Muslims as Seen on TV

Release Date: 02/15/2022

Evelyn Alsultany interviews Belquis Elhadi, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan on “Muslims Firsts,” particularly Muslim women who wear the hijab and are celebrated for being “the first” to do something. We talk about Noor Tagouri, the first Muslim woman to pose in Playboy magazine, what it means to be a first, and how it works in the market.

Release Date: 02/04/2022

Evelyn Alsultany interviews Kam Copeland, Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California on representations of Black Muslims in the US media. The focus is on how images of Black Muslims have changed over time, from the 1959 documentary “The Hate That Hate Produced,” the 1977 TV miniseries, “Roots,” the 1993 feature film “Menace II Society,” to the 2005 TV drama “Sleeper Cell.”

Release Date: 12/01/2020

An interview with Sue Obeidi, Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s Hollywood Bureau, about the Obeidi-Alsultany Test, co-authored criteria to assess representations of Muslims in Hollywood. The Obeidi-Alsultany Test was published in The Hollywood Reporter on August 7, 2020 in an article entitled, “How Hollywood Can Better Represent Muslim Characters and Storylines.” They talk about why they created this test and break down the five criteria to assess representations of Muslims.