I’m a Muslim mum who lets her child watch Peppa Pig
When I speak to other mothers who confess they too let their children watch the cartoon about the adventurous preschool pig, we can’t help but feel judged by our community for it
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When my son Ammar was two, I remember standing at the entrance to Cambridge Central Mosque on Eid day. An elderly South Asian man walked past and noticed my keffiyeh scarf. He nodded and said “salaam” to me, before his eyes darted to the Peppa Pig figurine held tightly in my toddler’s fist. “Oh no,” he said, “you can’t let him have that!”
I didn’t find this uncle’s disapproval of Peppa Pig surprising. Just last week, my brother-in-law told me he did not feel comfortable with Ammar having a Peppa Pig cake to celebrate his third birthday. My father-in-law has often commented that he doesn’t think Ammar should watch Peppa Pig or play with those toys, as pigs are frowned upon in some South Asian cultures. However, he eventually conceded, once he realised Ammar’s fondness for the fictional four-year-old pig who goes on adventures with family and friends wasn’t ending any time soon.
My Pakistani husband has explained this is cultural — they have been brought up to believe that pigs are dirty animals and to avoid all things pig-related, even children’s books or cartoons.
Being British-Egyptian, I hadn’t been aware of this cultural position, particularly as there is a long history of pig farming in Egypt. Pigs are also used in Egypt to eat food waste, which some say helps the environment by reducing litter, while others argue that this is just further evidence they are a dirty animal.
I believe the criticisms of Peppa Pig — and pig-related content in culture — are not rooted in Islam. In Islam, eating pork is haram but the actual animal itself isn’t. Still, the programme has become a huge source of debate — especially online, with numerous Reddit threads debating whether Muslims are allowed to watch it.
When I speak to other Muslim mothers and they confess that they too let their children watch Peppa Pig, it feels as if we are sharing a dirty little secret. We can’t help but feel judged by our community for it. I certainly feel judged — a few months ago, I was interviewing a Muslim community leader and asked him to please excuse the sound of Peppa Pig in the background, as I was working from home with my toddler. He politely told me off, advising me to be careful with what I allow Ammar to watch, as, he said, cartoons often have subliminal messages and dark agendas. But a British preschool pig who enjoys jumping in puddles, going to play group and playing with her teddy? It doesn’t raise any red flags to me.
If anything, Ammar’s speech skills have vastly improved since watching the global phenomenon, which has become one of Britain’s biggest cultural exports. He regularly astounds my husband and me with vocabulary picked up from the programme, using words such as “complex”, “celebrate” and “apparition” — and in the correct context too (“they’re not ghosts, they’re paranormal apparitions,” Ammar said when we were watching a cartoon featuring ghosts the other day). To me, Peppa Pig and her friends are innocent and sweet, and the storylines are full of humour. I often find myself chuckling along too.
Mostly, I think the Peppa Pig issue plays into a wider problem with parenting; that new parents face a lot of unnecessary judgement and unsolicited advice, especially around what they allow their children to watch. While I agree that children should not be allowed to watch violent TV programmes — studies have shown the links between children watching violent TV and increased aggression and bullying — the disapproval of harmless cartoons such as Peppa Pig is taking it a little too far.
Ammar does enjoy watching Islamic cartoons as well, such as Malaysian-produced YouTube series Omar and Hana. It’s important for him to watch a wide variety of programmes, not only to simply enjoy the storylines as so many children and their parents do, but also to encourage his creativity and problem-solving skills as Peppa and her friends navigate their adventures. I also firmly believe in the importance of exposing him to characters from different cultural and faith backgrounds, as well as his own. I remember spending hours of my youth watching questionable cartoons such as Ren & Stimpy, Ed, Edd n Eddy and Cow and Chicken. I loved them, but I am glad to see there are many more options for kids of Ammar’s age now — even if the Islamic cartoons might still be few and far between.
And, really, if ours is a Peppa Pig household, that shouldn’t matter to anyone else. It’s equipped Ammar with new vocabulary and knowledge — from what the Eiffel Tower looks like to how perfume is made from flowers — and you can hear the sound of his laughter ringing through the house every time he watches it. As a parent, what more could you want from TV?
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