After the “Dirty Paki Lingerie Party” performance, a one-woman play that portrayed different views of Muslim women in America and Pakistan, a panel discussion was held at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC)’s Kehoe Theatre on April 18.

Aizzah Fatima performed five different characters in the self-written play. She later addressed questions pertaining to conflicts seen in the play during the panel discussion along with Erika Gould, the director of the play, John Entelis, professor of political science and director of the Middle East studies, Ismahan Sharhan, a Muslim student and FCLC ’15, and Orit Avishai, professor of sociology at Rose Hill. The speakers expanded on the views of Muslim women that are typically not seen in mainstream media during the panel.

These Muslim women confront and deal with everyday problems such as marriage, sex, gender roles and dating, which are sometime and sometimes not resolved. After the play, there was a time for questions from the audience for the panelists.

Fatima said that she started writing the play about two years ago in a writing class. She wanted to show that “Muslim-Americans exist and come in all shapes and sizes.” At first she had only a series of essays, but after taking it to Gould, the developer and director, she had a play. Gould helped intercut the play and rearrange characters in order to make the play flow better.

While none of these are Fatima’s own stories, they are real stories of people she knows or has heard about. Fatima said she believed, “We as Americans have to look at our foreign policy and see how that affects other countries and there’s a lot of anti-American sentiment, because of the drone strikes and all. This is not shone in the American media, but I want to show that side of it.”

Fatima was born in Saudi Arabia, and her parents are from Pakistan. She moved at the age of 13 to Mississippi. Fatima said she spent her college life not wanting to be a part of the Muslim community. She also said that moving to N.Y. was easy for her because people thought that she was just another “Hispanic chick.” She did not advertise her “Muslim-ness.” However, after 9/11 there was a change in her. “As an artist there is an obligation to share this with the world. It is because of 9/11 that this play exists.”

Sharhan said, “I relate to it a lot, you don’t really get to see the human side of Muslims in the media. All you get to see is, well, what you see in the media.” She recalls having a boy in elementary school pull off her hijab (headscarf). “This was the equivalence of having your pants pulled down in public.” She ended up punching him and from then on learned that she needed to stand up for herself.

In response to a question about the panelists’ reactions to the play Avishai said, “Tensions around gender, between sexuality and between generations kind of cross between cultural lines.”

Gould also said, “People relate to this play from all over the world and cultural backgrounds. There is a universality about an ethnic groups coming to America and living in a liminal space until everything is sorted out.”

Entelis was born in France and remembers assimilating to American life as young boy. Entelis said, “The whole effort for anyone who was not born here was to eliminate your previous identities. You never wanted to be a hyphenated American, but now people insist on being a hyphenated American. Hyphenation is a way people create an identity.”

Before the play had received rave reviews, Fatima met the most resistance from the Muslim community. Fatima said, “They were very concerned about what other people would think.”

The audience also asked about Muslim women’s position in family life. Fatima said that there are some Muslim men who say, “Men are saying you are good enough to sleep with, but I am not going to marry you.”

Avishai followed this up when she said, “It requires rethinking once women realize they can transcend these boundaries of marriage and religion.”

One of the audience members confirmed the universality of this dilemma. Megan Louise Cerezo, FCLC ’12, said, “I relate the most to the woman on the plane. I’m Latin American and guys often think like ‘wow you’re this exotic creature. You’re fun to mess around with, but not good enough to marry.’”

Fatima also talked about the “American dream.” She said, “There is this expectation that America will be great. The American dream does exist, but Muslim women must be aware of the hard work involved and there is no shortcut.”

At the end of the session, an audience member asked how the events on Sept. 11 had affected the panelists. Entelis reminded everyone, “The minute you say 9/11 it implicates all Muslims, but the 19 hijackers were Arab, not Muslims.”

Sharhan said the events on Sept. 11 led her to question her religion. She also advised others to do the same. She said, “Question it, because questioning your religion leads to understanding. You might find a greater purpose if you question your religion.”