Easy as pie: Contest winner defies prejudice in Britain
Headscarf-wearing baker mom is greeted as symbol of success of immigration to U.K.
LONDON— British Prime Minister David Cameron praised her coolness under pressure. Bookmakers monitored her performance as they do election candidates. Television watchers admired her raspberry mille-feuille and soda-flavoured cheesecakes — along with her blue chocolate peacock, and a mountain of éclairs in the form of a nun.
The victory of Nadiya Jamir Hussain, a petite 30-year-old, head-scarfwearing mother of three from northern England, in a wildly popular reality show called The Great British Bake Off on Wednesday has been greeted by many in Britain as a symbol of immigration success, at a moment when the country’s leaders, Cameron included, have expressed concerns the country has too many newcomers.
Hussain’s popularity, bolstered by her self-deprecating humour and telling facial expressions, helped the final episodes of the baking program, in which contestants vie with one another to make a variety of desserts, attracting well more than 10 million viewers per show, according to news reports. She has also become a darling of social media, with more than 63,000 followers on Twitter as of Thursday afternoon.
In a country where baking stodgy desserts has a history dating back centuries and where the preparation of sweet treats is considered a quintessential part of homespun culture, the success of Hussain, an observant Muslim, spurred debate about national identity.
The popular embrace of Hussain, the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, seemed like an immediate and conspicuous counterpoint to a widely noted speech on Tuesday in which the home secretary, Theresa May, told a conference of Conservative Party members: “When immigration is too high, when the pace of change is too fast, it’s impossible to build a cohesive society.”
News media across the ideological spectrum greeted Hussain’s win as a seminal cultural moment.
“Never before has a Muslim woman wearing a hijab been so clutched to the nation’s bosom,” wrote the Telegraph, a conservative daily newspaper.
Hussain’s new-found status as a na- tional role model was also seen by many as a powerful riposte to some of the anti-Muslim sentiment fuelled by lurid reports of dozens of young Muslim Britons, including young women, who have gone to Syria to fight for the Islamic State.
Even Hussain’s triumphant final dessert, a “big fat British wedding cake,” offered a multicultural message of sorts by fusing her Bangladeshi and British identities. The lemon drizzle cake was decorated with jewels from her own wedding day in Bangladesh and was perched on a stand covered with material from a sari in red, blue and white, the colours of the Union Jack.
Hussain, born in Luton to Bangladeshi immigrants, said last month that she had been worried that her wearing of a head scarf could prove alienating to fans of the show.