IS IT DEPRESSING to wear a hijab? Does it make you hot and uncomfortable? Are you a terrorist?
These are just some of the questions directed towards Muslim women, which can be quite offensive.
After growing weary of social stereotypes and misconceptions portrayed in the media, Islamic film maker Kayf Abdulqadir decided to use her talent to cast new light on what it means to be a Muslim woman.
“The hijab to me is liberating. A lot of people would look at it as depressing, but to me it’s just a sense of modesty. You can also wear it in different styles and different colours. It goes with my outfits and I treat it as something that isn’t a chore, whereas other people would look at it as that. It’s just an expressive part of me,” she said during an interview at THE NATION.
“As a Muslim female, I want people to understand that we are just like every other female. I think that that division is what I really try to close.”
The Canadian resident, who has been a professional director and photographer for the past seven years, visited Barbados for the first time on August 17.
She came to attend a Barbados Association of Muslim Ladies (BAML) seminar, where she encouraged girls within the local religious community to embrace the film industry.
Abdulqadir has already shattered social barriers, starting with the idea that Muslim women could not express themselves using media. While attending Rideau High School, she made her first documentary, which was entitled Fabric: The Unveiled Truth. It explored what the hijab meant to different women and “was aimed at dispelling stereotypes”, she explained. Just being behind the camera and feeling a “rush” of creativity made the then 21-year-old happy. But it was not long before accolades and exciting opportunities started pouring in. In 2009, the documentary won the first annual Adobe Youth Voices summit, which was held at the Stanford University Campus in Palo, Alto. The overwhelming support she gained motivated her to expand her platform and reach a wider audience. So, she created a YouTube channel with Fartousa Siyad called Specs & Veils.
“That same year (2009) I started making YouTube videos. Our first video was picked up by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). They gave us a radio interview.
“Then we later on got [a multimedia and multiculturalism] internship with the United Nations Association in Canada, who approached us. Google also sent us a contract to monetise our videos so we can get paid for YouTube . . . . So all that came from putting ourselves out and going on YouTube,” she said.
She later produced the film, Three Things You Should Know About My Hijab, which copped three international awards at the Plural Plus Awards in New York in 2014, and recently screened at the Hamptons International Film Festival, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and IOM’s Global Youth Video Festival.
The 25-year-old said she now sees herself as a media activist. She said her work, which is usually comedic, was influenced by her religious faith and culture. Abdulqadir, whose family escaped the Somali civil war when she was three months old, said her heritage also plays a role in her craft.
“In a lot of my work I use comedy. I feel like I’m giving people the idea that Muslim people can also be funny. They can also be writers, directors, producers [and] actors. I really wanted to influence the community, to open their eyes to the world of media and how powerful it is. And that it’s a great tool [for Muslims and Somalis] and not as taboo as it used to be in the past.
“The humour comes from my culture. I’m Somali and we’re known as the land of poets. So art is embedded in me but then also we’re culturally very funny people. Humour is something that we use in our everyday life, even with serious topics. I’ve sort of blended the two with my work,” she said.
With another YouTube channel, The Cool Ciyaal (Kids), she allows herself the liberty of exploring trendy topics and engage in social experiments. The channel, which she manages with friends, Ayan and Hodan, and her brother, Najib, has even created quite a buzz with its most popular prank. Abdulqadir said in January, Ayan posed as international singer Rihanna in Rideau mall and sent hundreds of “fans” into a frenzy. The prank made headlines in the Ottawa Citizen the next day. Over time, her platform had grown tremendously.
“I think it creates a community of people who like to laugh. It creates a community of people who are Muslim, who are Somali, who are Canadian and for both genders. I think it grows into a world of people who also love YouTube,” she said.
But Abdulqadir is not a one-woman show. She said she could not achieve her goals without the help of her parents, Dahir Ali and Fatha Omer, who support her and her five siblings. The Algonquin College graduate now tours the world by herself, visiting new places like Azerbaijan, Baku, Philadelphia and New York. Next year, she will set off to Japan, Korea and India to continue on in her mission.
Abdulqadir described the recent ban on burkinis in France as a sign that prejudice and discrimination still exists today. She said that personally, she was not mistreated in Ottawa, Canada because it was a multicultural city. What matters most to her, perhaps even more than possibly winning an Oscar some day, is world peace and equality.
In the meantime, she remains motivated by the thousands of people who admire her work and everything it stands for.
“It’s the amount of emails that we get from different girls saying, ‘Please don’t stop. I really look up to you and we love the work that you’re doing’ and the amount of support that we get. I feel like I’d be letting all of them down if I just stopped,” she said.