My Academic Essays as an English Major

3. A multiculturalist reading of 'Battleface' by Sabrina Mahfouz

The position of migrants in society is often a topic of debate and conflict among politics and intellectuals. In this paper, I will put forward the criticism of multiculturalism conveyed by Sabrina Mahfouz's writing. First, I will talk about the author's background. Then, I will summarize the short story before discussing British-Iraqi relations. Finally, I will discuss 'Battleface' as a criticism of multiculturalism in British society. This essay seeks to denounce the limits of multiculturalism in British society.

Sabrina Mahfouz edited the book The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write in which her short-story 'Battleface' was published in 2017. This anthology contains experiences of British Muslim women: sometimes the stories are fictional, but they are inspired from real life events. Mahfouz is a British-Egyptian poet and playwright. She is openly feminist and vocal about women's rights. Her work is so inspiring that The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write was selected by notorious feminist Emma Watson for her book club. Mahfouz advocates for the rights of all women, particularly of Muslim women. Indeed, their right to wear certain garments is often debated.
Mahfouz may relate to her main character, Ablah. Indeed, Sabrina Mahfouz shared details about her ambitions as a young adult in a 2019 interview with The Guardian entitled 'People used to say they expected me to be a lot more foreign.' Interviewer Arifa Akbar reported: 'By her 20s, she had changed direction and signed up to the civil service's fast-stream programme with the Ministry of Defense. I wanted to be a spy – or anything that was exciting and took me to different places, she says.' That fact is telling and interesting for the reader, because in 'Battleface', Ablah is asked to become a spy.

'Battleface' features two main characters and two minor ones. First, Ablah is an Iraqi woman who lives in the United Kingdom. She is a cosmetic doctor who specializes in facial rejuvenation. The reader learns that Ablah was born in Iraq, and that she moved to the United Kingdom with her parents when she was fifteen. Indeed, the war climate was becoming increasingly threatening: Ablah's two siblings lost their lives after a bombing. This traumatic period of her life explains her behavior as an adult. She wants to protect her son at all costs. Indeed, Ablah's son, Nasim, is a mercenary: his role is to patrol a prison camp for the British army. Nasim and his mother cut ties for a while because of Nasim's enrolment in the army. Indeed, Ablah was feeling resentful because that same army destroyed her family.
Camila is a British woman who shows up at Ablah's workplace. At first, she pretends to be a journalist who wants to interview her for a magazine. As the conversation goes on, Camila admits that she is not a journalist, and that she works for 'the Ministry.' (Mahfouz 223). Camila is sent by the Ministry of Defense to convince Ablah to go back to Iraq. Her purpose would be to run a cosmetic surgery clinic in Baghdad. The ministry wants Ablah to go there because she would be a great asset for the government: she could listen to clients talk as they get their procedures done. In other words, her role would be to spy. Camila tries to trick her into accepting her offer by making an appeal to her maternal love. Camila argues that Ablah moving to Iraq would protect Nasim. Indeed, he is to be deployed in Iraq soon. However, Camila tells her that having the two of them on the field would be a conflict of interest, and Nasim would get a desk job instead. The word 'blackout' (Mahfouz 237) makes the end of the story ambiguous. Indeed, Ablah suggests that she may have a bottle of botulinum on her. Breathing that substance could kill someone who is not used to it, which means that Camila would likely not make it out alive: however, Ablah would. Yet, the reader does not know if she is bluffing or not. As a consequence, the reader ignores the outcome of the short story.

Then, the story is entirely embedded in the geo-political context of conflict between Britain and Iraq. First, Iraq was seized by Britain during the World War I. Since the creation of Iraq in 1920, relations with Britain have been tense. Indeed, the foundation of the Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration was enacted the following year, which shows that Britain still had control over Iraq; therefore, Iraqis were still not independent.
Then, Britain invaded the country when the Iraq War broke out in 2003. The involvement of Britain in the war showcases the country's will to maintain dominance over its former colony. Therefore, British presence in Iraq was not overwhelmingly welcomed by Iraqis. Indeed, Dr Mustafa Alani shared in The Guardian: 'Britain emerged as a full partner in crimes against the Iraqi people, as well as sharing the financial and human cost of those crimes. But it was a discredited and powerless partner.'
Yet, the British Army is still stationed in Iraq. According to the Express & Star article 'Key questions over Britain's military presence in Iraq', there were four hundred British 'military personnel' in Iraq as of March 2020.

Finally, 'Battleface' is a criticism of multiculturalism in Britain. First, multiculturalism is the co-existence of diverse cultural groups. However, Sabrina Mahfouz illustrates how flawed multiculturalism is as a concept. Indeed, there is hardly any co- existence between Ablah and Camila. The conversations between the two women are tense, rough and sometimes even threatening. It appears that Camila has no wish to cohabit with Ablah; she believes that she would be more useful if she came back to the country where she was born. Moreover, Camila sees her as a tool for the British government. Secondly, the author suggests that Camila considers Ablah as a foreigner, even though she has been settled in the U.K. for years. Indeed, Camila says 'Your fellow Iraqis' (Mahfouz 235), which sounds like she believes that Ablah identifies with the country she is from more than with the country she is currently living in. That sounds paradoxical, because Ablah states that she 'flourished' (Mahfouz 234) in the U.K. Moreover, Ablah was deeply hurt and traumatized by her time in Iraq. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that she feels connected to Iraq more than Britain.
Besides, Ablah underlines that there is a lot of misconception and misunderstanding around Iraqi women's choices:
The level of knowledge you have of Iraqi life, after all this time. It's still superficial and insufficient. Women can get their noses hacked away and their faces frozen to the ice ace but they'll stay covered and if they don't, that doesn't make them more free – you must know that?'' (Mahfouz 227).
Ablah's response is particularly interesting and powerful because it debunks the Western idea that covered women are obligatorily oppressed. Indeed, Western societies often fail to understand that Muslim women can choose whether to wear a hijab or not. For instance, in April 2021, the French senate passed a law banning girls under eighteen from wearing a hijab at school. Moreover, mothers who wear a hijab will no longer be allowed to accompany their children on school trips. This example shows that Western societies do not see covered women as free; yet, oppression manifests itself as control, and enforcing such laws is restrictive.
What is more, Camila emphasizes how difficult is it for immigrant children to grow up in a different country: 'You had to laugh at jokes that broke your heart at first until, you got so used to it, you started making them yourself.' (Mahfouz 235). This passage manages to capture the experience of these children. Indeed, they may try to fit in to be accepted by their peers. However, this feeling of wanting to be accepted may manifest itself as needing validation from white peers. Indeed, here Camila tells Ablah: 'You had to be validated at every stage by someone else – a man, someone who'd already made it, someone trusted, someone British, someone white. From school to college to uni to hospitals to clinics -' (Mahfouz 235).

As a conclusion, Sabrina Mahfouz's identity as a British-Egyptian writer enables her to have an understanding of immigrant people's place British in society. Then, 'Battleface' captures the experience of an Iraqi immigrant while putting forward that the concept of multiculturalism has limits.

Works Cited

Arkbar, Arifa, 'People used to say they expected me to be a lot more foreign.' The Guardian,
19 Jan. 2019, www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/jan/19/sabrina-mahfouz-interview- noughts-and-crosses-emma-watson. Accessed 25 April 2021.

Bouchard, Gérard. ''Interculturalism: what makes it distinctive?'' 2013.JSTOR. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.

History.com Editors. 'Iraq Wins Independence.' HISTORY, 9 Feb. 2010, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/iraq-wins independence#:~:text=Britain%20seized%20Iraq%20from%20Ottoman,of%20Iraq% 20was%20granted%20independence. Accessed 25 Apr. 2021.

'Key questions over Britain's military presence in Iraq.' Express & Star, 12 Mar. 2020, www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/03/12/key-questions-over-britains- military-presence-in-iraq/. Accessed 25 April 2021.

Mahfouz, Sabrina. ''Battleface.'' The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write, 2017. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.

Möhre M., Pillath M., Simmank F., Suurendonk M. ''Transculturalism and Leadership Excellence, Evaluation of the Transcultural Profiler.'' Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.

Onghena, Yolanda. ''Transculturalism and Relation Identity.'' Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.

"Sabrina Mahfouz Bio." www.sabrinamahfouz.com/bio.html. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.

Sharp, Brian. P. ''British Colonization of Iraq, 1918-1932.'' United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College, Marine Corps University, 24 April 2008. Accessed 25 April 2021.

''Views on Britain's role in Iraq: 'People see the UK as a poodle of America.'' The Guardian, 16 April 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/apr/16/uk-iraq-usa-terror. Accessed 25 April 2021.