It took me almost a year to get access for this shot. It's part of a 2010 series I did called Another Country, focusing on Shia and Sunni Muslim communities from the Middle East who are living in London. As they live under surveillance and are subjected to constant harassment, they don't trust outsiders. But once I won them over, they were extremely helpful.
Another Country addressed ideas of cultural and political dislocation – of being both part of a city and excluded from it. I shot this at a Shia mosque in east London where, among other activities, they run weekend classes for young children, teaching religious principles: oneness of God, justice, prophethood, guidance, resurrection.
I spent a few days observing what the girls do at breaktime. What was noticeable was that they don't play. They stood around looking lost, as if they don't know what to do. Or they don't know what to do with the rigid education imposed on them at such an early age. The lone figures stood out: perhaps they will one day question and resist the community's uncompromising beliefs and rules, such as requiring young girls to spend their weekends this way.
I think the photograph demonstrates well my idea for the series: the ambiguity of setting. Everyone without exception who looks at this image thinks it's the Middle East. I am not suggesting that west and east are indistinguishable, or that people from the Middle East lead the same sort of lives wherever they may be – I'm just highlighting the difficulty of deciphering the setting visually. This could be read as a breakdown of the barriers of otherness, which are so prevalent in relation to the Middle East. The title Another Country does not mean some other place, but a culture within.