Excerpt:
Yafa, the superhero of Palestine
Atik notes that Arab women‘s role in Western productions has been widely reduced to vulnerable and exotic sexualized beings in need of a male protagonist – often from a Western background – to rescue them from oppressive environments. Yafa was therefore created to protect and rescue, obliterating the stereotype of vulnerable Arab women in need of help, she added.
The Palestinian cause has long been distorted in Western news and entertainment. In an unprecedented move Netflix’s “Mo” series was successful in bringing the Palestinian diaspora experience to the small screen of Western audiences.
When it comes to comics though, Abou Abdallah notes that superheroes have always been imported from the West and never exported from the Middle East.
“This is why we came up with ‘Yafa.’ We didn’t want to be mere spectators in this cultural war where our histories and nations are erased from the mainstream narrative. We wanted to take an active role and be on the frontline of this battle,” Abou Abdallah told Fanack.
Source:
https://fanack.com/culture-en/yafa-and-the-battle-against-cultural-and-p...