FOR Zayneb Haleem, digital illustrating began as a way to pass time while expecting her second child, but her artwork has since attracted a huge social media following and a first book, titled Dear Moon.
Often paired with inspirational quotes from the Qu’ran, her illustrations are especially popular within the Muslim community.
Dear Moon features a collection of her most loved as well as brand-new illustrations.
“I’ve been into art since I was a child, doodling here and there, but as an artist, my interests changed over time into things like weaving and needling,” Haleem told Eastern Eye.
“When I was expecting my daughter, I couldn’t do a lot of things because my movement was limited. I couldn’t do traditional art with paint, so I just picked up my phone and I drew something digitally with my finger and sent it to my husband who was really impressed. And that’s how it all started.”
Initially, she admits she was “self-conscious” of others seeing her work. She created an Instagram page, but didn’t disclose she was the author nor use techniques such as hashtags to promote her artwork.
“I didn’t want anyone to know who I am. But little by little, the support and attention grew, people wanted to see more and more, and my confidence grew,” she said.
Her Instagram page, Idotdoodle, has almost 270,000 followers now. She gives an insight into her thought process when creating her illustrations and accompanying quotes.
“It’s my art journal. When I see something in the Qu’ran and I get inspired, or a message I needed at that time, I keep reminding myself of the quote whilst I draw and that’s how they come together,” she said.
Her first project outside of her Idotdoodle was Maymoona’s Moon:
A Special Eid Story – a children’s picture book about the end of Ramadan, and waiting for Eid to begin; it was written by Razeena Omar Guta and Haleem did the illustrations.
Dear Moon, a project that took a year to complete, has been written and illustrated by Haleem. The book follows the journey of Zayneb’s recurring character from Idotdoodle of a young hijabi girl and encourages readers to reflect on their own journeys, celebrating how far they’ve come, appreciating where they are right now, and looking to the future.
“I’ve always wanted reminders, messages, inspirational quotes in a book form, but also combining that with illustrations, because I’ve always been a visual learner,” she said.
“The book goes in a seasonal journey which is reflected in the illustrations. And we’ve accompanied them with nice quotes from the Qu’ran and my personal quotes as well that are there to inspire people and help them get through the good and bad times in life.”
The young hijabi character in Dear Moon doesn’t have a name – it was a conscious decision on Haleem’s part as she wanted to the character to be relatable to anyone.
“I always get asked about the character’s name,” she said.
“As an artist, when I draw an illustration and put it out, I feel like it’s to the person who is looking at it. It’s up to them to consume the art and relate with it.”
The cover of her new bookHaleem was born and raised in Sri Lanka. She has been living in the UK for a decade and said one of the reasons for focusing on a character who wears a hijab was to break stereotypes around the garment. She said non-Muslims wanted to find out more about her artwork and faith.
“I know the importance of being seen and heard,” Haleem said.
“Women that wear a hijab are no different to any other woman. They are smart, courageous and are pushing boundaries in all walks of life.
“When I started the page, I wanted people to see a side of our faith that had a little bit of humour, inspiring quotes, everyday life – it (representation of Islam) doesn’t always have to be harsh and strong, it can be a soft and little bit playful too.”
Haleem added that representation has always been important to her as growing up, as she did not see hijabi characters in bookstores.
“As a child, it would have been so inspiring to me. It’s like giving that little bit of hope and little bit of guidance, a little bit of inspiration to anyone who is looking at my book, it’s really important to have that in our community,” Haleem said.
She’s seen the impact her artwork on the community.
“The other day, I got a DM (direct message) from a young adult who said her grandfather wants her to be an artist, like a digital illustrator or an animator. She showed my account to him to show there are people like me who are doing what she wants to do and he was really impressed,” said Haleem.
“It’s those things that really touch my heart,” she added.
Dear Moon is available to buy from December 5.
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A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5