Reclaiming MENASA identity in sci-fi and fantasy realms

Collage by Jameela Elfaki

Words by Nasrah Omar, Edited by Evar Hussayni

What associations does the mention of sci fi and fantasy immediately begin to conjure up? For many it’s a slew of sublime, sardonic and supernatural imagery and a conduit for escape. Science fiction and fantasy realms offer us the ultimate flights of fancy and within them the promise of exploration and discovery, often imbued with messages of triumph and hope. In rare cases, they offer a deep sense of solace with poetic narratives. Despite all the exhilaration and promises of transcendence, mainstream sci-fi and fantasy narratives have historically been rife with an array of troubled tropes and continue to oppress in brave, new ways. Subverting and reclaiming these narratives as otherised persons are liberatory especially as we navigate largely uncharted territory while celebrating our individual and collective multifaceted identities.

Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian (MENASA) cultures have an illustrious history filled with countless examples of ancient fantasy fiction tales - arguably one of the most significant is One Thousand and One Nights; a collection of oral and written folktales dating back to the 9th century, with influences from Islamic texts, as well as from traditions within Levantine, North African, Gulf Arab and Indo-Persian cultures. The visceral tales are overarchingly patriarchal but even in their tyranny, there are countless fantastical tales of womxn’s power and triumphs and of womxn outwitting their male oppressors. The tales are chock full of stories of daring jinniyas, automatas, stringless marionettes, mermaids and more.

 Following the late 17th century French translation of the work, an increased appetite amongst Western audiences led to these remarkable tales being devoured and transformed into works of art, literature and plays––but with a troubling agenda. The timing of the translations coincided with an increased thirst for imperial conquests by European nations and soon a sensationalised caricature of “the Orient” was constructed from complete fabrication only to become widely accepted. Edward Said in his book Orientalism noted how MENASA cultures with their diverse and distinct customs and histories have been made monolithic under the umbrella of orientalism. Said also highlights how MENASA womxn have been portrayed most often as sensuous and subservient. Orientalist paintings for example, by artists such as Delacroix, Ingres, Antoine Jean Gros, and Jean Leon Gerome portray “the Orient” as an elaborate spectacle, the works are often imbued with a voyeuristic, male, coloniser’s gaze leering into bath houses and domestic spaces. In addition to fabrication, the imagery is also teeming with racism and colorism; darker skinned subjects are either absent or in the periphery, having been further subjugated in many of these works.

Vestiges 2.0 by Nasrah Omar

Orientalism has become interchangeable with the elusive, mystical and mysterious. Often orientalist works explore recurring imagery and tropes such as snake charmers, harem scenes and flying carpets. The tainted mark orientalism made has been so indelible that it continues to inform portrayals of MENASA identity in the realms of sci-fi, fantasy and beyond. It’s not surprising that this caricaturisation has lent itself to Disneyfication with franchises like Aladdin, a movie with a bigoted and myopic, coloniser’s view of Arab culture.

Since time immemorial, MENASA womxn have been otherised in various ways, film is certainly no exception––often showcasing identities that have been reduced to existing along an offensive binary of oppressed and faceless or inhabiting the role of an “exotic” sexual fantasy while having cultural traditions like belly dancing trivialised in the process. In the documentary Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People––Jack Shaheen explores this history of dehumanisation and caricaturisation of MENASA identities in film along with its far reaching implications. Even in cult classic sci-fi and fantasy films such as Back To The Future, offensive portrayals of MENASA characters are gratuitously woven into the plot; in the film a group of Libyan nationalists are shown wielding guns, uttering unintelligible words as they shoot one of the protagonists––a scientist who duped them and thwarted their plans to develop a nuclear weapon. These instances solidify a myth of “us vs them,” otherising and using media as a tool of colonisation. With repetition of dangerous misrepresentations and vilifications, these portrayals can have big ramifications including feeding into biases en masse, creating a climate of fear mongering and influencing foreign policy.

Sci-fi and fantasy adaptations for film and tv also have a turbulent history of being engulfed by menacing waves of Whitewashing; essentially erasing BIPOC identity to replace it with more White visibility. Besides problematic casting, Whitewashing takes place in more covert ways such as appropriating, trivialising and splicing global cultures, indigenous ancient wisdom, teachings and practices, only to distill it into an exploitative and commercially viable media. The Son of the Sheik (1926), Road to Morocco (1942), The Magic Carpet (1951) amidst countless others are just a few examples. More recently the film adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), which is an adaptation of an essentially orientalist fantasy simulacra video game, also transmuted MENASA identities into White bodies. Besides erasure, these chilling acts work towards portraying revisionist history and employ fantasy realms as a means to reinforce existing power structures by way of visibility.

 Despite these failings, perhaps the biggest allure of sci-fi and fantasy realms for marginalised people is that it offers the possibility of metamorphosis and an outlet to escape oppression. Afrofuturism does just that, by fusing sci-fi, fantasy fiction and aesthetics to explore narratives of resistance and Black liberation. Ytasha Womack, the author of Afrofuturism: the World of Black Sci-Fi Fantasy and Fantasy Culture, states that “Afrofuturism offers a highly intersectional way of looking at possible futures or alternate realities through a Black cultural lens. It is non-linear, fluid and feminist; it uses the Black imagination to consider mysticism, metaphysics, identity and liberation; and, despite offering Black folks a way to see ourselves in a better future, Afrofuturism blends the future, the past and the present.”

Vestiges 2.0 by Nasrah Omar

 Ostensibly another allure of sci-fi and fantasy realms is that they offer the possibility of transforming chimeric dreams into the tangible. One such phenomenon that is a culmination of it all is Gulf Futurism (a term coined by artist Sophia Al-Maria). “Over the last fifty years, the Arabian Gulf has given birth to a very particular brand of futurism. It is a phenomena marked by a deranged optimism about the sustainability of both oil reserves and late capitalism. Similar to early 20th century Euro-Futurism and mid-century American kitsch and retro-futurism, Gulf Futurism is evident in a dominant class concerned with master-planning and world-building, while the youth culture preoccupied with fast cars, fast tech and viddying a bit of ultra-violence” artists Sophia Al-Maria & Fatima Al Qadiri explain, getting to the crux of these sci-fi visions which are materialising in warp speed before our very own eyes. Although breathtaking in their otherworldliness and sheer scope - these futuristic utopias rapidly populating gulf cities like Dubai and Doha have programmed within their essence the same imperialist ideology of Western sci-fi and fantasy fiction. Relentless in the search of newer means of exploitation, these utopian visions are built on the backs of migrant labor and made to fulfill the bottomless void of capitalist desire. There is a force of oppressive heteropatriarchy modulating it at every turn.

Operating in the realm of sci-fi and fantasy fiction as MENASA womxn means to unpack these histories and recognise the ongoing injustices; we must also assess where each of our individual MENASA identities may intersect with various privileges and how we can create access for fellow BIPOC in these worlds and beyond.

I began the series titled Vestiges 2.0 as a symbolic act of taking up space in a realm that’s always been exclusionary and undermining. As I began deconstructing the lack of MENASA womxn visibility, it felt imperative to tell a story of a being with an identity exploring multiplicities. The protagonist is a South Asian womxn (model - Thasfia Chowdhury), who is undergoing stages of metamorphosis, set to the backdrop of otherworldly, manufactured utopias. The narratives in the cultural collective psyche informs the media’s tropes about MENASA womxn, which have been inherited from orientalist portrayals; the late capitalist agenda further undermines it by marketing a pastiche of our cultural heritages. Without fail, they always refuse to center stories around multidimensional, nuanced non-White persons. As a diasporic South Asian photo based artist, it felt cathartic to dissect, insert and reclaim identities that have been omitted and trivialised - the protagonist exists as a contemporary avatar of Durga, a Barbarella-esque figure filled with ennui, a retro-futurist womxn challenging the exclusionary space age aesthetics and spaces.

As the veil between the digital and real is becoming increasingly thinner and sci fi and fantasy visions are becoming tangible, AI softwares are being embedded with implicit biases that view cis-het, male, able-bodied, White identity as the dominant paradigm and everyone else as a deviation, it's crucial to fight for visibility and access while also constructing our own inter-galactic and earthly safe spaces and platforms. We must keep advocating for representation in all realms, including the ones we should collectively be inhabiting as nuanced, discerning and empowered beings in sci-fi and fantasy landscapes.

To view more of Nasrah’s work, visit www.nasrahomar.com and @nasrahomarphoto

References:

Orientalism - Edward Said, Penguin 1995

Stranger Magic, Charmed states and the Arabian Nights - Marina Warner, Harvard University Press 2012

Afrofuturism: the World of Black Sci-Fi Fantasy and Fantasy Culture - Ytasha L. Womack, Lawrence Hill Books 2013

Steven W. Thrasher. Afrofuturism: reimagining science and the future from a black perspective. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/dec/07/afrofuturism-black-identity-future-science-technology

Al Qadiri & Al-Maria on Gulf Futurism

Dazed Digital. https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/15037/1/al-qadiri-al-maria-on-gulf-futurism