're in the background, people are going to say: 'oh?'.

"Once people start accepting they will see you in bigger roles.

"I do want the bigger roles and open their eyes to what could be. It will happen."


Fine actors

William Harris, senior lecturer in drama at Middlesex University, says it is important students like Sara are encouraged. "Otherwise, we are missing out on a large section of the community we need to understand."

He points out that drama makers are not there to change society - they are there to entertain. "Thinking beyond the archetype can be difficult because you've got your audience in mind.

"The audience has to believe what it's being offered. It's possible to change attitudes in society but it's not their first port of call."

Aspirants like Sara are in a double bind, he says: we need them to portray an under-represented part of the community, and yet they cannot receive the full professional training because of the limitations their faith puts on them.

"We see lots of women adopting traditional dress and yet very rarely represented within drama both in terms of TV or live theatre," he says.

But he thinks there is hope, citing the way young black actors 10 or 15 years ago were chosen to play parts because of their colour; now they are chosen simply because they are fine actors.

"There's a possibility that change could be made," he says. "It takes young actors and playwrights and film-makers of courage to make the change."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4964222.stm