Comments on: Female, Muslim, and Mutant: A Critique of Muslim Women in Comic Books, Part 1 of 2

By: Muslim Women in Comic Books – Inside Islam

Muslim Women in Comic Books – Inside Islam — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:35:56 +0000

[...] on prominent Muslim and non-Muslim blogs alike. You can find her commentary on Racialicious and Muslimah Media Watch. The series also received the Best Post or Series Award in The 2007 Brass Crescent Awards last [...]

By: “Broken Mystic” Nominated for a Brass Crescent Award! « Broken Mystic

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:57:26 +0000

[...] in comic books. I’m sure my regular readers remember them, as they were also posted on Muslimah Media Watch, (nominated for Best Group Blog) Racialicious, and Fantasy [...]

By: jehanzeb

jehanzeb — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:03:00 +0000

Mas3ud,Thanks for the comment, and you’re right about Wolverine. Someone else pointed that out on my blog as well. I admit that the Wolverine I was mostly exposed to was the Wolverine in the X-Men cartoons, where he obviously didn’t kill anyone.I am well aware too that he is an anti-hero. As soon as someone pointed that out to me, I immediately thought about the movies where Wolverine even kills soldiers. With that said, I still believe it’s disturbing how there’s a whole pile of Taliban slaughtered by Wolverine.You mentioned Spider-man and Superman as characters who don’t kill, but there’s also Batman. And I *do* read comic books, but I’ve always been more of a DC comics guy. I was thinking of Wolverine in a different context. A mistake on my part.Perhaps I should be banned to the spice mines of Kessel now

By: mas3ud

mas3ud — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:37:00 +0000

i apologize, i didn’t realize it came from another blog. I will post my response there. Thank you.

By: Zeynab

Zeynab — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:22:00 +0000

Mas3ud: Jehanzeb is an avid comic book fan, which is why I asked him to review this comic book character. Also, please see comment moderation policy #4: “This blog is about the media/pop culture representation of Muslim women. Please make sure comments are relevant to the posts, and do not get bogged down in historical, religious, or political tangents.”Whether superheroes kill or don’t is a tangent. This post is about the representation of Dust; please keep it to that subject.

By: Jehanzeb

Jehanzeb — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:39:00 +0000

Anonymous — thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed read it. Thank you for reading Duniya — yeah that was exactly my point. Only one version of Islam is being depicted here, no alternative is mentioned at all, and mostly because we hardly ever get an in-depth look at her character.Coolred — I personally don’t see Dust as someone who comes off as sexy. If anything, she’s repressed and she gets sexualized; sometimes by the male characters around here. There is one part which disgusted me and it’s when she transforms into a whirlwind of dust, and one of the guy mutants says, “oh Dust, that feels good, almost sexua–” and then Dust cuts him off, “Don’t finish that sentence.” There are other scenes where guys will put their arms around Dust as a friendly gesture, and Dust is so alarmed and uncomfortable. To me, this isn’t about the boundaries that certain Muslim men and women set for themselves, it was more about showing how “foreign” her religion and culture is in the U.S. I have Muslim friends who are very touchy, two in particular who were in a short film I made, and I had to keep saying “CUT! stop touching each other!” because they were supposed to be playing a traditional and non-touchy, though very romantic, Muslim couple in a pre-marital relationship. Anyway, we don’t see the beauty of Dust’s CHOICE in setting her boundaries. It’s clear that people find beauty in being able to hug their friends and everything, but what about other people’s choices? Instead we see characters touching her and completely oblivious about her culture and beliefs, and when she explains herself, the characters scratch their heads and go, “oh, right, I forgot about that.” As we — the readers — read this, we’re just as baffled and confused. Poor Muslim girl. She can’t hold hands, hug people, or hang out with boys. What’s the big deal, we think.Of course Muslim women can be sexy, but are referring to some complaints that certain Muslim readers have about how her dress shows her figure? I think it would be a nice touch to show her take charge and not be so weak because of her beliefs, but like I said, I don’t see it at all in her.

By: mas3ud

mas3ud — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:18:00 +0000

When you said “Maybe I missed something, but the last time I checked, super-heroes don’t kill their enemies, no matter how destructive or deadly”…you are mistaken when you say this. This usually pertains to characters like Superman and Spiderman. The comic book geek that i am, I’ve read many issues of Wolverine and he totally destroys and kills his enemies. Whether its the taliban or his arch enemy Sabretooth, Wolverine always wants to put his enemies down with his razor sharp adamantium claws. Wolverine isn’t the typical “hero” in the comic world, he’s actually considered what they call the “anti-hero”. So the above remark was actually ignorant on your part, but i won’t blame you since you aren’t a comic book geek fan like me. But anyway, the rest of your argument holds true, Dust is seen as a weak and stereotypical character. Its too bad they don’t have muslim artists or writers/editors to correct the misunderstanding.

By: Coolred38

Coolred38 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:02:00 +0000

It will be interesting to see whether she will be strong in the face of adversaries…but weak when it comes to “female stuff”…like emotions…relationship dependence etc…or even if she gets her period…cant wait to see that episode.Ive read comments about this comic on other blogs…apparently Muslims dont like the fact that she comes off as somewhat sexy…as if Muslim women cannot be sexy…sheesh.

By: Duniya

Duniya — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:43:00 +0000

Very well written! Although the image of Dust isn’t of a terrorist or terrorist supporter, she is still depicted as a victim of sorts. According to this comic, Islam places so many restrictions on women that it stifles us. Although there are Muslims who follow these traditions, many don’t. And readers are getting just one version of Islam. There are other interpretations which they are missing.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:10:00 +0000

I really enjoyed reading your analysis. Thankyou for spending time in writing this informative piece.