By Ken McCue

An RTÉ radio drama inspired by real life events in the lives of young Irish Muslim women has won a silver microphone in the prestigious New York Festivals Radio Awards for 2018.

Veiled, broadcast on the Drama on One slot on RTÉ Radio 1, was directed by Gorretti Slavin and written by Louise Lewis, and featured young Muslim women from Sport Against Racism Ireland’s (Sari) Hijabs and Hat Trucks programme.

The ensemble, that included professional actors, broadcasters and musicians, explored the lives of young women in a society that is often hostile to them and how, through bonding in sport and the arts, they were able to build resilience and a sense of solidarity to allow them overcome the triple discriminations of Islamophobia, racism and sexism.

Building on their experience at the microphone, the young women now plan to stage a number of theatre and film productions that will be co-ordinated by Sari youth leader Amina Moustafa who was presented with the trophy by Slavin and Lewis at the Eid World Cup for Women recently (see Sport).

Moustafa — who recently graduated from the Michael Johnson Young Leaders programme in Dallas, Texas — will establish a strategic production partnership with the new Smashing Times Centre for the Arts and Human Rights that was launched in Dublin’s Mansion House last month.

Listen to Veiled at rte.ie/dramaonone