SOMETIMES I WANT TO WRITE ON IDENTITY AND OTHER TIMES I DON’T ”

Muslim journalists tell Maira Butt about being pigeonholed

It’s never been a better time to be a Muslim journalist. Media fascination with Islam continues- the migrant crisis, Shamima Begum, and war reporting in the Middle East all call for Muslim voices to be heard. As journalism reckons with its lack of diversity, more Muslims are being commissioned to write about their lives than ever before. But that’s the problem. With the increased visibility comes the downside. Like many marginalised voices, Faima Bakar, an award-winning journalist who has written for The Independent, Time Out and HuffPost UK, feels “Muslim issues” and identity are the only pieces she gets commissioned.

“It feels as if you’ve been pigeonholed into only being an expert on identity and not being trusted to write on other topics.”

It’s a conversation she regularly has with other journalists of colour: “My black friends have said Black History Month is the only time they get paid as editors are on the lookout for black writers. Same with South Asian History month, Islamophobia Awareness Month and Ramadan. The rest of the year it’s slim pickings. It’s a struggle I’m really facing right now as a freelancer.”

Yet, many fnd writing on their lived experience an easy way into an exclusive industry. Shaheena Uddin, a journalist for The Guardian and Sky News, says it’s how she got her foot in the door. “My frst real ‘break’ into the freelance industry was on South Asian and Muslim representation in Ms. Marvel for the EMC Media Mag and podcast.”

With no bylines at the time, she says: “The easiest way to start pitching was to focus on areas I was knowledgeable. My background as a Muslim Pakistani woman allows me to position myself as the right person to write certain articles, such as what it’s like being a visible hijab-wearing minority.”

There are extra pressures for marginalised communities at the early stages of their career, particularly if they’re young women.

Award-winning writer, Salma Haidrani, whose work has appeared in Vice, ELLE and Vogue, explains: “It’s such an incredibly tough profession. There’s a lot of pressure for women. They might feel they need to sell out their identity or their trauma to get a byline and become a recognisable name.” Haidrani began a trailblazing career writing on identity almost a decade ago, when she was one of the only voices in British journalism championing Muslim women. The idea of “selling out” is one Uddin recognises. “There are people who think you’re selling your soul if you write on identity.”

But the need to correct negative coverage of Muslims is the reason Uddin entered the industry in the frst place. “I was bright eyed and ready to do the PR work for Muslims and South Asian culture, to show that we’re not all bad. We are so underrepresented in the feld,” she says. Haidrani agrees, as she wrote through signifcant political events such as Brexit when far-right rhetoric and populist thinking had reached its peak. “I feel like I did my community a service,” she says. The negative coverage they were trying to correct included instances such as Boris Johnson’s infamous column on Denmark’s banning of the burka for The Telegraph, in which he referred to Muslim women wearing the niqab as “letter-boxes”. The following week, instances of Islamophobia in the UK rose by 375 per cent according to Tell Mama, from eight incidents the previous week to 38 in the following. 22 of those were directed at Muslim women who wore the niqab or face veil. Two in fve street-based incidents directly referenced Johnson and the language used in the column. to do more to protect minority journalists. The majority of media outlets cater to white audiences and are run by white editorial teams. This means Muslim writers can feel at risk of writing from an “orientalist gaze” — a term coined by Palestinian academic Edward Said to describe the way in which Eastern communities are viewed through an exoticised lens which perceives them as mysterious, inferior and other. It can be diffcult for journalists of colour to be perceived as anything other.

“You start to worry about becoming the thing you’re writing about,” says Haidrani. “I was never going to pander to the orientalist gaze, and I was adamant about that.”

Uddin feels that the framing of stories from certain cultures as “identity” or “token diversity topics” and “not just normal topics everyone should care about,” is too convenient for an already siloed industry. “Even the most objective journalist will have to make creative choices along the way. I feel this type of criticism is often a cheap way to discredit POC journalists.”

The Centre for Media Monitoring suggests that Johnson’s article, far from being an isolated event, is part of a media climate hostile to Muslims. They report that 59 per cent of articles that cover the Muslim community in the UK do so negatively. Despite making up 6.5 per cent of the UK population, only 0.05 per cent of journalists are Muslim. Uddin says: “We have so many stereotypes placed upon us, from the ‘terrorist trope’ to the ‘submissive oppressed woman’. Even the language used to describe the child Shamima Begum in the news is so different when describing white counterparts.”

But, being one of the few people from an under-represented and highly politicised community in a public-facing role also comes with its burdens. Haidrani says, “There is a lot of pressure. The weight of expectation placed on us is a lot. You feel a certain level of responsibility to represent your community in the best possible way.”

Not to mention the vitriol directed to Muslim journalists on social media. Bakar says: “When you write about race and religion you end up with loads of trolls, tweeting you and messaging you on social media and email. It’s quite a horrible experience. I’ve had abusive emails that were Islamophobic, racist and contained death and rape threats. I had to call the police as they claimed to have shared my address.” She has called on editors

She uses the example of Hamza Syed’s reporting on the Trojan Horse affair, an alleged plot to infltrate the country’s schools with an Islamist agenda which caused a national panic and was later found to be a hoax. “He was criticised for being biased and not objective because he comes from the community involved in his investigation. But ‘objective’ journalism is an incredibly fraught term. Arguably, every story has an agenda. Even the most impartial journalist will have to make creative choices along the way.”

Bakar believes editors are key tp the solution, and credits hers at Time Out for trusting her with topics she was interested in. Uddin feels the problem is bigger than journalism. “The reality is that it doesn’t matter how many Muslim journalists we have, Islamophobia will always be there if the institution itself is built on it.”

She credits organisations such as The Aziz Foundation, which provides scholarships and internships for aspiring Muslim journalists. “They have been actively working to get more Muslims into journalism so they can hold editors to account and somehow dismantle the institutional islamophobia and racism in the industry.”

Bakar, Haidrani and Uddin all feel that the key is control. “If it’s the only thing you’re made to write about, it no longer feels empowering,” says Uddin. Haidrani feels journalists should be free to write exactly what they want, in the way they want and that the process is dynamic. “Sometimes, I want to write on identity and other times I don’t. And that’s fne. But everything I’ve written, I’m proud of, even years later.”