Sikh Riot Theatre Stages Play About Muslim Brothel

[Guest SScom]

Sikh riot theatre stages play about Muslim brothels

By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent

(Filed: 21/03/2005)

A theatre which was forced to axe a play after a riot by Sikhs is to risk controversy again by staging a new drama about Muslim brothels.

The new play, Bells, by a young Anglo-Pakistani playwright, Yasmin Whittaker Khan, will expose the secret world of the "mujra", or courtesan house.

Bells: the play features non-graphic sexual scenes set in a fictional British ‘mujra’

It shows how Muslim girls find themselves trapped, and exposes the hypocrisy of the otherwise religious men who visit them.

The play, featuring "non-graphic" sexual scenes, is set in a fictional British "mujra" and opens at the Birmingham Rep Theatre on Wednesday.

The same theatre became a battleground shortly before Christmas.

For several nights, angry Sikhs protested against the play Behzti - Punjabi for "dishonour" - a black comedy depicting rape and murder in a Sikh temple. Sikhs said the play was grossly insulting to their faith.

The demonstrators eventually stormed the Birmingham Rep, throwing missiles and breaking windows. Behzti was cancelled and its female playwright, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, went into hiding after receiving death threats.

Whittaker Khan told The Telegraph yesterday that there was no comparison between portraying sexual abuse and murder in a holy place and showing the low life of a brothel.

Yasmin Whittaker Khan: ‘I hope that it will be safe’

Whittaker Khan said: "Is it safe to put it on? Yes, I hope that it will be safe. The theatre has thought about it and they do think it is safe.

"The play is provocative. I don't mind if there are peaceful protests although I can't see why there should be."

The tradition of courtesan houses in Pakistan stretches back for centuries. It is a subject of fierce debate as to whether they are harmless entertainment venues, where young women sing and dance for men, or brothels.

Whittaker Khan, born a Muslim to Pakistani parents and then adopted by an English family, has no strong faith.

She says the Pakistan film industry has glamorised mujras as harmless. She says mujras now operating in Britain and in Pakistan are brothels. Girls sing and dance and then money is thrown at them on stage to buy their favours. She says she knows of at least four mujra clubs in this country and has made several visits to them for research. She wants to expose the misery that goes on within them.

"In Pakistan, sometimes girls are kidnapped, or they have arrived there after divorce or misfortune, or they can be born into the club," Whittaker Khan said.

The girls might pray five times a day, but in between they are bought like chattels, she added.

Bells is the name of her fictional British mujra, butcher's shop by day and brothel by night. The playwright's heroine, a young girl named Aiesha, has ended up in Lahore's red light district through family misfortune. Her madam sends her to train at a mujra in London.

Whittaker Khan, in her early 30s, a youth worker and a writer for Silver Street, a radio soap on the BBC Asian Network, says the Muslim community in Britain remains silent about the clubs, but knows they exist.

"I've met guys who've been to the clubs. They go on religious festivals like Eid, they venture out as a treat, on birthdays and on stag nights. Everybody who goes to them, the men as well, are victims."

Birmingham Rep declined to talk about the production yesterday, but in a brief statement said its policy for the past six years had been to encourage a new generation of playwrights.

The play is to go on a national tour after being staged in Birmingham.

[sher_panjabi]

1) This play will not be centred or feature a Mosque

2) The Qur'an or Qur'anic verses will not be misappropriated used

3) "Islam" or the Mosque is not being attacked or branded negatively - rather it is based on "Muslims" and "culture of Islamic societies".

So there is no problem. Freedom of speach over steps the mark when a religion is ridiculed, mocked and its sacred texts and institutions are misappropriately used or portrayed.

[Manmohan Kaur]

Absolutely and completely agree with Sher_Punjab!!!

As you basically said yourself Bell is nothing new,fully fledged brothels appear in so many blockbuster hindi movies, I mean just take Devdaas as an example it's, the second main heroine is a courtesan!

Behzti was a play based in a Gurdwara and completed disrespected the Sikh Dharam. Bell is just a play on the realism of societies that exist in this world.

Bhul Chuk Maaf!

[All-Info]

Might be an idea for a couple people to watch the play incase there is any conflict after showing by muslims who use the excuse Sikhs banned a play, so will we attitude...

That way we know what both plays are about and have some sort of leg to stand on!!

[buddasingh]

It may be helpful to keep the following distinction in mind.

1. Some things that are racist/offensive almost always and anywhere. The racism is more or less inherit.

2. There are some things that are racist/offensive not necessarily because of their inherit nature, but because of the EFFECT in the attitude of the surrounding society and culture.

For example black people within the black community identifying crime rates of blacks is not racist nor offensive. However if a white community was to identify this, I suggest it is racist. The white community has lost the privilege of addressing the same question because of the existing racist attitude in the society and culture. The same observation has different implications or EFFECT.

I suspect that the theatre will cater to a largely western audience which is very racist and anti muslim and anti sikh to begin with (I don’t care how well mannered they may be, we live in a very racist modern world – unless they are capital A Anti-racist, they are desensitized racists). Hosting and standing by Behzti is all the evidence sikhs need for this.

For this reason, if Muslim’s who live amongst them take offense they have every reason and I support them fully. If just one Muslim takes offense, I suggest that is the one intelligent Muslim who has great insight and I support him or her.

Freedom of speech is not an absolute right. Defamation laws tell us this. Freedom of speech is a privilege. If a society abuses a privilege, the remedy is to withdraw the privilege till the society matures.

[Guest Lohgarh Singh]

wjkk wjkf

wats this muslim play got to do with us anyway?

[buddasingh]

wjkk wjkf

wats this muslim play got to do with us anyway?

90188[/snapback]

In a nutshell, the same that what Hindu practices got to do with Guru Teghbahadur Ji.

[Guest Lohgarh Singh]

wjkk wjkf

in my opinion, we shudnt have got involved, its made us look like that we are looking for a fite, after the behzti thing, this has made us look even worse. i think we shud try and keep our noses clean

[sikhlionz]

i think we shud try and keep our noses clean

90456[/snapback]

noses? errrrrrrrrrrm ok then...

the problem is legally racial hatred is bad but religious hatred is ok

unless sikhs redefine themselves as a race.... there is legally little that could be done

<_<