By Aalia Khan
A non-conventional powerful play, consisting of a series of narrative stories that reflect on a diverse number of Muslim women came to Bradford for one day only on Saturday 1st November.
Veil, an immersive installation piece, looked at the different issues and depths that Muslim women face in Britain today. It became a performance space for spoken words and reveals the depths and subtleties very often hidden from the mainstream non Muslim view.
Veil the performance features three short performances of veil the poem written by Kay Adshead, and it also includes audio recordings from women in Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and London who shared their stories and experiences anonymously.
Whilst researching for a different play Kay and her production company Mama Quilla became aware of the many British Muslim women struggling to feel empowered in the UK. Kay believes that there are urgent demands for voices to be heard and she was going to devise a project called “The British Muslim women’s Project.” She then came in contact with director Kully Thiarai and Shanaz Gulzar, a digital installation artist and together they devised the concept of Veil. They wanted this project to help share experiences and explore opinions.
Shanaz Gulzar came up with the title Veil as “It holds multiple meanings” she explains. “It can be seen as protection, honour or oppression as it holds both positive and negative connotations.” Shahnaz says that the
veil has been associated with Islam however a lady at one of their workshops, who was a non-Muslim, had adorned the veil. This showed that the veil is a cross-cultural piece of clothing and Shahnaz says it is simply about “Covering.”
Kay believes that “British Muslim Women are not great participants in theatre” therefore she wanted to devise a companion piece, to accompany her previous play the singing stones which was about women and the Arab revolution. They explored the lives of veiled and non-veiled women and looked at the factors of “Dignity, respect, privacy and empowerment.”
Kully says “We all have different identities and different veils” so the title was appropriate in presenting women. She believes that Muslim and non-Muslim women will be able to relate to the women behind the audio recordings and it will help people to gain a sense of the diversity in our communities.
All three women, Kay, Shanaz and Kully say that the project is currently a work in progress and it was a free event for all as they wanted to have a conversation with people who could contribute to the artistic development of the piece. It would allow people who would not normally attend the theatre, to come along and watch the performances. The play will also be visiting Leeds on Saturday 15th
November at the HUB.
