Rohina Malik is a Chicago playwright whose play “Yasmina’s Necklace” premiered last week at the Goodman Theatre in the windy city. Ms. Malik says her play is about two families. “There’s Yasmina, whose family has fled Iraq for the US. Then there’s Sam. His mom is a Puerto Rican Muslim, and his dad is an Iraqi Muslim. Sam is a modern guy, wants to be part of the city. He’s pushing away from his culture. He finds himself in an arranged marriage situation where he’s introduced to Yasmina. Both he and Yasmina don’t want to be there. The story is about when these two very different people—these two very different Muslims—meet. It’s also about the refugee crisis, and the human cost of war.”
Ms. Malik says she wrote the play to depict the diversity of the Muslim experience and challenge stereotypes. “I wrote the play because I’m very disturbed that, when you see Muslim characters, we are never regular people. We are always the villains, the guys plotting to blow something up. And if you actually got to know my community you would find, first, that it’s a very educated community. How many Muslims are doctors, lawyers, engineers? We also have, within the community, folks that are less educated—blue-collar—but are very hard-working in what they do. So we have everything.”
