Final Draft with Artist Statement

Reading the comic Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson, has brought me memories of my past when I was struggling to transform to this new world (America), and where I wanted to experience everything that I could not in my home country. There is gender inequality where boys can do anything and girls cannot. My brothers could do anything and I had restrictions and limitations in my life. I was stuck between my desires and my parents’ expectations and believes. My life changing experience was coming to America. The bridge between my past life and my new life was insecure because I struggled to cross and embrace a whole new life which changed everything.

I was so excited, but somewhat nervous at the same time. I was nervous of how I’ll stick to my own culture and religion when I was scared of losing it. Because people used to gossip that America is a country of freedom and where young get spoiled and leave their culture and religion. Departing from my old life was the hardest challenge but the minute me and my family stepped out of the airplane into the ‘land of opportunity’ we looked ahead at the bright future we had lying in front of us. I was looking towards my freedom because I was told by my friends that girls are free like a bird and they could do whatever they want and that there are no restrictions on anything. I was happy.

Similarly, in the comic Ms. Marvel, Kamala a young Pakistani teenager, wanted freedom from everything she was stuck in such as culture, dos and don’ts. She just wanted to be free like her friends. Kamala’s parents were strict and conservative. They wanted her to be good, obedient, and a polite girl. Yet, she wanted to be wild and try things that were forbidden. In the below scene 1, she asked for permission to go to a party with her friends’ late night. And there is this gender ideology in our culture that boys are allowed to go out late night but girls can’t. Girls are known as family izzat meaning honor, prestige and reputation. If girls do something wrong then everyone will gossip about that family yet if boys do something wrong, the people won’t give attention. This makes us girls wanting more freedom and experience of everything that boys do.

Scene 1:

Kamala: “Abu?… can I go to a party tonight?”

Kamala’s Dad: “but it’s not safe for a young girl to be out late at night with strange boys, drinking God knows what…”

Kamala: “… if I was a boy. You’d let me go to the party. May I be excused.”

The conversation between Kamala and her Dad in this scene shows a lot of overprotection from her Dad. She was not allowed to attend the party because she is a girl and especially late night with her friends was totally forbidden. Her parents did not want her to be in any trouble. They also did not want other families to gossip about them If something went wrong with Kamala.

Likewise, something similar happened to me too. When I came here to America, I remember me and my twin brother were graduating from our high school and we had prom. I was desperate to go and attend it with all my friends as this was my first party ever. I asked for permission from my parents. My mother started conversation with me about other girls in my family and the girl I used to be in my country. She told me that “Hira you never attended any parties back then” I was silent and told her okay I am not going to any prom. I then asked my father if I could go to prom with my girlfriends, he said when and where and how is it going to be a party and all. I even told him that I won’t eat and drink anything. I explained him everything. He said no at last. I was not shocked or upset because I knew I was not allowed to attend prom. And so my brother went to prom and I did not. I sometimes did get depressed and sad for a while because I did not have anything to do, all I was supposed to do was obey my parents.

Scene 2:

Kamala (to herself): IT’S JUST A ONE PARTY. IT’S NOT LIKE I’M ASKING THEIR PERMISSION TO SNORT COCAINE. I’VE ALWAYS DONE WHAT THEY ASK ME TO DO…AREN’T I ALLOWED TO DO ANYHING MY WAY? JUST ONCE? … EVERYBODY ELSE GETS TO BE NORMAL. WHY CAN’T I?

In the above scene two, Kamala is very disturbed. She wanted to do things that she like, going out to parties and having fun with friends was all she wanted. Yet, her parents did no let her go out to party late night because she is a girl. Her parents were also scared and were being protective.

Back then in my country I never went out to any trips, proms, parties, or graduation except school and home. That was all I did in my teenage life. I had this thinking that I am in America and I can do anything I want and nothing can stop me. But I did not know that my culture will stop me from what I wanted to do. I stayed silent the whole time and I was used to hearing no from my parents. Even now that I am married my parents still say no to me if I want to go alone to malls or any other things.

 

 

Expectation: emailed

Pre-Draft:  http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/24/pre-draft-assignment-3-2/

Rough Draft:  http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/31/rough-draft-assignment-3-3/

 

Artist Statement:

I did a personal essay. There are a lot of things from the comic Ms. Marvel that had inspired me throughout the comic. I see myself in Kamala the main character in the comic in some ways. The way her parents treat her, she is from Pakistani like me, she had so many restriction and over protection from her parents as me. So I thought I would like to do personal essay. My audience is everyone. Especially people from other cultures so they would have ideas about my culture and my personal life. They should know that every culture hold different aspects we should all respect our culture and obeying our parents is not something bad but it is good for our future I believe. I think my audience will able to learn my writing and understand it well because reading Ms. Marvel made us all understand that she was at first very innocent girl and she wanted to try and experience new stuff and things that she was forbidden from but then she got superpowers and she struggle to hide them. There were a lot of emotional impact. I chose a scene where kamala asked her parents if she could go out to a party late night with her friends but they say no. similarly I was not allowed to attend my prom. My parents did not let me go to prom and I did go deep in this conversation. Since Ms. Marvel character Kamala Khan is Pakistani and came here when she was young and then she struggled with her parents obeying. She was frustrating and tired of the culture she was following because she could not do anything like her American friends could. I had the same story in life. I know that it gets hard to follow culture once young girls comes here because they want to be free like the others. I think I did learn something but I have to work on my writings I feel like I still have some empty spaces that I need to fill in my writing skills. I think there are slot of things that I learned throughout the projects we did in this class. Every assignment I learned something new and in this I had learned slot. I had never read a comic and wrote a personal essay on it. It was fantastic to read a comic and then write deep essay on it. It was pleasure to read Ms. Marvel. I really appreciate it.

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