What I thought was an interesting commentary was the part George, a White boy, had to play in the play. Filled with shock and disbelief that his girlfriend has adopted the hijab, he is suddenly confronted with a very visible symbol of his fears and confusion. In one scene, George rips off Fatima’s hijab in act of passion/aggression/madness which is quickly translated as an act of racism by Fatima (I understood it as religious intolerance more than anything else), who then lodges a harassment report against him.

George makes amends with Fatima at her 18th birthday party by turning his St. George flag (apparently this is an offensive flag in front of ethnic minorities, judging by the reaction of his friends) into a hijab which he wears on his head. A surreal and bizarre compromise? He says, “If she can wear it, so can I!”.

His friends leave the party because they’re disgusted by his St. George flag-to-hijab conversion, which I found sad. Yes, it was totally ridiculous to look at, but is the voice of White Britain trying to make sense of its hijab fears: by doing the unthinkable – confronting and accepting it, and this case wearing it?