WASHINGTON POST/THE LILY (22/6/2020)
“I can hear it! The sound of … misogynistic trash!” says Qahera. Carrying a sword as sharp as her wit and wearing a veil that is sometimes used to conceal her identity, the Muslim superheroine is out to fight against injustice.
Her “super hearing” helps her detect misogynists, but also racists and Islamophobes. In some comic strips she defends women from harassers, in others she goes after groups that denigrate and try to silence Muslim women. Qahera can be translated as vanquisher or conqueror — and if you add “al” before Qahera, it’s the Arabic name of Egypt’s capital, Cairo. The character was created by Egyptian illustrator and designer Deena Mohamed.
Mohamed, 25, was only 18 when she published her first webcomic after spending an evening reading misogynistic articles online. Incensed, she drew a sexist cleric saying that women should stay at home doing the housework, and a tough superheroine who responds by hanging him from his shirt on a clothesline and replying that yes, women especially enjoy “doing the laundry.”