COLLECTIVE IDENTITY

Nadiya Hussain famous from the great British bake off states that she sees herself as British and loves being here, but its clear that other people don't always see her as a belonging or a right to be in Great Britian because she reports racism as she quotes, "racism is a part of my everyday life" and "I expect to be shoved, pushed or verbally abused. Hussian admits to be subjected to an arranged marriage, although very happy, is one that she would not impose on her children. She is credited to having a positive effect on race relations of the Muslim communities.

It is surprising that Channel 4 produced 'Indian Summers' in 2015. Set in the final days of the British Raj, it offers a set of stereotypes of British upper class prejudices about Indians who seek to overthrow British rule. Audience appetites for merchant-Ivory style period drama are long over. Poor ratings meant the cancellation of the third series in Spring 2015.

The title, 'My Jihad' reflects two main characters and the struggles they face. The literal meaning of Jihad is struggle or effort, and it means much more than holy war. which links with the female character has the many struggle in wanting to trust other men from her past.

From the guardian, they say "So My Jihad is simply an excellent romcom, ticking all the boxes of magical initial spark, through harsh-reality obstacles that must be overcome, and on towards (we hope) a happy ending. But it does all this through the prism of the young lovers being Muslim: obeying their community’s moral code, frequently invoking Allah, intent on marriage rather than merely dating." Source: Guardian News

So why do texts look ‘real' ? Sohn-Rethel proposes a set of 7 codes of realism in analysing texts, such as the requirement of surface realism, that the representation looks and sounds like the real world it claims to show; the code of ideological truth, that is, does the fictional representation construct a compelling, persuasive truth; the code of psychology and character motivation, that is, the fictional representation invests greater realism in the psychology of its characters than in other codes.

- Surface realism: The mise em scene of My Jihad offers very convising surface realism in its depiction of London life in a Muslim community with curtains twitching and neighbors watching any women who is walking out with a man. Nazir, for example, feels obliged to steal a hijab from a strangers washing line to disguise when walking Fahmida home in a scene of comedy that character rises a whole.

- Ideological truth: The characters express themselves with persuasive conviction as they struggle with their own inner jihad. That is, they convince us of their Muslim beliefs and their desire to reconcile their hopes with their religion.

- The code of psychology and character motivation: