Nelufar Hedayat

Nelufar Hedayat
Born	Nelufar Hedayat (1988-01-01) 1 January 1988 Kabul, Afghanistan
Occupation	Media personality, television presenter
Years active	2010-present

Nelufar "Nel" Hedayat (born 1 January 1988) is a British television personality who rose to fame in 2010 after appearing in her first BBC Three documentary, Women, Weddings, War and Me which highlighted women's rights issues in Afghanistan. Since then, she has starred in further documentaries for the same channel, Music, Money and Hip Hop Honeys and The Truth about Child Brides.

Career and background

Arriving in the United Kingdom at the age of six from her war torn homeland of Afghanistan, Hedayat quickly settled into the British way of life. "Growing up in North London, identity was never really a big issue. I always felt I was free to be who I wanted to be, surrounded by a world where difference and eccentricity were the norm."^[1] Hedayet's questioning of the circumstances which forced her family to flee their country and her exploration of the first generation Anglo-Afghan cultural identity form the basis of her first documentary for BBC Three.

In December 2012 she appeared on the BBC show Celebrity Mastermind with Harry Potter as her specialist subject. She came 3rd.

Women, Weddings, War and Me

The documentary follows Nel as she returns to her homeland for the first time since leaving some 15 years ago. She is presented as a typical British teenager, shopping, going out and spending time with her friends. Unlike most other 21 year olds however Nel also has her history rooted in Afghanistan, where her parents were brought up and where most of her extended family currently live. Against her mother's wishes, she decides to return to Afghanistan to explore this part of her identity and discover how the lives of women in Afghanistan have changed with the fall of the Taliban. By the end of the documentary however, Nel fully appreciates the continued plight of women in today's Afghanistan and the struggle that continues for human rights and equality in the region. Through all this, there remains an element of hope for the future with a new generation of educated women attending, and in fact teaching at, universities and new media that break the rigid cultural restraints within Afghanistan with shows such as Afghan Star (TV series).

The documentary was shown on BBC Three from 23 March 2010. It also aired in Australia on ABC1 on 17 May 2010. It has received largely positive reviews,^[2] while scoring the highest audience approval rating for a documentary on any channel ever reported.^[3] It has gone on to win the Broadcast Digital Award for Best Current Affairs' Programme^[4]

Music, Money and Hip Hop Honeys

In her second documentary, Nel explores the controversial world of Hip Hop music video girls. She meets a host of young women in the UK hoping to "make it big" as Hip Hop models both in the UK and the US. However, alongside the glitz and glamour of the music video scene, Nel discovers a darker side to the industry where girls open themselves up to both financial and sexual exploitation.

Newsround

In October 2010, Hedayat became a reporter for the children's news programme Newsround.

Filmography

References

External links

• BBC3 Women, Weddings, War and Me
• BBC3 Music, Money and Hip Hop Honeys
• BBC3 The Truth about Child Brides
• BBC3 Riots and Revolutions
• CBBC Newsround Nelufar's webpage