Egyptian Superheroine Defends Hijab
“There is already so little representation of women who wear the hijab, although that is the majority of women I see around me, and it did not make sense not to make her wear hijab,” Deena Mohamed, the author of the comic series, told BBC on Sunday, December 8.
Wearing hijab, Qahira, the Egyptian heroine of the comic series counters gender discrimination and crimes against women.
With more than 500,000 hits since its online release in September, the new series is deemed as the first-ever web comics featuring an Egyptian female superheroine.
The idea came to Deena's mind while chatting with her friends.
“It all started as a joke with a group of friends,” she said.
“It was my way to respond in my own way to things that were frustrating me at the time, and when the idea of having superpowers was fascinating!”
Qahera also fights sexual harassment in the streets of Egypt, which exacerbated in the recent years, unlike most of ladies who are usually 'helpless'.
In one episode, Qahera haunts male abusers and jumps to the crime scenes while holding a sword.
“Never bother another woman again!” Qahera warns in one of the episodes.
A recent UN report has found that more than 99% of Egyptian women have experienced some form of sexual harassment.
After becoming viral on the web, several Egyptian publishers have asked Deena to offer a printed version for the comic series.
“It is insane. Way more exposure than I ever expected,” the art student said.
The Muslim superheroine comic series aims to reach audience beyond Egypt, targeting the western communities.
Fighting Islamophobia in the west, the author has written all the episodes in English.
“I wanted to send a message about the general Islamophobic backlash, and if I was going to address that, I needed to make a statement,” Deena said.
“Women who wear hijab usually bear the brunt of Islamophobia,” she added.
The 19-year-old author has also highlighted the role of Egyptian women during the January 2011 revolution.
“I remember at one point during the revolution, people would use statistics of attacks on women to discredit political movements - and Egyptians - at large,” Deena said.
“This keeps happening, consistently, both locally and internationally,
“People will abuse statistics as they see fit, but they will always ignore the women at the base of those statistics. So, politics and superpowers aside, here is my attempt at a tribute to real-life superheroes.”
Along with positive reactions on the comic series, Qahera have received a negative feedback over imitating western cultures which created superheroes.
Responding to negative reactions Deena explained: “We are all exposed to the idea of comics and superheroes. We are exposed to Western media so often. So I guess I was just responding to that in my own way.”
Last November, a leading American comics company, Marvel comics, has introduced its first female Muslim superhero, reflecting challenges on how to deal with familial and religious edicts while fighting super villains.
Source: On Islam
