Naima Jeffery

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Naima Jeffery is a fictional character from the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

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soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

'' EastEnders'', played by

Shreela Ghosh Shreela Ghosh (born 25 September 1962) is a former dancer, actress and reporter, became publicly known in the United Kingdom when she was cast as Naima Jeffery in 1985, one of the original characters in the BBC soap opera, '' EastEnders''. She h ...

from 19 February 1985 to 19 November 1987.

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

n Naima tries to embrace

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

, but this is not easy since her family constantly try to force her to adhere to their ancient customs. Sick of being forced to live in an arranged marriage with a husband she loathes, Naima makes a stand and shames her family by filing for a divorce.

Storylines

Original EastEnder Naima runs a corner shop on Bridge Street with her husband Saeed Jeffery ( Andrew Johnson). Her parents were originally from

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, but she was born in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Naima and her husband are on the receiving end of racial abuse and

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term ...

from the neo-nazi group that includes

Nick Cotton Nick Cotton is a fictional character from the British soap opera ''EastEnders'' played by John Altman on a semi-regular basis from the soap's debut episode on 19 February 1985. Altman has stated that his initial exit was due to producer Julia ...

( John Altman), which make life in

Walford Walford is a fictional borough of east London in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. It is the primary setting for the soap. ''EastEnders'' is filmed at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, towards the north-west of London. Much of the location work ...

particularly unpleasant for them both. Naima was sent to Walford for an arranged marriage with Saeed. The two don't get on and Naima becomes unwilling to adhere to Muslim customs, regularly disobeying her husband's wishes and refusing to share his bed. Saeed starts visiting prostitutes and regularly goes to the strip-club where Mary Smith (

Linda Davidson Linda Davidson (born 18 June 1964 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian- British former actress and writer. She played the wayward punk Mary Smith in the BBC soap opera, ''EastEnders''. Mary was one of the serial's original characters; Dav ...

) works. He later makes obscene phone calls to Naima's good friend

Debbie Wilkins Debbie "Debs" Wilkins is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Shirley Cheriton, from 21 March 1985 to 14 May 1987. Debbie is Walford's first upwardly mobile character. She has an on/off relationship with her i ...

(

Shirley Cheriton Shirley Cheriton (born 28 June 1955) is an English actress and performer, best known for her roles as Debbie Wilkins in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' and her portrayal of Miss Prescott in the ''Are You Being Served?'' follow up, ''Grace & Fa ...

). When Naima is tipped off by an anonymous letter from

Dot Cotton Dorothy "Dot" Branning (also Cotton) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, ''EastEnders'', played by June Brown. In a special episode entitled ''EastEnders: Dot's Story'' (2003) a young Dot was played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in fl ...

(

June Brown June Muriel Brown (16 February 1927 – 3 April 2022) was an English actress and author. She was best known for her role as Dot Cotton on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' (1985–1993; 1997–2020). In 2005, she won Best Actress at the '' ...

), she is disgusted with Saeed and decides to go against her family's wishes and

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

him. After Saeed leaves in December 1985, Naima makes a determined effort to embrace Western culture and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

. She stops wearing

sari A sari (sometimes also saree or shari)The name of the garment in various regional languages include: * as, শাৰী, xārī, translit-std=ISO * bn, শাড়ি, śāṛi, translit-std=ISO * gu, સાડી, sāḍī, translit-std ...

s, learns to drive, cuts her hair short and moves in with Debbie. With her new look, Naima attracts much male attention on the Square and even dates Walford

lothario Lothario is a male given name that came to suggest an unscrupulous seducer of women, based upon a character in ''The Fair Penitent'', a 1703 tragedy by Nicholas Rowe.

Simon Wicks Simon "Wicksy" Wicks is a fictional character from the British BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Nick Berry between 1985 and 1990. Wicksy was introduced to take on some of the more adult storylines that had been scripted for another chara ...

(

Nick Berry Nicholas Berry (born 16 April 1963) is a retired English actor and pop singer. He is best known for his roles as Simon Wicks in ''EastEnders'' from 1985 to 1990, and as PC Nick Rowan in '' Heartbeat'' from 1992 to 1998. He sang UK chart sin ...

), as well as Dr Jaggat Singh (Amerjit Deu), but neither relationship develops into anything serious. Naima's family persist in sending her more cousins to marry and in 1986, Rezaul Kabir (

Tanveer Ghani Tanveer Ghani is a British actor. He has appeared in various British television programmes and British films. One of his first roles was in the BBC hospital drama, ''Angels'' (1982). He is perhaps best known for playing the role of Rezaul Kabir ...

) arrives in England. He lives and works with Naima, reporting her every move to her parents. Naima protests, but as her parents are funding her business, she has to put up with Rezaul. He is arrogant and pretentious, making him and Naima clash immediately. Naima realises her family are attempting to set Razaul up as her new husband and she refuses to oblige (pleasing Razaul as he isn't interested in Naima). Angered by their daughter's defiance, Naima's parents cut off all funds. This leaves Naima struggling to pay her rent and forces her to move into the Fowlers' home for a while. In 1987, Farrukh (Sumar Khan), yet another cousin, is sent over to woo Naima. Farrukh is an important

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

and despite Naima's initial protests, she is drawn to him. Farrukh is different from her other suitors, supporting her independence, so she agrees to marry him. They marry in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

and leave Walford for Bangladesh in November 1987.

Character creation and development

Naima Jeffery was one of the original twenty-three characters invented by the creators of ''EastEnders'',

Tony Holland Anthony John Holland (18 January 1940 – 28 November 2007) was a British screenwriter, best known as a writer and co-creator (with Julia Smith) of the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders''. Early life Holland was the oldest of three children born to ...

and Julia Smith. Naima and her husband were the first Asian characters to appear in the soap. Black and Asian characters were two ethnic minorities that had previously been under-represented in British soap before ''EastEnders'' aired. Holland and Smith knew that for the soap to succeed there needed to be a varied group of characters, so that several different sections of the audience had someone to identify with. Additionally, if the programme was to be realistic, it had to reflect the cross-section of society that actually existed in the real location. For these reasons, different sexes, ages, classes, religions and races were all included in the original character line-up. Both Holland and Smith had been at the forefront of the move towards 'integrated casting' in television and had encountered an array of ethnic diversities in the process. Even though the ethnic minority groups were deemed the hardest to research, Holland and Smith called upon their contacts to relay information about their origins and lifestyles and were then able to portray Walford's most recent immigrants more realistically. Naima was originally intended to be named Najma; named after one of Tony Holland's

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

friends, the wife of Saeed (who was also the character name of Naima's on-screen husband). Holland had attended their arranged marriage, and he thought the notion of an arranged marriage, particularly an unhappy one, would be an interesting and informative topic to tackle in the soap. Because of the similarities with his real-life friends, the name Najma was altered to Naima, in order to protect her identity. Naima's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, '' EastEnders: The Inside Story'' (In this passage, Naima will be referred to as Najma). :"He is quarter English, three-quarters Bengali and she is wholly Bengali. Their parents were originally from Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, and they are Muslims and cousins...Najma had an easier childhood...She became aware that she couldn't accept the traditional role of an Indian wife, but she wasn't enough of a rebel to leave home and adopt a totally different lifestyle...Saeed's mother's father became seriously ill. It was decided that Saeed's parents should return home to India, and a hasty marriage was arranged between Najma and Saeed so the young couple could then run the food store...They are in a confusing situation, accepting the customs of their parents, yet - because of having been born, brought up and educated in this country - feeling that they're slightly English...Neither of them is particularly docile, having lived through the jungle of the school playground, and the cut and thrust of working-class urban life...Saeed and Najma will make a big effort to mix, and most of the time, fail." (page 58) Holland and Smith had much trouble casting the role of Naima, as barely any Muslim women responded to their advertisement, and those who did were all unsuitable.

, a non-Muslim Indian actress of Bengali ethnicity, was a late arrival. She was a comparatively inexperienced actor, but she was the right age, looked right and she also liked what the programme was trying to do with a young Asian couple. She was subsequently cast in the role. Naima runs the corner shop, and her early storylines depict the problems of her arranged marriage and portray a character caught between two cultures. Despite being labelled as a stereotypical portrayal of Asian people today, at the time in the 80s such issues had not been widely covered, particularly on mainstream television. The character lasted in the show for over two years, depicting an independent woman battling against her families wishes and striving to succeed even after her first marriage ended in divorce. The character eventually remarries and returns to her native Bangladesh in November 1987.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffery, Naima EastEnders characters Fictional shopkeepers Television characters introduced in 1985 Female characters in television