One To Watch: Wife Swap

4oD, for the next week

Here was a self proclaimed Muslim and liberal family who wanted to prove exactly how reasonable Muslims in the UK are. You can almost imagine the glee with which the producers of the show had received Nusrat and co.

I really wasn't impressed; it was as close to a total whitewash as you could get. Sure, some blame can be placed on the inevitably clever editing (where was the son?), but the reaction of the Muslim daughters to some of the things their parents said just couldn't be faked. The only thing more cringe inducing than the attitude (which, if we follow "each to their own" is fair enough) was the blatant ignorance they had about themselves. They genuinely thought that they were liberal; they genuinely didn't realise how blinkered and arrogant they appeared: it seems that the only thing Nusrat took from the experience was a sense of vindication.

I know which family I would prefer to live with (and all of a sudden I'm even more tahnkful for my own), and my only reprieve is that I know this was not a typical UK Muslim family. If it was, well we'd be in even more trouble than we currently are. I really feel for the daughters and on some level it makes me wonder about the whole "guys should marry like-minded girls from the UK" mindset.

As you may have guessed this programme was very rant inducing for me, and so the above might be a bit strong. This was on last night, but is now available on 4oD (Channel Four's on demand service) for the next week if you missed it.