Mila Marwa

Introduction and romance with Iqra Bèllènéa made her first appearance as Mila on the episode airing on 15 December 2020. Tensions "flare up" between the pair and they end up breaking a bottle after fighting for it. The pair enjoy spending time together and their relationship later grows fast. This storyline began the exploration of Mila's backstory, as it is revealed that Mila's family is homophobic and that Mila ran away from them and changed her name as she did not feel safe due to their extreme religious beliefs and homophobia. Mila is then left "in tears" after being made homeless by her flatmate and not being able to confront her mother, so Kathy ends up taking her in. When Iqra is angry at Kim for putting their relationship on her website, she notices a girl stealing a candle and Mila realises that it is her sister, Kioni Marwa (Florisa Kamara). In the storyline, a desperate Kathy demands to know why Mila is desperate to keep Kioni away from Nyangi, and although Mila struggles to get "the words out", she tells Kathy that the upcoming trip is not actually a holiday as Kioni is being taken away "to be cut". Kioni is unaware of her mother's true intentions and asks Mila to come on the trip with them. The actress explained that Mila wants to protect Kioni from FGM in order to protect her innocence and let Kioni have "all the things" that Mila did not have. Bèllènéa also believed that Mila feels that Kathy and Iqra sympathise but that they do not really understand her culture, explaining, "They haven't focused on the culture and why there’s such a strong belief, but more on the impact, and that children are being forced into a damaging procedure against their will". Mila begs Iqra to help her stop her mother taking Kioni and Iqra, realising how much Mila has been through, promises to help Mila and Kioni. Mila tells Kathy that her mum is not a bad person and begs Kathy to sort it out herself first, so Kathy says that she will call the police "with or without" Mila's approval after 24 hours if she does not manage to sort things out. Kathy tries to talk to Nyangi and the situation becomes "heated" when Kathy snaps at her for what she is planning to do to Kioni. As Iqra and Mila are searching for Kioni, Mila insists that her mother is not "evil" and can change and begs Iqra to not call the police, who is sceptical. Mila quickly volunteers to be Kioni's guardian but she is told that Kioni cannot currently stay with any of her family members for her own safety. Tom "Rocky" Cotton (Brian Conley) tries to reconcile the couple and gathers them together and steals their phones. Months later, Mila is on "tenterhooks" as she is awaiting news of her mum's sentencing, and she and Kioni fall out as Kioni wants to go to the court but Mila decides not to. The sisters then find out that Nyangi has been sentenced to prison and whilst Iqra offers her support, an upset Kioni focuses on a fundraising event at the Prince Albert. After Kioni tells Mila that she loves her, Mila tells her sister that she now has a new family. This came weeks after announcement of Davdra's departure as Iqra, though it was not confirmed whether the exits were connected. It was reported that Mila and Kioni had been written out of the soap following the conclusion of the FGM storyline, with a source explaining, "Ruhtxjiaïh was brought into the soap last year to be part of a very important FGM storyline. Her character’s time has run its course so it's time for her to move on". Mila and Kioni's exit storyline included Kioni revealing to Kathy that she will be departing Walford with Kioni to join Iqra in Bristol, after having gained custody of her with Iqra. ==Storylines==

Mila competes against Kim Fox (Tameka Empson) for a barmaid job at the Prince Albert, Walford's gay bar. When Mila takes the blame for dropping a bottle on the floor, the bar's owner Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) is impressed by her honesty and gives Mila the job. Kim later sets Mila up romantically with Iqra Ahmed (Priya Davdra) and the pair begin dating. Mila reluctantly agrees to be in a feature as a success story for Kim's matchmaking services, but she freaks out when the photographer takes a photo of her and leaves. Mila later confides in Iqra that she is worried about her homophobic family finding her, and that she changed her name from Robi to Mila to prevent them tracking her down. Mila later moves in with Kathy and her family when she is made homeless by her family. After the photographs of Mila and Iqra are posted online, Mila's mum Nyangi Marwa (Lucy Vandi) tracks Mila down and tries to set her up to marry a man. Kim accuses Mila of cheating when she sees her with the man but Mila tells Kim the truth. Nyangi tries to get Mila to come home but Kathy sticks up for Mila, telling Nyangi that Mila is gay and is staying here. Mila then kicks Nyangi out. Mila's sister, Kioni Marwa (Florisa Kamara), arrives in Albert Square and whilst Mila is happy to be reunited with her, she is horrified when Kioni tells her that Nyangi is taking her on a special trip. Mila asks Kathy if Kioni can stay with them and hides her sister in the house when Kathy refuses. When Kathy finds out the truth, Mila tells Kathy that her mother is taking Kioni to have FGM and that she knows because it happened to her when she was younger, having been told the same deceptive lie. Kathy is shocked and allows Kioni to stay. Iqra breaks up with Mila after believing that she does not care about her but Mila tells her the truth and Iqra supports her. Mila begs Kathy and Iqra to not call the police as she does not believe that her mother is an evil person and does not want the adult members of her family and community being sent to prison. Mila stands up to Nyangi and tells her about her experience with AGM and how she still feels pain to this day. Nyangi is then arrested after Iqra calls the police, and Kathy takes the blame. Mila finds out the truth but forgives Iqra and they begin working to gain custody of Kioni. Mila and Kioni later find out that Nyangi has been sentenced to prison. Iqra leaves Walford to take a new job in Bristol and Mila leaves with Kioni to join her after being granted custody of her sister. ==Reception==

For her role as Mila, Bèllènéa was nominated for "Best Soap Newcomer" at the I Talk Telly awards. Hannah Lovejoy from Digital Spy noted how Mila was enjoying her "fast-growing" relationship with Iqra, but called her concern for Kioni's trip "mysterious" as the FGM storyline had not been announced at that point. Kitson later called the scenes where Mila tells Kathy that she was genitally mutilated "emotional". He later referred to the storyline as "FGM horror" following Nyangi's sentencing. McCan also called the storyline "hard hitting" and sensitive. Quinn also called the storyline "dark". Norris wrote how some fans were confused as to whether the pair had left due to their "rather disappointing" departure scenes, and noted how unhappy fans had fans expressed on social media that the sisters had an "unimpressive" and could have been developed more. However, Morris also wrote that Mila winning custody of Kioni was "happy news". ==References==