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Jewel in their crown

1/11/2002

AWARD-WINNING TV producer Ruby Kuraishe is working hard to challenge the stereotyped views of Asian women.

Ruby, now famous in Eccles Bengali community where she grew up, has just been picked as one of the cover girls for Memsahib, a new magazine aimed at upwardly-mobile Asian women.

Ruby, aged 32, was nominated for the Asian Women of Achievement Award earlier in the year for a project on post-September 11 anti-Muslim feeling in Eccles, and her work on GMTV. GMTV's Entertainment Today, which she co-produces with Misbah Albi, is shown on Friday mornings, and is a concept they developed themselves.

She explained how they ended up on the cover of Memsahib, and why she thought the magazine, the first of its kind in Britain, was an important step forward in challenging stereotypes.

She said: "We were approached by Rehna Azim, a high-flying barrister in Oxfordshire, she wanted to create this magazine which would give a forward-thinking positive picture of Asian women, like a Vanity Fair for Asian women. Other magazines for Asian women are obsessed with marriage, lightening the skin. But Asian women shouldn't be underestimated. Years ago the stereotype was that of the submissive wife, but it doesn't have to be like that these days. And my mother was certainly not submissive even though she was a housewife!"

Ruby's mother and father, who used to own Eccles Taj Mahal restaurant, were surprised when she wanted to go into television.

"Everybody said, 'why do you want to work in TV, not doing medicine or law?' But my mum and dad both humoured me. They were both educated and came to this country not being able to use their education, so were just keen for us to have professional careers."

Ruby thought it important to document the racist backlash against Muslims which started in Eccles after September 11.

She told us: "After September 11, there was an opportunity for racists to jump on the bandwagon - racist literature rewritten with the word Muslim inserted, and so on. Eccles had its problems same as anywhere else, the mosque had a bomb put through the door, and I wanted to show the effects of this kind of prejudice on my community."