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‘AlRawabi College for Women’ Ending Defined – A Shock for Some, Actuality for Many
Final week noticed the discharge of AlRawabi College for Women, Netflix’s newest Arabic authentic collection. Created by Tima Shomali and Shirin Kamal, AlRawabi College for Women is a six-episode restricted collection that follows a gaggle of highschool women in Amman, Jordan as they plot their revenge on a trio of bullies at their faculty.
The present, which stars Andria Tayeh, Joanna Arida, Noor Taher, Rakeen Saad, Salsabiela and Yara Mustafa, has attracted the eye of viewers not solely within the Center East, however throughout the 190 international locations during which it was launched.
Egyptian Streets revealed its evaluate of the present final week, noting it’s a must-watch for its capability to inform a compelling and irritating story that gives well timed commentary on bullying, girls’s rights, psychology, faith, and relationships.
Although, by the tip, it’s possible you’ll or might not be shocked to find the looming presence over the in any other case “all women” present: the patriarchy.
Observe: Cease studying right here if you don’t want any spoilers. The under discusses key plot factors of the present, together with parts of the ultimate episode.
As famous in Egyptian Streets’ evaluate of the present, its social and cultural nuances will certainly resonate with Arabs. That is particularly the case in relation to the ending: for Arabs, it’s clear, however for Westerners the ending stays ambiguous.
Within the last episode of the present, after a collection of successes and missteps exacting revenge on her bullies, Mariam (Andria Tayeh) sends a message to the brother of her bully Layan (Noor Al Taher) informing him that Layan skipped faculty to be together with her boyfriend. Mariam additionally sends the brother, Hazem, a location pin, main him to Layan’s boyfriend’s ‘bachelor pad’.
Mariam’s pals, who had helped her and inspired her to get revenge, had been involved Mariam had gone too far. These considerations had been heightened when Layan’s buddy Rania (Joanna Arida) warned them that if Layan’s household found her secret relationship, her destiny could be rather a lot worse than a black eye (which Rania suffered by the hands of her father after being caught sneaking out to a membership throughout an off-site faculty journey). Rania acquired away ‘simple’, Layan’s destiny could be a lot worse.
Regardless of urging Mariam to not ship the message notifying Hazem of Layan’s location, Mariam decides to take action regardless; she had been a sufferer of horrible and malicious acts carried out by Layan that had not solely made her an outcast at college, but additionally at house the place she was seen as subversive by her mother and father and compelled to go to remedy.
The scenes that observe see Hazem racing to Layan’s location; weaving in a rush by site visitors in his truck, pulling out a gun from the dashboard and finally banging on the entrance door of Layan’s boyfriend Laith (Ahmed Hamdan).
Ultimately, Hazem breaks into Laith’s bachelor pad and factors his gun at Layan with tears streaming down his face. Layan guarantees him nothing ‘occurred’ (learn: sexual) between her and Laith and that they had been merely watching a film and consuming popcorn. She begs him to place the gun down as Hazem debates the affect Layan being caught can have on his household’s ‘honour’ and what folks will now say about his household.
The digital camera pans outdoors the bachelor pad and a gunshot rings out because the digital camera settles on the drying rack holding Layan’s pink uniform, delicately drifting within the breeze. Silence follows because it cuts to flashbacks of Layan in joyful moments, singing and relaxed. This arguably represents a placing juxtaposition between what she is and what has been imposed on her as a younger lady. The uniform itself might embody the conflicting and imposed identities on women and girls as both hyper-sexual, or pure and harmless, each of which contribute to Layan’s premature tragedy.
For Arab viewers, the ending they feared happens: Layan turns into the sufferer of an ‘honour killing’.
The showrunners appear to deliberately mismatch the main target of blame of her dying to symbolize simply how pervasive the patriarchy is on the women’ lived realities. As Mariam struts victoriously by the varsity, realizing that she had supposedly unleashed Layan’s brother on her; Rania, Dina, and Noaf stare at her in terror and defeat. However had they been defeated by Mariam? She didn’t truly pull the set off, in spite of everything.
Even not directly, accountability is extraordinarily vital each in what Layan did to Mariam in addition to Mariam’s final function in Layan’s destiny. The intentional deal with a seemingly malicious and victorious Mariam, nonetheless, nonetheless highlights what has been ignored. Why does Layan’s brother get a free go for taking her life?
SHAME AND HONOUR OVER A WOMAN’S LIFE
For a lot of non-Arab (and significantly Western) viewers, together with popular culture journalists and critics, the ending was an ‘open-ended’ set-up for a second season and ‘something might have occurred’. Many of those viewers consider the ending is a red-herring: certainly a brother wouldn’t kill his sister over one thing so ‘trivial’, due to this fact it’s clearly only a fake-out by Netflix and the present’s writers.
But, ‘honour’ is sadly not a ‘trivial’ matter for a lot of households in Jordan and throughout the Center East – and it isn’t essentially linked to faith both. Although women like Layan appear to have a ‘liberal’ upbringing, intercourse and relationships proceed to be significantly taboo within the area, attracting conservatism that usually doesn’t match different areas of social and cultural progressiveness.
In an earlier episode of AlRawabi College for Women, Roqayya (Salsabiela) was demonised by her household and her neighborhood for taking a selfie with out her hijab on — even supposing most women in her faculty didn’t put on the hijab. After eradicating her from the varsity, Roqayya’s mom scolds her for bringing disgrace to the household.
In the meantime, Rania was crushed up by her alcoholic father for being caught previous her faculty journey’s curfew. And all through the present, lots of the revenge plots centered round exposing others for his or her obvious ‘lack of honour’.
This isn’t a brand new phenomenon. In July 2020, a 40-year-old girl was brutally murdered by her father for having an affair with a person outdoors of wedlock. The honour killing sparked protests throughout Jordan and the area, with many demanding elevated authorized protections for ladies and an finish to home violence and honour killings.
The July 2020 honour killing was not a uncommon prevalence both. On common, Human Rights Watch studies that at the very least 15 to twenty women and girls are killed in honour killings in Jordan every year, with many extra circumstances going unreported.
In February 2021, a 20-year-old Jordanian girl’s Instagram video concerning the abuse she suffered by the hands of her brothers went viral after she fled Jordan. Within the video, which has greater than three million views, the lady (who can also be named Layan) describes her abuse intimately and even reveals she had been dealing with dying threats for having “dishonoured” her household.
In AlRawabi College for Women, the character Layan additionally had brothers who’re abusive of her company. In a single scene, Layan’s youthful brother grabs her cellphone to see if she is texting a boy. Layan’s father even excuses this behaviour as an honourable gesture of “concern” from her brothers, one she ought to admire. Once more, nothing new for a lot of Arab viewers.
Since concern clearly didn’t translate into defending Layan’s life, it turns into obvious that she just isn’t the precise precedence of concern, however moderately her household’s status. The person bearing a gun was apparently no match for the younger lady threatening her whole household’s “honour” with a number of flirtatious messages.
Ultimately, one reality stays: Layan, Mariam, and the remainder of the women are youngsters. Whereas penalties for his or her horrific actions are vital, the adults within the present failed to really shield their children while assuming the very concern that killed Layan.
The marketing campaign in opposition to honour killings and home violence stays alive in Jordan, with social media actions persevering with to go viral leading to elevated strain for change. Activists in Jordan have particularly been arguing for Article 340 of the Penal Code in Jordan to be abolished because it permits a lowered penalty if a male family member finds their feminine relative in an act of adultery.
You will need to be aware that the ending of the present shouldn’t be too alien to viewers past the Center East. Home violence in international locations like Australia and the USA of America continues to climb, with numerous women and girls killed on a weekly foundation by the hands of their members of the family and romantic companions. In the meantime, honour killings stay a worldwide situation, with greater than 5,000 girls and women killed in international locations as numerous as Canada, Israel, Sweden, Egypt and the UK.
AlRawabi College for Women serves as an vital and sobering reminder concerning the plight of honour killings, home violence and different types of abuse in the direction of girls and women. The writers didn’t explicitly depict Layan being shot as such a picture didn’t should be proven: it already is a actuality.
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