"I HADN'T realised how British I am." This statement, no doubt
music to the ears of Nigel Farage, came from a source unlikely to
cause him unalloyed delight: the UK entry to the World Muslimah
contest, Dina Torkia.
Muslim Miss World (BBC3, Thursday of last week) was the
contestant's video diary, and raised more serious questions than I
expected. Mrs Torkia sees her work as helping, with her online
clothes business, in the struggle faced by young female Muslims in
Britain: namely, how they can remain true to their faith and its
teachings, while dressing attractively and enjoying, modestly,
their youth and beauty.
Entering the competition would, she thought, help her in this
task. Immediately, she was faced by confrontations within Islam:
more conservative Muslims in the UK were outraged that she should
do such a thing, and posted offensive messages on her website.
She assumed that she would find Indonesia, the location of the
competition and home to the world's largest Muslim population, far
more circumscribed - but found instead that she was the one shocked
by women singing in public; and by being expected to stay in a
house whose residents included a man (she checked with her husband,
and he forbade it). So she learned that the proper modesty required
of good Muslims is capable of wide cultural variation, and that she
was not always on the liberal side of the line.
Her Britishness revealed itself in shock at the lack of
transparency in the way the contest was organised; by what she saw
as exploitation of children (the final judgement was made by 50
supposedly orphan children - most of whom were asleep by the time
their big moment came); and by how unwilling she was to accept all
of this meekly, unlike the native competitors.
It was considered essential to judge the girls' social concern
and faith - giving some substance, I suppose, to the vacuous hope
for "world peace" traditionally voiced by beauty queens. Reading
from the Qur'an was one section of the competition; and I don't
imagine that, for example, Miss World contestants are expected to
rise daily at 3 a.m. for prayers. Mrs Torkia didn't win, but on
this showing she is feisty and reflective, representing a key part
in that constant redefinition of Britishness which involves us
all.
The eve of Passion Sunday found one passion play on TV: in
BBC4's Inspector Montalbano. I do not much like this crime
series, but many friends do; so I felt I should give it a second
chance. The plot last Saturday was as crime-thriller-conventional
as I remembered; but there were moments of serious deliberation and
moral complexity to add substance to the glorious Sicilian
locations.
The clownish constable Catarella (whose imbecility is one of the
reasons I find the show unappealing) portrayed Judas in the local
drama society - and did it well. A dismembered body had been found
in a place called the Potters' Field, and had been cut up into 30
pieces - geddit? So religion found its way into the script, which
was shot through with that other staple of the genre: passion of a
somewhat different, Mediterranean, sultry aspect.