Reaction: 'Dirty Paki Lingerie'

AIZZA Fatima recently brought her one-woman play Dirty Paki Lingerie to these islands for the first time, following an extremely successful US run. 

This week, she performed in St John's Church, Edinburgh, at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, followed by a panel with Farkhanda Chaudhry OBE, director Erica Gould, and Shabnum Mustapha, Director of Amnesty International Scotland.

It was obvious from the discussion that the play has garnered very different audiences and reactions in Britain than at home in the USA. For American audiences, the experiences of migration and culture clash are nigh-universal; these islands, and Scotland in particular, differ in relation to the extent of cultural mix, and audience members do not automatically find the play identifiable.

Fatima commented that the audiences the play draws in the these islands are largely white, unlike the more diverse US audiences. Though this could easily be put down to Edinburgh having a smaller Asian community, it does raise unfortunate questions about the white-dominated nature of the Festival season in general.

However, on a more positive note, a joke in the play about the French Islamic scarf controversy ('it's not like we're in France!') apparently gets a much bigger laugh on this side of the atlantic.

Perhaps the most culturally divisive aspect of the play is its title. In America, the word 'Paki' is fairly neutral; here, the title Dirty Paki Lingerie provokes reactions ranging from shock to disbelief to disgust. The natural assumption is either that the play is grossly racist and misogynistic or - in an interpretation that Fatima supports - that it intends to reclaim the word.

Dirty Paki Lingerie is in some respects more and in other less provocative in Scotland than in New York. Fatima's next goal may be to take the play to France!

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(c) Katie MacFadyen is a media intern with the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, and also reviews on the Fringe. She is reading classics at the University of Edinburgh.