The Woman in Hijab as a Freak: Super(Muslim)woman in Deena Mohamed’s Webcomic Qahera

ABSTRACT

This article examines the representation of the woman in hijab as a freak in Deena Mohamed’s webcomic Qahera. In creating Qahera, a hijab-wearing superheroine, Mohamed reconstructs difference as a performance of Homi Bhabha's Third Space. Instead of becoming an objectified spectacle that affirms normative bodies, Qahera’s visibility as a freak disrupts binary oppositions naturalised by the hegemonic discourses of Arab patriarchy and Western feminism regarding what constitutes a ‘normal’ body. Her freakery challenges the discourses that try to silence her because what makes Qahera a superheroine is not her superpowers but the transformational force of her hijab. It becomes a discursive tool turning dichotomising discourses on their ear and establishing agency over the representability of her body. Relying on Freak Studies, gender theories, and Postcolonial Studies as a theoretical framework, this article problematises the representation of Muslim women by the dialectical discourses of Arab patriarchy and Western Feminism.

KEYWORDS:

• Hijab
• freak studies
• Qahera
• Subaltern Studies
• webcomics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For a detailed discussion of the representation of Arab and Muslim characters in American comics see Fredrik Stromberg’s (2011) ‘“Yo, rag-head!”: Arab and Muslim Superheroes in American Comic Books after 9/11’ and Jack Shaheen’s (1994) ‘Arab Images in American Comic Books’.

2. An exception occurs in the comic ‘On Protest’ (Mohamed 2013d), which deals with sexual assault against Egyptian women who participate in protests. Qahera defends a woman who is kidnapped by a mob and she punishes the attackers. In the final panel, two female protesters appear with grey hijab and veil, which suggests that Qahera’s act is meant to empower women and not rescue them. They are meant to emulate Qahera, and their greyness underlines this message.

3. Mohamed does not draw them completely topless as she censors their breasts. Ivey argues that by doing so, ‘Mohamed is de-emphasizing FEMEN’s visual political weapon (their nudity) while emphasizing the strength of her own traditional garment (her hijab)’ (2015, 386).

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Notes on contributors

Barkuzar Dubbati

Barkuzar Dubbati is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan. Her field of research is literary theory, and she specializes in the politics of representation, discourse studies, and the theorisation of popular culture and fiction. Her research interests center on the intersectionality of theory, politics, and literature, and a methodology that adopts an interdisciplinary approach. As a Fulbright grantee, she received her PhD degree from The George Washington University after writing a dissertation on the representation of Muslims in 1980s bestsellers in the United States.