Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March/April 2022, p. 52
Music and Arts
ON JAN. 11, the Middle East Institute held its “Creators’ Corner” series—which offers a platform for Arab artists and creators—with Jordanian actress, director and writer Tima Shomali. The actress has become one of Jordan’s most prominent performers in recent years thanks to her well-received role in the popular YouTube comedy “Female Show.” She also directed the new Netflix show “AlRawabi School for Girls,” one of the first shows produced for Netflix written in Arabic.
Shomali spoke primarily about the process leading to her latest show’s inception, from its very beginnings as an idea, to her research collecting stories across Jordan for its multiple plots.
This Netflix project was long in the making and stemmed originally from Shomali’s own adolescence. Throughout her career, she felt that she could not relate to most television offerings and wanted to create a program that better represents Jordanian women. As Shomali noted, “the way we tell the story matters,” especially when dealing with themes such as gender dynamics and adolescence.
“AlRawabi School for Girls” centers around four students at a fictional, elite Jordanian high school, which, at first glance, appears to be perfect and glamorous. However, corruption, bullying and intimidation begin to break its pristine image. Deciding on an elite setting was an intentional decision for Shomali, as she wanted to break stereotypes attached to certain classes while demonstrating that many social issues including sexism, patriarchy and violence are present across all of Amman’s segments.
During the discussion, Shomali spoke extensively on one of the show’s main social foci: bullying. Unlike her own high school days, Shomali noted that now “you are bullied everywhere,” including on social media outlets. Moreover, as the show portrays, these girls cannot go to their teachers or parents for help due to the “dialogue gap between family” and the stigma around mental illness.
One of the show’s most controversial plot lines includes the murder of one of its main characters in an honor killing, at the hands of her brother. While Shomali depicted this crime against women on the show, she also wanted to highlight the factors that brought the character’s brother to the point of murder. She explained, “he is a human who loves his sister,” but he is also a victim of society and ultimately succumbs to patriarchal norms.
The discussion concluded with Shomali sharing some of the challenges directors and script writers face. “We are in a time when everything changes so fast” and our collective attention spans have become so short, she noted. Therefore, script writers must keep with the times and find ways to attract viewers. Moreover, she emphasized that scriptwriters must read a lot, research, study film and take online courses. They must figure out what stories they want to tell and what questions they want to pose. For women, it might be even harder to gain recognition and—in Shomali’s experience—female directors have to work even harder than their male counterparts.
—Janna Aladdin
