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Resource type: Journal Article Language: en: English Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2017.1355830 BibTeX citation key: Dubbati2017 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details |
Categories: General Keywords: "Qahera", Arabia, Body, Egypt, Islam, Mask, Mohamed. Deena, Superhero, Webcomics Creators: Dubbati Collection: Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics |
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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.
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