Watch All-American Muslim'reality TV

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TLC premieres 'All-American Muslim' reality TV show
Shadia Amen has plenty of piercings, a few on her left eyebrow and 20 on her ears. She says her hair changes color monthly, "anywhere from pink to blue-black to black to whatever tickles my fancy."

Americans across the country will get a peek into the lives of Muslims in Dearborn, Mich., including sisters Shadia, Suehaila and Samira Amen, in an 8-part reality-TV series on TLC.

By Adam Rose, TLC via GANNETT

Americans across the country will get a peek into the lives of Muslims in Dearborn, Mich., including sisters Shadia, Suehaila and Samira Amen, in an 8-part reality-TV series on TLC.

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By Adam Rose, TLC via GANNETT

Americans across the country will get a peek into the lives of Muslims in Dearborn, Mich., including sisters Shadia, Suehaila and Samira Amen, in an 8-part reality-TV series on TLC.

And tattoos cover 40 percent of her body, including one that depicts "the rock star sign with the hand" shaped like the devil's horns. Despite that, the 31-year-old Dearborn woman — who calls herself a hillbilly at heart — is a proud Muslim.

Although she has drunk alcohol and once was a single mom, her Islamic faith is still a part of her.

"I've read the Quran three times," says Amen, referring to Islam's holy text. "I know a lot about the religion. I was raised with it, going to all the Islamic Sunday schools growing up. Because I don't follow it to a T, that doesn't make me any less of a Muslim. Because in the end, it's God who's judging us, and I think He and I are cool."

Amen's story will be featured in a new reality-TV show debuting at 10 p.m. Sunday on TLC called All-American Muslim. The eight-part series is the first show on American television that depicts the lives of Muslim Americans, a community that has been in the spotlight for the past decade, but often misunderstood.

Filmed this year, the series looks at five Lebanese-American Shia Muslim families in Dearborn, the city that has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S. Women are a big part of the show, which reflects the community's diversity: The female characters range from a conservative who frowns on bellydancers at Arab weddings, to a woman with an Islamic head scarf who's outspoken and who dances, to a married businesswoman who wears short skirts and tight tops when hitting the city with friends.

The series comes at a time of intense curiosity among Americans about Islam, with some believing that the religion oppresses women and forces them to wear the Islamic head scarf commonly known as hijab. But as many in Dearborn already know, the TV series shows a world of independent women who decide for themselves whether to wear hijab and how to incorporate Islam into their lives.

That's apparent in the lives of Amen and her two sisters. They grew up in Dearborn in the 1980s during a religious revival among Lebanese Shias that developed after the Iranian revolution in 1979. Women who previously had not worn the hijab or attended mosques became attracted to Islam.

Amen's mother, Lila Amen, started wearing a head scarf, which the young girls noticed and wanted to emulate.

"After the Iranian revolution, people were really being more consciously aware of Islam," oldest sister Suehaila Amen, 32, explained. They began to learn about the faith.

"My mother and all my aunts were putting on the head scarf at the time, and I was trying to be like them, following in their footsteps..… Everyone else was doing it. We wanted to do it, too."

Islamic tradition urges women to cover up in the presence of men not related to them. The practice is called hijab, a term also used to refer specifically to the scarf that covers the head and neck.

Lila Amen thought Suehaila, then 6, was too young to wear the hijab. And when Shadia turned 6 the next year, she also was told no.

"My mother told me not to," recalled Shadia Amen. "But we were so proud to share our faith."

Both girls convinced their mom to let them wear it. However, Shadia Amen took off the head scarf after she graduated from high school. She hasn't worn it since.

At first, "I was uncomfortable with myself when I took the scarf off," she said. "It was very difficult."

Today, she loves dressing up in punk and hillbilly styles, and she's known as the rebel in the family.

In contrast, Suehaila Amen never stopped wearing the hijab and has become a visible spokeswoman for the community on social and political issues. But she, too, belies stereotypes. She enjoys dancing at weddings and is still single, an issue in a community where some Muslim religious leaders urge the youth to get married young.

Amen broke down crying at the wedding of her youngest sister, Samira Amen-Fawaz, in part because she was slightly embarrassed at not getting married before her.

"And if Bilal (her brother) gets married before me, that's grounds for suicide, let me tell you," she says jokingly to her mother on the show as they both chuckle.

Wearing the head scarf and adhering to Islamic guidelines like avoiding alcohol, Amen has no desire to change that part of her life.

"I never had those feelings of wondering what it was like on the other side, or what it would be like if I didn't wear the hijab."

Amen-Fawaz, 28, also stopped wearing the hijab around age 18. But this year, she started donning it again to become closer to God.

Part of her motivation is that she has had difficulties getting pregnant and so is hoping that turning to her faith might help.

"I hope and I pray that by showing God that I'm embracing my religion, that … he'll give me a child," she says on the show.

[Goljano Lion]

my dear Dr Xaarlow any comments are they kind of your ppl?

[Goljano Lion]

Granpakhalif this is for you

[MidriGeez]

Are you f****ng Kidding me???

They are Getting shia on reality TV to represent islam??

No wonder they the girl has tatoo and drink and now wants to be the next kardashian.

No way in hell a muslim family would put their family on camera to get exposed like that except shia.

They are trying to promote Shia islam as they would prefer them to convert to shiaism rather than Real islam.

I am getting sick of this and i think it's time for the World Islamic Council to issue a fatwa and Refer to shia as just shia not shia islam.

Next Seasomn they might even show her doing Mut'a.