People are calling out BBC’s Bodyguard for stereotyping Muslims

*Warning: this article contains spoilers*

The first season of the BBC‘s critically acclaimed drama series Bodyguard came to its conclusion on Sunday 23 September. The series has received praise for its exploration of themes such as corruption and mental health.

However, after the finale, people took to Twitter to call out the portrayal of Muslims in the series as heavily stereotypical and Islamophobic:

The disgraceful and dangerous portrayal of Muslim women as manipulative terrorists in BBC's #Bodyguard should not go unchallenged. It is lazy representations like this which create and sustain Islamophobic violence against Muslim women.#bodyguard

— Michael Mumisa (@MichaelMumisa) September 23, 2018

The Riz Test

Many have suggested that the Bodyguard falls woefully short when measured with ‘The Riz Test‘. This pop-culture test has been inspired by actor Riz Ahmed to determine the depth of Muslim onscreen characters:

ICYMI: We made a test to show how TV like #bodyguard fails at Muslim representation https://t.co/55GoBW2AMK via @MetroUK #bbcbodyguard

— The Riz Test (@theriztest) September 23, 2018

Taking inspiration from Riz Ahmed’s speech on representation and the Bechdel and Duvernay tests, the Riz Test hopes to start a conversation about the need for a concerted effort to have fair representation in film and television.https://t.co/ynnQAKioWm

— Kasia Narkowicz (@kasianarkowicz) September 18, 2018

Heartened to read all the tweets about the #Bodyguard finale & people rightly calling out the writer & the BBC for the lazy & frankly offensive narrative that it was the fault of the Muslim terrorist all along. This surely fails @theriztest all day long.

— Shibbir Ahmed (@Shibbir1) September 23, 2018

In their defence

Anjli Mohindra, who plays the character of Nadia in the show, has defended her role by saying that it was “empowering”. But Mohindra does not identify as Muslim herself:

Actress Anjli Mohindra has said that playing a ruthless jihadi was “empowering” as it challenged stereotypes https://t.co/kjlwjXI40f

— Standard News (@standardnews) September 24, 2018

Series writer Jed Mercurio has claimed that adding a last-minute twist to reveal Nadia’s character as a jihadi mastermind was an attempt to defy the stereotype of “weak” Muslim women:

Bodyguard review: Jed Mercurio obliterated TV's ‘weak’ Muslim woman trope in last night's surprising finale https://t.co/AB8xlLkogr

— The i paper (@theipaper) September 24, 2018

Two-dimensional

But the show has been criticised for suggesting that Muslim women can only be one of two things: submissive or violent. And people are calling out Nadia’s character for its lack of depth:

Do you see how stereotypical it is to portray Muslim women as victims and perpetrators of terror And #Bodyguard *literally* did both at the same time. I predicted this. Seriously. THERE ARE OTHER STORIES OF MUSLIM WOMEN. https://t.co/MoTO6wwbsU

— Shelina Janmohamed (@loveinheadscarf) September 23, 2018

OK so this is even worse. SERIOUSLY, BBC? Heroic white man saves oppressed Muslim woman who turns out to be a hardcore "jihadi" after all ugh ffs who even says "jihadi" apart from the tabloids??

— Hashashin (@HashashinTag) September 23, 2018

https://twitter.com/Think_write_fly/status/1044134069599129600

The worse thing is I think the writer thought this was an empowering twist. Smash the oppressed Muslim woman stereotype… with another stereotype. I am a huge fan of Line of Duty and this really broke my heart actually.

— Arzu Merali (@arzumerali) September 24, 2018

Seeing lots of responses to #bodyguard #bodyguardfinale from yesterday-
The media can't stand the idea of portraying Muslim women as multi-layered human beings.
Don't want to get away from oppressed/terrorist stories- because that wld involve humanising them.

— Media Diversified (@WritersofColour) September 24, 2018

The effects of Islamophobia on Muslim women

Muslim women in particular are sharing the real-life effects of these portrayals of Muslims:

https://twitter.com/LaurenBoothUK/status/1043975427881148418

So #Bodyguard writer @jed_mercurio claims that the series isn't islamophobic. Hi, Jed. Did you know that hijab-wearing brown women regularly get physically attacked in this country? That they get spat at, called "terrorist" in front of their kids, punched, kicked, run over?

— Hashashin (@HashashinTag) September 23, 2018

That when Muslim women are visibly pregnant they have to worry about islamophobic assault on top of all the other pregnancy worries? https://t.co/wthF7VXhJn

— Hashashin (@HashashinTag) September 23, 2018

While Nadia’s character may have revealed a shift at the end, it’s unfortunate that Bodyguard relied on the same old tropes. Vilifying Muslims to add entertainment value is so 2001. In 2018, it’s time to do better.

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Featured image via Youtube