The subject of an upcoming documentary about the challenges of being a Muslim woman in Canada says Canadians should be more educated about the religion before they jump to stereotypes and “paint everybody with the same brush.”
Muneeza Sheikh is a 33-year-old Toronto lawyer, wife, and mother of two small children. She is a practicing Muslim who prays regularly and fasts during Ramadan.
She also lives what some call a “flashy” lifestyle with expensive clothes and fillers implanted in her face.
“I cherry pick when it comes to my religion,” Sheikh admits in the documentary, which was filmed over five years by Ottawa director and producer Hoda Elatawi of GAPC Entertainment.
Born and raised in Toronto and brought up with Islamic values, Sheikh was caught between the modern and traditional world telling her how to live and how to look.
The film centres on the internal struggle she faced when her religion crossed paths with her Canadian values.
“Now that I’m raising my own daughter, I question myself a lot,” she said in an interview on Monday.
She chose not to wear the hijab on her head and now that her daughter, 6, is getting older, she wonders how she should raise her in a mixed religion-culture environment.
“If my daughter told me she wanted me to wear the hijab, of course I would be supportive. But I really think it’s all about your own personal interpretation of what’s modest,” she said.
Although she said she has seen negative comments about her experience posted underneath a recent news article about the documentary, she doesn’t think the film will evoke stereotypes against Muslims.
“If somebody watches the film and if that’s the only thing that they take away from the film – that this community is more diverse than I thought – I think that would be a huge success,” she said.
Muneeza in the Middle premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. on the CBC’s documentary channel.