A new five-part series coming to BBC 2 next month will offer a highly individual insight into the world of Muslim women around the world.

Dubbed ‘Women in Black’, the series will offer a different ‘Islamaglamour’ perspective to hidden stories from women across the Middle East.

“Discover the Muslim makeover, sexy underwear and female Formula One racing driver in Dubai; clubbing, cosmetic surgery and surely the world’s only Qur’an inspired TV sex therapist in Egypt,” the programme blurb says.

It will explore stories in Britain, Egypt, Dubai, Yemen and Holland.

The series is authored by British-Yemeni journalist Amani Zain, has worked at the BBC’s Country File and Primary Arabic, and in Yemen as a social counsellor on a project affiliated to the UNHCR. It is produced by Fatima Salaria, who has worked at BBC current affairs for several years as a senior producer.

SERIES OUTLINE

EPISODE 1: Yemen
Amani leaves London to visit her home town – Aden, inviting us to see life inside the women’s quarters of her family home. This is the most personal of Amani’s journeys, revealing how women live and party in a culture where the sexes are separated most of their lives. On the plane, she performs a Muslim makeover – replacing her jeans with her traditional Yemeni abaya. Its a sartorial moment hundreds of young Muslim women undergo every day as they travel from West to East.

We follow Amani as she gets ready for a ‘qat’ party. Classed as an A1 drug – and banned in the US – its the national drug of choice here. Along the way, we meet Amani’s aunt, an entrepreneur who’s set to become the next Jo Malone with her frankincense business. Amani gets herself “smoked”, gives us an abaya “style” guide, and lets us in on the secrets of all over body hair removal. Forget the Hollywood wax, Muslim women have been at it for centuries. Yemen may be the poorest country in the Middle East, but the women are just as interested in bling, fashion and style as their wealthier oil rich neighbours..

EPISODE 2: Dubai
Hundreds of Muslim women flock to the shopping capital of the Gulf – Dubai. Its a mecca for Western high end brands. The eastern twists and subtle adaptations of catwalk styles to accommodate Muslim dress code make this city a really exciting fashion destination. Even abayas get the crystal encrusted treatment and sell at haute couture prices. Amani’s Yemeni version does not cut the mustard in a city where grooming really matters. She spends an afternoon in the company of beauty salon junkie Lala, who admits to spending up to £7,000 thousand a month at the exclusive Dubai Ladies Club and goes to the mall with a style queen who only walks in Manolo’s, spending £1,500 a week on her accessories. She discovers sexy underwear is high on the Muslim women’s shopping list.

But Amani shows us there’s much more here than bling…..The Brits only moved out of Dubai in the 1970’s. The UAE’s relative youth has meant there’s a “can do” attitude amongst the Muslim women here. 70 per cent of them are professionals – doctors, lawyers, businesswomen. It has one of the highest number of Muslim female MPs in the world. This is cutting edge Muslim society

She visits the millionaire women investing in the traditionally male dominated stock market who spend their dosh on property. She takes a ride in a Ferrari belonging to the Emirates’ only female Formula One racing driver, and meets a film director who is breaking taboos with her latest movie. Amani finds time to flirt using the latest technological trend sweeping Dubai – Bluetooth dating – by which men and women exchange flirty messages and forge secret relationships. She finishes her trip all dolled up at a film premiere…

EPISODE 3: Egypt
Forget the Pyramids and the Sphinx: welcome to the Ibiza of the Middle East that is Egypt. This is the number one holiday destination for Muslim people across the Arab world and is the Islamic clubbing equivalent of Club 18-30.

This is the mainly Muslim country where fashion can be any colour as long as its not black. Its high street trends are loud and colourful – considered positively chavvy by its more sober neighbours.

The current Islamic revival hasn’t quashed any of that. Wearing the headscarf has created a new hijabi fashion scene. Young women are wearing up to three headscarves folded into spectacular designs. Its hot – but just like stiletto heels, these fashionistas are prepared to suffer to look good. And it is business women – not men – who are making money out of it all. Just like the female plastic surgeons who perform nose jobs and inject botox into the nearly 50 per cent of the population of Cairo which has undergone some kind of cosmetic surgery.

Known as the Hollywood of the Arab world since the 1950’s, Egypt has always had a buzz of popular culture and celebrity about it. Its film industry was a first in the Middle East and set the trends of the Arabic silver screen.

Now its television is making waves, boasting the only veiled female sex therapist Dr Heba Kotb, who discusses foreplay and orgasms – all in keeping with her interpretation of the Qur’an… This, in a country where 98 per cent of married women are genetically mutilated.

Once the moon is high, Gulf tourists let their headscarves slip. This is where young Muslim women come to party, drink, have a good time – without their mums and dads. Amani discovers the nightlife is just as lively as when she was here as a student 10 years ago.

Amani finishes her trip with a night of weddings, starting with a posh one in a 5 star hotel and ending up at several being celebrated in the street.

Episode 4: United Kingdom
Amani explores a female Muslim world right on her doorstep – in London, the city in which she’s lived since the age of three.

We learn that Arab and Asian Muslims don’t mix with each other, so Amani’s exploration of all things female and British Asian is a voyage of discovery for her as well as us. Forget the tired old Brick Lane stereotype. Amani meets a group of women creating a new identity for themselves.

She spends the night speed dating, visits a shalwaar khameez fashion shoot, and ends up going to a very smart women’s knees up at the female Pakistani Ambassador’s gaff.. Along the way, she talks to a young Bangladeshi author Kia Abdulla whose erotica is rocking the Muslim scene, and goes to a cutting edge abaya catwalk show staged by a London fashion graduate. We get the Muslim style guide to the Western high street with a trio of hijabi girls at Primark..

Visiting Bradford for the first time, Anila Baig, The Sun’s TV critic tells Amani how she really feels about page 3.

Amani is surprised to discover some Pakistani women shunning the shalwaar khameez in favour of traditional Arabic clothing. What is all that about, she asks?

EPISODE 5 :Holland
Amani makes her first trip to the Netherlands, expecting the most liberal and laidback European country to be cool about the one million Muslims who live there.

The murder of film maker Theo Van Gogh a few years ago by Muslim extremists has brought cultural tension, however, and young Muslim women know it.

Music and fashion have become the contested spaces in which young Muslims search for a coherent identity. Amani hooks up with Bad Brya, a Dutch rapper of Moroccan origin who addresses issues from peace in the Middle East to women

and Islam in her lyrics. She “makesover” Amani over as a B girl. Amani flicks through MSLM magazine, the cool one off Muslim fashion magazine, and visits the set of Bimbo’s and Boerka’s – a Dutch car crash TV show which is co-hosted by the Halal girls – three hijabi sisters from a conservative Moroccan family.

Saddest moment for Amani is a meeting with a doctor who performs fifty hymen reconstructions a year on young Muslim girls desperate to appear as virgins on their wedding night.

Her happiest moment is a Dutch Moroccan wedding where a “nagafa” – wedding stylist – orchestrates up to five changes of bridal outfit on the big day and the bride and groom are toasted with milk and dates.