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How screenwriter Raisah Ahmed overcame her fear of creating Asian characters in order to challenge stereotypes

9 November 2017

It’s vital for children to see people like themselves on screen, believes screenwriter and director Raisah Ahmed.

I didn鈥檛 write Asian characters. I was afraid to

Raisah Ahmed, screenwriter and director

, “It makes you feel like you’re represented and like you can have them as a role model.”

As the first child of her Pakistani family born in Scotland, she found very few such stories in the books and films in which she immersed herself. So she started creating them herself.

“I didn’t write Asian characters. I was afraid to.

“I didn’t know how to write them in a way that would be acceptable to ‘western’ audiences and not go against what was true/what I knew to be true.

“I began to realise that if I didn’t write what I knew, if I didn’t write our stories, if I didn’t write the experiences that led to me being who I am, where I am and what I am, then nobody would.

“Everyone would just believe that every Asian girl is a victim of a forced marriage or has to be disowned or avoid an honour killing in order to live how she wants to live.”

Raisah's stories now focus on strong female Asian characters. Her recent film Meet Me by the Water, focused on a young Scottish Asian woman torn between family and tradition and the chance of an independent life.

Raisah believes Scotland has many stories just waiting to be told.

Raisah on the set of Meet me by the Water

“We have people from all over the world that have come to Scotland at different times”, she says.

“Some families have been here for hundreds of years, others are just arriving and they all have such different experiences.

“I think stories are the way for us to understand each other.

“If you’re able to tell your story or your family’s story or even a friend’s story then that makes us understand all those things those people have gone through.

“We all feel in the same way, so as long as we get the feelings across we then start to understand each other and we celebrate each other’s differences as well as our similarities.”