‘Our message is about people across the world, who have a right to live naturally with at least the basic amenities,' stated Sahar Attahan, a member of youth group Hekaya and director of the “Like an Orange Scent” play, speaking to Saudi Gazette after the play was performed at Dar Al-Hekmah College in Jeddah to a packed audience recently. The audience - comprised of college students alongside women and children of a range of nationalities - enthusiastically received the play according to Attahan, who was busy attending to congratulatory phone calls and messages. “Like an Orange Scent” is based around the heroic role played by Palestinian women in the struggle for their homeland. The play, which lasted for two-and-a-half hours, was directed by Sahar Attahan, Salwa Baarma and Dr. Logaine. “Around 80 participants enacted (the) roles of actresses, photographers, decorators, etc.,” said Attahan. Hekaya, comprising of young team members, has been active for six years under the supervision of the World Assembly for Muslim Youth. “Hekaya aims to establish a movement of Islamic plays, in which there are Palestinian girls, along with those of other Arab nationalities, such as Saudi girls in “Like an Orange Scent” – all performing in their hijab,” remarked Attahan. Organizing a play that reflects the decades-long tragedy faced by the Palestinians was never a problem for Hekaya because “investigation was the most important element in our play and we managed to collect all the required information through our team members who studied the ground reality and the people living there,” said Attahan, adding that her team comprises of girls who have been raised in the Kingdom and have relatives in Palestine. “We asked the girls to find out more about Palestinian women because many of them live here in the Kingdom and have never been to Palestine. These girls also spoke to their relatives living in Palestine so as to develop a deep understanding of the characters they are playing on stage,” she remarked. The play excludes any major male characters, depicting them only as prisoners, martyrs or refugees. “The missing male factor helps empower the women, allowing them to act like men,” said Attahan. “Like an Orange Scent” uses real characters that have lived the Palestinian tragedy, allowing its audience a glimpse into the lives of those in the conflict-ridden region. “Sobhiah, one of the characters, is an old, blind woman, who lost her house in a series of attacks. She fought until giving up against the (Israeli) army and chose to move into her relatives' place. In the play, she defends her country and passes on the wisdom that she accumulated through experience to the new generations,” Attahan explained. The play also focused on the Palestinian people's love of the land. Another heroic character, Umm Mohammad, has two girls - Lama, who works with a humanitarian association - and Amal. Amal and her son Ahmed live and work in the United States. Lama and her friend Nada work together to help the poor and sick people, and ultimately plan to participate in a suicide operation against the Israelis. Marian is a Jewish girl from the United States and Amal's friend. She is an Israeli agent, who sympathizes with the Palestinian cause. Talking about the plot of the play, Attahan said a group of Palestinian women plan to carry out a suicide operation in a hotel where many Israelis are gathered. They deliberately let the Israelis overhear their plan, after which Lama and Nada are apprehended by the army. Marian and Amal later succeed in their suicide operation. Attahan said the play tries to draw a clear divide between resistance and terrorism. “The real conflict in the play is between resistance and terrorism. People who have been attacked, killed, left without shelter, food and medicine have a right to defend their families and their homes. Doing this is not terrorism; terrorists steal and damage things without any significant reason,” she said. As is evident from the choice of the venue, the play targets a younger audience as “most of the heroic characters in it were young women”. “We focus on the new generation because they are our hope for the future and to create a better balance in their characters as they are living away from Palestine as well as other issues in the Islamic world,” said Attahan. “The Palestinian issue is alive and it will never die. It is part of our value system, especially in this country of the two holy mosques.” She lamented that most people are bored or do not pay enough attention to the Palestinian cause as much as they used to in the past “because it is dominated by politics and lots of violence and bloodshed” and added that Hekaya chose to use stage in order to attract people's attention to an important cause through the medium of art. The play's title “Like an Orange Scent” is inspired from the citrus fruit itself, especially the Yafawi oranges. Yafawi orange trees, which have a five times-a-year yield, are found only in Palestine. One of the play's characters, Lama, believes that agriculture is an answer to the woes of Palestinians in desperate times like these. “Agriculture is something we can do even in a blockade to survive and fight. Why can't we have more orange farms from which we can buy and eat?” she asks. The symbolism of the orange is brought up in three different ways in the play: First, the resistance that is represented by Umm Mohammad – strong and generous like an orange tree; second, a symbol of sacrifice represented through Amal, Lama, Nada and Marian, and third, like the scent of an orange, which is the weakest form of symbolism and represented by all others who live outside Palestine and are sympathetic to its cause. Hekaya has received such a good response for the play, that they were inundated with offers to stage it elsewhere in Jeddah. King Abdul Aziz University has also expressed interest, but Attahan stated that Hekaya remains undecided and would like to perform the play in other regions of the Kingdom. “We are planing to show our play in Riyadh and the eastern province but we need interest from the relevant sectors to organize this,” she said.
