Filmmaker Statement

Making Rumi is my attempt to investigate the experience of being a Muslim woman in an industry built around appearances, performance and tokenism. The main thing that inspired me was Paris Fashion Week and the emergence of headscarves in a number of designer collections. These headscarves were styled on several runway models and they were eerily similar to the hijab, a piece of clothing that I’m very familiar with as a Muslim woman. At the same time in Paris, the hijab was banned in public schools. The hypocrisy of these two events led me to learn about the world of the modeling industry and how certain behaviors are pushed under the rug in the name of “fashion”. Rumi the character is a version of myself and of many Hijabi models I spoke to. Everything that occurs in the film has happened in some form. I wanted to open the film by having Rumi perform a powerful monologue to the camera at her most confident. I then wanted to flip the circumstances in the casting call and have her at her