Nadia Shano in Elite

Where is the nuance for female Muslim characters? (Picture: Netflix)

This week season two of Elite, the juicy drama following three working class teens entering private school in Spain, arrived on Netflix.

The very binge-watchable show is like a Spanish-language cross between Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars.

Nadia Shano, played by Mina El Hammani, is an intelligent and focused scholarship student. In season one, Nadia wears hijab. When she's threatened with expulsion if she doesn't remove her hijab on the first day of school, she begins to only wear hijab to and from school, but not at school itself.

In a key scene in season two, we see Nadia walk into a bar, looking undeniably fierce as she crosses the floor of the club. She't not wearing her hijab. She goes on to drink alcohol, and finally, she has the courage to get with the rich boy – the Chuck Bass of the show – and white saviour, Guzman.

The message seems to be that suddenly, after removing her hijab, Nadia is free. Free from supposed oppression and being submissive.

As a Muslim woman viewer, I wanted to give this show the benefit of doubt and root for Nadia. I thought she could have a salacious storyline just like the other teens, without the backdrop of oppression or emancipation at the cost of her rejecting her identity or being saved by a white boy lover.

But now, I feel like that famous Tyra Banks moment from America's Next Top Model, where Tyra is shouting: 'I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you!'

It's not really that I'm frustrated with the character, or the actress. My main source of frustration is the writers – none of whom are Muslim women.

I want to know when the stereotypes around Muslim women on TV will end. When they're depicted onscreen, there's always either oppression or terrorism involved. The BBC's Bodyguard, which had audiences gripped, ended with the reveal of the Muslim hijabi character being a jihadi terrorist. In Homeland, Muslim characters were either terrorists or US assets in some way.

I'm sure that Elite would be yet another series to fail The Riz Test – The Bechdel test for Muslim representation, based on a speech given by Riz Ahmed, that checks whether Muslims are being portrayed as either threatening or culturally backwards. In season one of Elite, one of the characters tells Nadia that is must be 'hard to think… with that scarf wrapped around your head'.

As a disclaimer, it's important to note that some Muslim women may be forced to wear hijab. I'm not arguing that those narratives shouldn't be portrayed or discussed. What I am saying is that this is all the media ever portray when it comes to the representation of Muslim women. Believe it or not, many Muslim women are out here living their best lives.

If we aren't perceived as oppressed, then we have the possibility to be what we want to be.

Where is the nuance for female Muslim characters? When and how are we going to dig ourselves out of these stereotypes that deny Muslim women their extraordinary successes and ordinary lives? When and how will anyone believe that Muslim women have agency, and the ability to make their own choices, if stereotypes like this consistently dominate every cultural space Muslim woman are a part of?

Not all representation is good representation. And not all Muslims wear hijabs. Most Muslim women don't base their entire identity and independence on a hijab.

I often feel like the imagination of writers and directors is simply stunted when they think of Muslim women. It's frustrating that someone can be in a position of such influence, such as writing a popular TV show, and yet they persistently refuse to accurately research authentic narratives outside of what they know. It's sheer laziness, and it's insulting.

I have come to realise that Muslim women being portrayed in this way is a malicious patriarchal technique that is employed to control Muslim women. Because if we aren't perceived as oppressed, then we have the possibility to be what we want to be. With the rising Islamophobia in the West, I don't think anyone wants to see Muslim women succeed in this way.

It seems it is simply too complex to consider that a Muslim woman who wears hijab may have an identity outside of oppression or terrorism – and yet so many millions of us do. If shows like Elite continue to erase us, I worry about how portrayals like this may hold back young Muslim women for a long time to come.

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