Yahoo Finance We Are Lady Parts radically breaks down female Muslim stereotypes
Speak, for your lips are yet free;
Speak, for your tongue is still your own;
Your lissom body yours alone;
Speak, your life is still your own.
In Nida Manzoor’s comedy series revolving around a Muslim women's punk band (yes you read that right), lead singer Saira performs a heart-wrenching poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz at an event.
The crux of the poem is: speak! And that's exactly what We Are Lady Parts does in all its laugh-out-loud, challenging-everything-we-know-about-Muslim-women glory, because it says all the things that many of us have perhaps been too scared to say.
Feminist writer Mona Elthawy describes the show as "Too Loud, Swears Too Much, Goes Too Far" in the best way possible. In a world where Muslim women are, by and large, defined by a narrative of silencing, solemnity and struggle, a show that screams against all those narratives is just what we need.
From quite literally being very loud in their music – 'Voldemort Under My Headscarf' is a favourite – to Ayesha's graphic eyeliner, Momtaz's biker gloves and Saira's tattoos, the show maintains its fast pace and glaringly obvious messaging throughout.
But what speaks even louder is what the show doesn't say. Its characters never feel the need to talk about their clothes, their relationship with religion, or explain who they are until they are forced to. What makes We Are Lady Parts radical is the beauty of its characters who can scream punk lyrics in one scene and blow audiences away with their recitation of South Asia's most prominent literary poets in the next.
It's when influencer and editor Zarina starts interviewing them that we suddenly see them from the outside lens, the one the world generally views Muslim women from. It's a glaring reminder that, up until that moment, the show has never felt the need to explain any of the usual justifications that so many Muslim women feel forced to give, when they don't conform to either the ideals of the perfect Muslim women or, as Zarina titles our loud and proud girl band, "The bad girls of Islam" – which they are decidedly not.
Because between patriarchal leadership, islamophobic stereotypes and the supposedly liberating forces of white feminism, Muslim women are almost never allowed to define themselves. That's what Zarina tries to do as well, and it's clear that even before her article comes out, her questioning has already made the women of Lady Parts feel uncomfortable in their own skin.
But what makes it worse is how so many, if not all, Muslim women I know could relate to Zarina's questioning all too well. Because, time and again, they have been put through the same lens that's already coloured to project their identity in the way that everyone other than Muslim women chooses to. What makes We Are Lady Parts radical is that Zarina – who is a character every Muslim woman knows in her daily life – is the odd one out here, because the show has created an unbreachable space of radical self-love that Muslim women have been craving to see represented.
Show creator Nida Manzoor shared that the show was inspired by women she knew, and her desire to put forth some of the "joy and silliness" she shared with Muslim women around her in her everyday life. Manzoor's characters are radical not simply because they refuse to conform, but because they never feel the need to explain that lack of conformity. They simply exist for themselves – which also serves as a thoughtful contrast when compared with timid new guitarist Amina's journey into finding her own place in the band and, perhaps along with it, herself.
As she describes in her panic-induced performance at the same poetry night where Saira pays ode to one of the most brilliant Urdu poets of all time, that feeling of freedom is like Godzilla after she destroys the city: calm and mindful.
I've never liked punk music, never had a tattoo, and never worn a niqab, and yet it felt like each character in the show was written just for me – because, like all of them, I have always strived to create a space just for myself. And that's what Lady Parts is for all of them.
For Amina, it becomes her channel to finally free herself from the social pressures of marriage, being wife material and staying 'halal', which quite importantly does not come from her parents who are, in fact, far too busy checking out her dates and ruining all potential marriage prospects. What makes We Are Lady Parts radical is that not one character is who we are told they should be. Not Amina's mother, who does everything in her power to move her daughter away from her obsession with husbands, not Bisma the punk rock musician, mother and homemaker, and definitely not Momtaz whose very face audiences never get to see during the entirety of the show and never feel the need to.
Momtaz, who tells Zarina her niqab "makes her feel like Beyoncé", manages to act throughout the show without viewers ever once feeling like they were missing out because they couldn't see her facial expressions or know what she really looked like. And Manzoor's point is loud and clear: are all these arbitrary markers of identity really important?
At a time where the clothing Muslim women may choose or not choose to wear has gained global political importance – whether it be France, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan – We Are Lady Parts is radical because of how little it cares. It effectively breaks down the walls of 'modesty', 'marriage', and 'muslim-ness' that are used to trap and box up Muslim women.
Interesting, then, that these concepts all exist within the show for all the different individuals, but where they truly thrive is where they are no longer used as markers of control. After ages, we finally have a show where its Muslim women are well and truly free.
We Are Lady Parts airs Thursday nights at 10pm on Channel 4, and is available on All 4.
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