Mohammed Alshoaiby Saudi Gazette Comedy is broadly defined as tragedy plus time. No other form of comedy adheres to this definition quite like satire, a genre that author and illustrator Sarah Alhazmi, a Saudi youth currently residing in Dubai, used to describe the debut of her new comic book series “Hijab Girl: Unveiled.” Hijab Girl: Unveiled is a social and political statement on the role of women in Saudi society, presenting a tense dichotomy between its light-hearted art style and the mirror Alhazmi's narrative holds up to the serious reality of women's issues in the Kingdom. Hijab Girl, the series' protagonist, is a young girl living in Saudi Arabia. In the opening pages, she is hit by a car owned by an affluent member of society who mistakes her for a garbage bag. After surviving the accident, Hijab Girl meets Fady, a young boy who is convinced Hijab Girl is a superhero after the car hurtles her through the air and she lands in a pair of green underpants — poking fun at superheroes like the timeless Superman who, until recently, sported red briefs on the outside of his suit. Fady takes a supportive role as Hijab Girl faces almost every major issue that troubles women in the Kingdom. Without ruining too much, expect Hijab Girl to go up against every oppressive stereotype inspired by Saudi society – from an ineffective media, to a caricature of the Haia that, in the pages of Hijab Girl: Unveiled, seek to hinder women's progress. On the difficulties she faced in releasing Hijab Girl: Unveiled, Alhazmi said: “Many regional publishing companies have refused to publish it because they don't want to risk upsetting the powers that be. However at the Middle East Film and Comic Con (MEFCC, an annual event in Dubai that celebrates the comic book medium) where I released Hijab Girl, it was met really well. “The thing about my comic is that many people see the cover and initially think it is an attack on their beliefs, but once they begin to read it, they are usually on board. “I find it extraordinarily satisfying when someone picks up my comic thinking that they will be offended only to completely change their opinion midway through reading,” said Alhazmi on the readiness of the public to treat their issues with humor and laughter. The art style and themes in Hijab Girl make use of slapstick comedy and cartoony illustrations to drive a strong message. “Approaching such a serious topic in a lighter ‘whimsical' style makes the subject more approachable and less preachy, while still delivering it's meaningful message,” Alhazmi said. In its essence, Hijab girl is a story of a Saudi woman who, against all odds, found the power in herself to affect change. What that change is or, sticking to the comic book's jargon, Hijab Girl's mission is not yet clear, as the first issue ends on a cliff hanger. Judging the first issue as a superhero origin story, Hijab Girl entices us with her charm, resilience and perseverance, making the first issue a great platform to launch Hijab Girl into the overwhelming odds she is expected to tackle in the next issues. “I've already introduced all of the problems that I want to address in this series. The next issue is all about fixing the problems and taking a stand; it will be much more hopeful and uplifting,” she said, committed to continuing her work on the series. Some of these concepts are quite unique, such as Alhazmi's business card, which looks like a faux drivers license, complete with a veiled mug shot revealing only Hijab Girl's eyes that seem to hint at an agreeable attitude, masking very real – and justified – frustration. “It is really sad that we can call a driver's license creative or original. It's not a bad sad, its a funny kind of sad,” Alhazmi sighed. “Handing out my card, I usually say ‘we make our own.' People laugh and pray for a better future. Some will ask for one of their own, others will condescendingly say ‘in your dreams sister.'” Hijab Girl's driver's license isn't the only accompaniment to the comic book's first issue. A comical passport is printed out with a silent comic strip in the visa pages and a very clear disclaimer on the back: “This passport is just a joke and should not be given to any authorized person.” In this silent comic strip, Hijab Girl finds freedom in the form of a passport and travels to India, France and Mexico, where she learns phrases in the native languages, takes in the culture and acts in tandem with the modern notions of global citizenship, all the while poking fun at the lack of freedom of movement for women in Saudi Arabia without the consent of their male guardians. Alhazmi ties this short comic strip to an experience in her life that left her perplexed about her rights and freedoms. “One winter break in college I needed to go back to Saudi Arabia to renew my passport, which obviously wasn't my decision to make,” Alhazmi shares. “While in Saudi Arabia, having to wait for the passport to come my way, I missed two weeks of classes and almost had to drop the entire semester. This made me very angry at myself for being so helpless, so I made my own.” It is perhaps the attitude of taking matters into her own hands that makes Alhazmi an artist relevant to the time and environment she occupies, showing a profound amount of care and hope for the future. As Dr. Thuraya Obaid, Shoura Council member, said at an event earlier this year: “Women at the top pull the rest through the pipeline,” and the issues that Hijab Girl faces in her comic book, the same issues that Saudi women face on a daily basis, need to change. Otherwise, as Dr. Obaid warned: “all the young people will have left.” Though Hijab Girl is a bold and perhaps even necessary statement in which art imitates life, it is not without flaw. The characters in Hijab Girl, which is an English-language comic book, have very similar voices, showing a lack of experimentation in character treatment. Most of Hijab Girl: Unveiled's supporting characters sound very much the same, sticking out like caricatures of modern Saudi stereotypes rather than playing the role of clearly defined and compelling antagonists. Though Alhazmi has stated that the first issue is only an introduction to Hijab Girl's world, the hope is that by the next issue a clear set of obstacles can sustain an ongoing series where Hijab Girl overcomes adversity, essentially transforming her from the fragile and oppressed young girl we see in the first issue to an archetypal superhero, with Fady as her loyal sidekick. On her choice of creating a male sidekick to support Hijab Girl in her adventures, Alhazmi said: “These issues seem targeted towards women, but they are not women's only. These are basic civil rights issues; the society as a whole, no matter what gender, needs to rally and demand for what should naturally be our right.” Throughout the first issue, the majority of panel space is used on Hijab Girl and Fady, who both have well-defined voices and clear emotional arcs — one particular beat near the end of the first issue is especially heartbreaking — a harsh reminder for the protagonist and the reader that the community at large is barely able to empathize with, let alone understand, women's issues. It is the moments like these that pull Hijab Girl: Unveiled out of its comedic facade and into the reality that women face on a daily basis in the Kingdom. It is refreshing to see Alhazmi use her frustration and ambition to create a comic book that treads on the sensitive subject of women's issues and civil liberties with big, squeaky clown shoes, reminding the readers that if they can't laugh at themselves, they can't laugh at anything at all. Perhaps laughter will be the remedy that joins Saudi society in paving the way for a future in which men and women in the Kingdom can respect one another's concerns and issues on a level playing field. Alhazmi's book is a small but necessary cog in the progress of women's issues, a bold expression of the female consensus, paving the way for the healthy dialog and debate needed for the Kingdom to progress and grow as it shifts into an economy based on knowledge or, as the British philosopher John Stuart Mills put it back in 1859: a free marketplace of ideas, where progress is the result of transparent public discourse. Hijab Girl: Unveiled is an easy, lighthearted read that speaks volumes of the Kingdom's current social paradigms and gender roles. Like any superhero, Hijab Girl's work is never finished, but readers will have to wait to see reality reflected in the jovial pages of Alhazmi's comic book: “There will be a one year time span between the first and second (issue),” she revealed. “This is important for the story because it follows real time — we will see the progress (Hijab Girl) makes during her first year as a hero and what impact she will have on her surroundings.” Whatever that impact may be, we can expect Hijab Girl to undertake the archetypal hero's burden of promoting balance, while protecting the general interests of an entire population. Hijab Girl does not face alien invaders, mechanical monstrosities or genetically-altered bullies, but instead she faces off against ignorance, apathy and complacency, foes that have proven far more resilient in the pages of history than the efforts of any superhero's rogue's gallery of supervillains.
