S
hortly after his inauguration, President Donald Trump issued an executive
order blocking entry to the United States by citizens of seven
predominantly Muslim countries in what was presented as an effort to
prevent terrorist attacks. The measure was followed by protests, challenges
from several state courts—and crackdowns from Immigration and Customs
Enforcement. Even as the debate over the travel ban continued to work its
way through the court system—the Supreme Court heard arguments last week
and is expected to hand down a final ruling in June—ICE agents rounded up
and deported immigrants, notably 199 Iraqis and 91 Somalis. In this
atmosphere, many Muslim Americans fear they’ll be suddenly forced to leave
the country. This threat is the basis behind Chicago filmmaker Ali Abbas’s
fantastical webseries The Girl Deep Down Below. All seven ten- to
15-minute episodes premiered online in March, but there will be a public
screening next week at the Chicago Cultural Center.
“I feel like in the past couple years the sort of counternarrative and the
counterculture to the whole terrorist Muslim has been to make Muslim
characters a point of innocence like, ‘Oh, look, they’re not bad people,’
which then you just get sort of dry, boring Muslims,” Abbas says. “I wanted
to create more complex Muslim woman characters in the sense that I want
them to be problematic. I feel like every character has their strengths and
also their glaring flaws.”
“Specifically with Muslims, the media really does paint their image, so if
you’ve never been around a Muslim, never gone to school with one, lived
next to one, worked with one, you don’t really know what they’re like,”
Baraki says. “They’re really just regular people living regular lives and
dealing with issues that other people of color deal with also.”
Wed 5/9, 5:30 PM, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, thegirldeepdownbelow.com. F
