BBC 3 loves to think it’s young, contemporary and a bit edgy, so it’s no surprise that they eventually jumped on the chance to make a documentary about born-again Muslims. The premise: why would young white women want to convert to a religion which (apparently) limits their freedom? Add to this a small production team and presenter Shanna Bukhari, a Muslim model who has courted controversy in the past, and you get Make Me a Muslim, a documentary which asks questions, but doesn’t necessarily provide any answers.

            This one-off investigation into the mystery of religious conversion is structured around Shanna’s journeys up and down the country on a contrived quest for spiritual understanding. Except, the topics on the tip of Shanna’s tongue are less the specific tenets of her religion than polarised ideas of British and Muslim culture. Presumably all the non-Muslim women in this country define themselves through alcohol and shoes, whilst their counter-parts are so oppressed and potentially extremist that they can’t even leave the house. The emphasis on superficial aesthetic issues is one of the main limitations of Make Me a Muslim.

            Of course, the wearing of the hijab is an important aspect of the four converts’ new identity, and it makes an effective focus for a medium that relies so much on visuals for impact. When one of the converts, Alana, explains about how she has “halalified” her wardrobe, it’s a light-hearted but pragmatic view on the daily life of a new Muslim. However, the focus on clothes fails to dress up a no frills, and ultimately uninspired take on a potentially fascinating female phenomenon.

            That’s right-you may have noticed that Make Me a Muslim has a little more than a feminine touch-according to statistics quoted by the programme from a Faith Matters report, over three quarters of white British converts are women. The documentary consists solely of female converts, and given the nature of the exclusively female production team and the current conversion trend, this makes sense. Unfortunately, we are only given a skin deep analysis of the motivations behind these women taking Islam into their lives. A pattern emerges: two women came from complementary conservative backgrounds, whilst the other two have lost their faith in the bottom of a bottle

            Of course, my perspective is inherently limited on this subject. What does a Muslim Cambridge student think of the programme? Samia Aziz, a third year at Downing College, felt the programme failed to cover the real importance of the hijab, “ignoring its Islamic and historical roots.” Make Me a Muslim does not answer the question embodied by the young, white female British convert. Simply focusing on the conservative background of one individual “is by no means a useful message in isolation for the BBC to propel.”

It seems that Make Me a Muslim can’t see beyond the projected stereotypes of its target audience. What a shame that despite the gravity of the subject matter, these women were defined more by their appearance than by their faith.