Dutch actress of Moroccan origin, Nora Akshar, presenter of the radio program “Suhoor Stories” (social networking sites)

Dutch actress of Moroccan origin, Nora Akshar, became the presenter of a radio talk show an hour before the dawn call to prayer, entitled “Suhoor Stories.”

The program, which is broadcast live and presented by seven Dutch Muslim women, seeks to demystify the month of Ramadan for non-Muslim audiences in the country.

“Suhoor Stories” is the only daily radio and television program in Europe that is broadcast during Ramadan on the Dutch public broadcaster (governmental), reaching all parts of the country.

According to what the British newspaper “The Guardian” reported on Tuesday, Akshar seeks, through the program’s women’s line-up, to remove the negative stereotypes that have long prevailed in the Netherlands and the West about Muslim women, saying, “We have power and we are rewriting stories in our own way.”

The program is an opportunity to achieve greater understanding in a country shaken by the victory of the far-right, anti-Islam and anti-immigrant Freedom Party, led by Geert Wilders, in the elections held in November 2023.

Wilders previously stated in his election speech that mosques, Islamic schools, and the Holy Qur’an do not belong to the Netherlands. He also promised to impose a ban on wearing the hijab in official circles.

For her part, Akshar says, "It's difficult now in the Netherlands. What did I do wrong at all? I always try to be a nice being, and then 2.5 million people went and voted for Geert Wilders. Maybe I know some of these people."

Through the airwaves, “Suhoor Stories” reaches a wide segment of Muslims in the Netherlands, amid the ongoing controversy after the elections over the formation of the next government, in an attempt to get Muslims to resist the growing extreme right in the Netherlands.

“Suhoor Stories”...a mixture of nostalgia and inspiration

“Suhoor Stories” deals with current affairs through the eyes of ordinary Muslims. For example, it hosts a businessman who makes halal sausages, and a Dutch language teacher turned voice actor. Guests also share their memories and provide unique suhoor recipes.

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According to the British newspaper, the program attracted about 16,000 listeners daily in major cities and the countryside and sometimes received “racist” comments, but in general it received widespread praise because it opened new horizons in government-funded media.

There is no doubt that the Moroccan-born theater actress and film producer is aware of the demonization faced by immigrant families who have long lived in the Netherlands.

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Akshar said that it is difficult to ignore the constant stigmatization of Muslims in the media landscape, which portrays them as “predators or criminals” on screens.

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Akshar hopes to change this stereotype through her radio show, “For too long, societal problems such as terrorism or crime have been told through a white lens, ignoring the lived experience of communities stigmatized by those same acts.”

She concluded her speech by saying, “Film directors like to make me, as a Muslim woman, resist the way I was raised and nothing more. But I am the one who will tell my story. We are sending a message because we have to fight on many levels. We are tired of saying that we are good people.”

Akshar's contributions in cinema and drama

Akshar is known for the film “Meskina,” which was released in 2021, and embodies a Moroccan-Dutch family’s view of their single daughter in her thirties as “poor” (an unfortunate condition), as they desperately want to marry her.

In addition to “Poor Woman,” the actress of Moroccan origin played the role of the girl “Hajar Al-Kobikhi” in the famous Dutch television series “Mocro Mafia,” in 2018, which some criticized for allegedly giving a negative image of Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands and the West.

Akshar also participated in the TV series “Vakkenvullers” in 2018.

Muslims in the Netherlands

According to the Dutch Statistics Center "CBS" in 2019, the number of Muslims in the Netherlands is approximately 850 thousand people, which represents about 5% of the population of about 17 million people, most of whom are Turks and Moroccans.

In 2011, a number of Dutch Muslims filed a legal complaint against the government with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, accusing it of abandoning the protection of its citizens of foreign origins from the attacks of the far-right party headed by Geert Wilders.

In her book “Islamophobia and Discrimination,” which she presented at the Academic Forum at the University of Amsterdam in 2012, a Dutch researcher found the absence of strict legislation and laws aimed at confronting anti-Islamic phenomena and targeting mosques.

Researcher Ainke Vander Valk, a specialist in sociology, explained that the incidents witnessed by mosques in the Netherlands between 2005 and 2010 amounted to 117 incidents.

According to the researcher, the incidents varied between arson, vandalism, and graffiti, in addition to mail bombs, threats over the phone, hanging a dead sheep on a pole and writing the phrase “No to building a mosque” on it, placing a pig’s head, or smearing blood on the wall.

Source: Al Jazeera + British press + social networking sites