Yasmin herself, played with vivacious charm by Archie Panjabi, lives in two worlds. She works at a social services organisation and blends with the accepted British ways. She then changes back into her Muslim dress as she goes back home to her Pakistani background. Her father is a devout man but an embodiment of patriarchal traditions. Her brother is a local drug-dealer just waiting to be recruited by militant organisations. Her husband, part of an arranged marriage, is inept.
The film shows this double life taking its toll on Yasmin. Ordinary relationships, celebrating and going out, less constrained dress and make-up are part of the world she goes out to. At home, she is covered, dutiful, modest – and angry. The film makes its point about double standards for men compared with the restrictions on women.
Then comes September 11th, 2001, with devastating consequences in terms of suspicions and bigotry against any ethnic group that might be thought of as potential terrorists. When her family is victim of a brutish police raid and she spends time in a cell, though there is no reason for it, it leads to a re-thinking of where she stands as a woman, as being of Pakistani origin, as a Muslim.
In the light of the London bombings of July 2005 and along with films like Love + Hate and Red Mercury which deal with all these issues, Yasmin should be seen and talked about, especially in Britain.

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