Super Muslim Grandma!

ARTICLE: Dubai Superheroes: Little Old Grannies Who Wear Veils, By BRIAN STELTER, New York Times, September 2, 2009

A fascinating story of importing the form but localizing the cultural content, something we do in America all the time: the first, big-time popular animated TV series in the Middle East. A usual culprit: Dubai.

Mr. Harib's animated aspirations took shape a decade ago when he studied at Northeastern University in Boston, where his peers downloaded "South Park" episodes in their dormitories. He recognized that his native emirate lacked homegrown characters and superheroes.

"We don't come from a land that has a lot of role models, except for C.E.O.'s and sheiks," he said in an interview at his loft studio near the man-made island called Palm Jumeirah.

At Northeastern Mr. Harib started to sketch his first character, later named Um Saeed, a wise, stubby lady in red who often leads the grandmas' conversations. The cartoon he envisioned would extol grandmas as role models. Mr. Harib said that he imagined that the veil that partly covered a woman's face would be the "costume of the superhero."

As far as globalization's embrace of the reluctant region: the show goes on.

Comments

[Fazal Majid]

The Brits had a 1980s children's show starring "Supergran". She wore tartan, however.