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MENA or SWANA This is a resource post explaining the words MENA and SWANA. What do they mean? MENA = Middle East and North Africa. Image description: screenshot from Google top results for "mena meaning". MENA the word is an English language acronym referring to regions of Middle East and North Africa. The countries referred to most often include: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Libya, Sudan, and with some more countries sometimes included.   MENA does not refer to one country only, nor does it refer to countries or regions with only ONE religion or ethnicity, as there are many different religions and ethnicities in these regions. As you can see from the Google result image, MENA as a word has been prominently used by the west. However, MENA as a term has also b een adopted by us folks from and connected to these regions to refer to ou...

  Image description: Supervillains clockwise from top left, Iron Man 1 (2008), The Boys TV (2020),  Batman vs. Superman Dawn of Justice (2016), and  Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). Please note the frequent use of Yellow Filter. Muslim Supervillains: A tired stereotype in the superhero genre. - I realised I haven't yet written about British Muslim actor, activist and all round great person, Riz Ahmed , appearing in a superhero movie. Of course as soon as I thought about his character in Venom (2018), I remembered that Ahmed is playing a supervillain, a bad guy; which is a typecast all too common for Muslim and MENA actors. So I decided to list all the times Muslim and Muslim background actors (also referred to as SWANA and/or MENA, which stands for South West Asia and North Africa, and Middle East and North Africa) have been given the role of 'supervillain' in live action superhero movies. Spoiler: it's a lot.  It's also more times than any Muslim actors have appeared...

  Netflix Orders ‘Grendel’ Series Based On Dark Horse Comic With Abubakr Ali To Star From Deadline : Netflix has given an eight-episode series order to Grendel, a series based on the masked vigilante from Matt Wagner’s popular, award-winning Dark Horse comic book series, with Abubakr Ali (Power Book II: Ghost, Katy Keene) set to star in the tite role. With Ali’s casting, he becomes the first Arab Muslim male actor to portray a series lead in a comic book adaptation. The series, written and executive produced by Resident Evil and Supernatural alum Andrew Dabb, comes out of Netflix’s first look deal with Dark Horse Entertainment. Source: Deadline - This is so exciting! Congrats, Abubakr Ali! Can’t wait to see this on Netflix. Casting director, Jen Euston, said on Twitter a few hours ago : " I had no idea that when we cast the extremely talented [Abubakr Ali] that he would be the first male Arab Muslim to portray a comic book lead.  "It’s 2021 and we shouldn’t be the firs...

  MENA background characters in superhero media: Who did it better, Disney Plus or Netflix? Surprising no one, it wasn't Disney; even the bog standard MENA stereotype is the most/only instance Disney has shown MENA in the MCU since Iron Man 1, thirteen years ago. Let's compare the nameless MENA point by point. Disney first: Falcon and Winter Soldier (2021) Marvel Studios on Disney Plus, minus points for: Racist yellow filter Meaningless dialogue that add nothing to the MENA characters Praising American military = minus 3 points to FATWS/Disney (I could list more but let's stick with the main issues)  Next up,  Netflix: Jupiter's Legacy (2021) Millarworld on Netflix,  points added for: No racist yellow filter used Meaningful discussion is had Character is shown in additional background scenes of the episode = plus 3 points to Jupiter's Legacy/Netflix As far as crumbs go toward any MENA rep, Netflix's Jupiter's Legacy won thi...

When it comes to positive Muslim rep, where are the good guys? Part 2 I wanted to make a post to recognise two MENA characters in superhero media: The Tarazi siblings on DC's Legends of Tomorrow (CW Network): They are MENA characters played by MENA actors, they're 'good guys' aka protagonists, and are now series regulars. Pictured above on the right. Zari Tarazi: Zari Tarazi – (also formerly the character Zari Tomaz) from season three onwards, is played by Iranian-American actor Tala Ashe Zari's skills: hacker, socialite/media influencer, assisting the main superhero team. Super powers: none. Weapons: magical amulet (ability to manipulate the wind). Her brother, Behrad Tarazi: Behrad Tarazi – from season four and five, but as a main from season six, is played by Iranian-American actor Shayan Sobhian Behrad's skills: vigilante, assisting the main superhero team. Super powers: none Weapons: same magical amulet that his sister, Zari, now has. ...

  [Image: thesaurus entry for the word 'untrustworthy', next to image of fictional character Rashid from Knightfall] Tired Trope: Untrustworthy Arabs Hello, I'm back to drag a trope that Hollywood and mainstream western media loves to recycle: the untrustworthy Arabic character. With western, English speaking media, there isn't a whole lot of choice when it comes to seeing diversity among characters or even the cast. If you like the action genre like I do, there's even less diversity plus the fact that the characters tend to fall into one of two roles, heroes or villains. Guess which one Arabs and MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) fall into? Usually the baddies.  But there's a baddie adjacent trope Hollywood loves also! Even in the few instances when the Arabic character is technically a good guy, they are shown as the untrustworthy Arab. The untrustworthy Arab trope frames the Arabic or MENA character(s) as baddies/villains from the white w...