Ms Marvel streaming on Disney+ Hotstar isn’t simply an MCU show, it serves as a tutorial on accurate representation. The world got its first Muslim superhero who also happens to be a woman. Thankfully, the show transcends the stereotypical South Asian culture that western movies and shows are riddled with.
But one sequence, that surprisingly takes place in a stale-smelling girls’ restroom really breaks the mould.
When Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) realises that she has enigmatic powers, she bemoans her BFF Nakia Bahadir (Yasmeen Fletcher) saying “Everything’s just changing really fast, Nax. I feel like I can’t keep up.”
Nakia, unaware of her Pakistani immigrant friend being a superhero, assumes that her friend is lamenting the struggle to fit into the dynamic world that strikes a chord with her.
Like every teenager, Nakia connects it with her own struggle to find a purpose. She takes the moment further and shares her poignant experience.
As someone growing up in a multicultural environment and wearing a hijab, she says, “My whole life I’ve either been too white for some people or too ethnic for others, and it’s been this very uncomfortable, sucky in-between. When I first put (my hijab) on, I was hoping to shut some people up, but I kind of realised I don’t need to prove anything to anybody. When I put this on, I feel like me — like I have a purpose.”
The moment that the two friends shared in the same restroom might seem trivial but had the potential of making millions of young girls feel seen. The scene equates Nakia’s hijab to Ms Marvel’s cape, providing the young girls a source of power. When hijab’s warped mainstream portrayal shows it as a hindrance, this scene in Ms Marvel proves that it can be empowering choice.
Twitter is impressed and applauding the makers for being loud and proud.
As icing on the cake, Ms Marvel also shows the protagonist fangirling over SRK, daydreaming on Ritviz’s music, grooving to dil bole hudippa and curiously paying heed to the Indo-Pak partition story. This is exactly what an insider’s perspective of culture looks like.