In America, we have so many movies and so much media about the Islamic world, the sub-continental world, but it’s not a conversation, it’s a monologue. It’s always from one point of view. ’If we don’t tell our own stories, no one will tell them’ is my mantra.

Nair is criticizing the asymmetry of representation: American film and news frequently depict Islamic and South Asian (“sub-continental”) societies, yet those depictions often speak about them rather than with them. Calling it a “monologue” highlights how power shapes narrative authority—who frames events, assigns motives, and defines what counts as “normal” or “threatening.” Her mantra, “If we don’t tell our own stories, no one will tell them,” asserts a responsibility for artists from marginalized or misrepresented communities to create work that complicates stereotypes and restores interiority. It also implies that self-representation is not merely cultural pride but a corrective to structural exclusion in media industries and public discourse.