Gendered Islamophobia in BBC TV drama Bodyguard

The TV series Bodyguard (2018) was one of the most-watched TV dramas in the United Kingdom. The thriller centres around a British army war veteran who gets entangled in a series of terror plots spearheaded by a hijabi woman whose identity as the terrorist ringleader is revealed at the very end of the six-part miniseries. This article examines the racial securitization of Muslims and gendered Islamophobia in the representation of Muslim characters in Bodyguard through the portrayal of a hijabi Muslim woman, underpinned by the intersectionality of Islamophobia, gendered Islamophobia and critical race theory. This article argues that at a time when hijabi Muslim women face the majority of Islamophobic hate crimes, a popular TV drama’s depiction of this vulnerable group as perpetrators of violence not only distorts the reality but also creates a negative image of Muslim women in hijab, further alienating them from the mainstream British society.