I could write them ten scripts right now. Plucky, attractive hijabi struggles — humorously and good-naturedly — to make her way in a world filled with clueless “Islamophobes,” well-meaning dunces who are ignorant of Islam, and a loving but comically conservative Muslim family that wants her to get married and live a traditional Muslim life, without the faintest whiff of a threat if she doesn’t, of course. Her hijab is constantly a pretext for her to be the recipient of rude and/or stupid remarks, to which she responds with sharp wisecracks that put the haters and/or idiots in their place. Throw in a wise, kindly, avuncular imam to whom she resorts now and then for sage advice, offered with warmth and a smile.

That’s all great, but what about the real Muslim women who have experienced violence and even been killed for deciding not to wear the hijab? Will they get a show?

“ABC iView to premiere world’s first hijabi comedy series, Halal Gurls,” Mumbrella, September 24, 2019 (thanks to Henry):

Halal Gurls, the world’s first hijabi comedy series according to its creators, will premiere on ABC Iview on October 4.

The announcement:

HALAL GURLS, a new online series filmed in Western Sydney, is being proclaimed as the World’s First Hijabi Comedy Series.

Created and Directed by Award-winning Australian filmmaker Vonne Patiag, the series celebrates Muslim women and the cultural diversity in Western Sydney. The show follows workaholic hijabi Mouna, played by Aanisa Vylet, as she navigates a cross-cultural balancing act between her structured career-driven life and the chaotic mess of her personal life.

“How often do we get to see a show about Muslim women where their religion, sexuality, and form of expression are not brought into question?” asks Vylet, who is also one of the five writers of the series. “The intelligence, inclusivity, lightness, and the very apparent respect towards the culture and community is what drew me towards the team and the webseries that is HALAL GURLS.”

For producers Patiag and Petra Lovrencic, it was crucial that HALAL GURLS was created via inclusive practice. “We wanted to show Muslim women in their best and most authentic light, and we couldn’t have done that without engaging with and listening to the community,” says Lovrencic. “We’ve collaborated with the community every step of the way, from writing through to the amazing soundtrack we produced. It all comes out of Western Sydney talent.”

“It’s definitely time for a groundbreaking series like this to exist,” says Patiag, who grew up in Blacktown and still resides in Western Sydney. “Some of my closest friends are Muslim, and I’ve grown up and worked with Hijabis in the past – they have always been some of the most funniest and fiercest women out there, full of resilience and sass, but unfortunately society likes to paint them a different way. HALAL GURLS is an opportunity to reclaim the representation of modern Muslim women in a humanised and nuanced light, and to spark discussion about diversity on-screen and behind the camera.

Sara Mansour, co-founder of the Bankstown Poetry Slam and one of the writers of HALAL GURLS, praises the series for its authenticity. “I love that the show is exactly about my lived experience as a veiled Muslim woman living in Sydney”, says Mansour. “The show draws on shared values and experiences and examines them through the lens of Muslim women in Australia – a group that have been subjected to a lot of scrutiny….