Hala: A Nuanced Look at Arab-American Women or a Shallow Stereotype?
As both an Arab-American and a Muslim, I can say that our often-intertwined communities are picky with our media representation. For decades, we’ve either been completely shut out of North American media, or portrayed as exotic, unstable foreigners - paired with thick eyeliner or facial hair, and even thicker accents. 9/11 only gave Hollywood more leeway to portray us as terrorists and nothing else.
Occasionally, we get to see ourselves in other forms, like a hijabi as an extra in the background of a school, (looking at you 13 Reasons Why). If we are lucky enough to be written as protagonists, our excitement is inevitably ruined when we see that the clearly non-Muslim and/or non-Arab writers fall back into stereotypes when creating their characters. I remember watching Degrassi: The Next Generation as a child, (not Hollywood, Canadian, but it doesn’t matter), and feeling ecstatic when characters Sav and Alli were introduced - two siblings living in a Muslim household. But even at the time, I grew tired of the cliched plotlines of the two having to ‘rebel’ against their strict and one-dimensional family.
I know that most, if not all teens, develop strife with their families as they transition into adulthood. I also know that there are a lot of cultural differences between kids and parents in Muslim households, which do add to this inevitable rift. But why are non-Muslim/non-Arab characters afforded certain complexity in their struggles, and why are the challenges faced by Arab-Muslim teens always depicted as so black-and-white?
As a result of this overused trope, Arab-Muslim viewers around the world tend to object whenever there is a new show or movie which touches upon the idea of a young Arab-Muslim person struggling with family, culture, and/or religion. While our collective fatigue of this concept in the media is undoubtedly justified, I do also feel that this leads to people in our communities objecting to nearly anything that is made about us, which involves some sort of struggle. There is a discourse that we have to be shown as perfect Muslims who are completely dedicated to our faith and adherence to cultural practices, and any portrayal that says otherwise is Western propaganda and disrespectful.
The 2019 movie Hala received such criticism from Arab-Muslim communities online, even before it was released. The plot - a 17-year-old Arab-Muslim teen girl trying to figure herself out, while dealing with her family’s cultural and religious expectations - along with a subplot about her relationship with a white boy, shown in the trailers, sparked immediate outrage on social media, as well as review sites like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.
What sets this movie apart from other depictions of this trope is that the writer is not an outsider, looking in at a culture and religion foreign to them; it’s created by one of us. Hala is written and directed by Minhal Baig, a Pakistani-American. Much like Greta Gerwig with Lady Bird, (a film similar to Hala), Baig wrote the story influenced by her own experiences during her teen years.
The protagonist of the movie, Hala, is a smart and creative teen who, “happens to be Pakistani-Muslim”, according to Baig. She’s curious about the world, quiet whilst observing various environments around her; her dining room table, her English classroom, the skatepark. She desires to learn about herself in the process, and determine what kind of adult she will become, however she is hindered by the expectations of her parents and the outside world. Introspective, Hala writes poetry in her free time, often describing the emotions behind the formidable experiences she undergoes throughout the film.
At the start of the film, we are immediately shown Hala’s family dynamic. She looks at ease with her dad, Zahid, paired with a smile as they collaborate on crossword puzzles together. However, her behavior shifts with her mom, Eram, who frequently criticizes her over anything, such as not waking up in time to pray Fajr, (the sunrise prayer). Her father seems to be the ‘cool’ modern parent, compared to her overbearing, traditional mother. The only hard rule he seems to give Hala is to not hang out with boys, which he says in casual passing. It is not an ideal family dynamic, but it is refreshing to see an honest look at how a person’s relationship with one parent can be completely different from the other, especially when it comes to mother-daughter relationships.
Hala’s relationship with her mother is shown to be more complicated as the movie unfolds. Eram stresses the importance of maintaining a clean image for other Pakistani-Muslims to prevent their judgment. She tells her daughter to be more responsible, yet continues to make Hala co-dependent on her, by doing all of the housework, and even continuing to choose Hala’s clothes, (judging her when she wants to wear something that her mother hasn’t chosen). It’s clear that Eram wants her daughter to be a successful, independent woman, but is stunting her development by upholding the patriarchal standards that exist in her community.
While her father may seem like a more relaxed parent, he aids in the continuation of misogynistic societal traditions, albeit in a more subtle way. Zahid stands out from his family; he communicates solely in English, while Eram can only speak Urdu. He wears ‘Western’ attire, while Eram is frequently dressed in traditional clothing. He defends Hala around her mother but does not seem to object to the root of why her mother is criticizing her - which is her mother’s desire for Hala to obey tradition. It is also established that he expects Hala to have an arranged marriage, rather than choosing a partner of her own, without regard to Hala’s feelings towards this issue.
This proves to be a source of major conflict, as Hala grows a crush on Jack, a boy in her English class who also skates. After a few shy encounters, they begin to develop a relationship through their shared passions of poetry and skateboarding. This point was a large factor in the film’s controversy, as people saw it as another example of a Muslim woman needing to be saved by a white guy from her ‘oppressive’ culture. However, I do not consider this relationship to fit that category at all. The two characters create a deep connection that is often left out of the white-savior trope, and he is understanding when she can’t hang out on certain days, or has to meet him in private in order for their relationship to remain hidden from her family.
Hala is already forbidden to hang out with boys alone, and continuously oversteps her family’s boundaries by meeting up with Jack, staying out late, and not responding to texts. Her mother is suspicious, but it is her father that catches her being dropped off by Jack, subsequently telling her to cut any relationship she has with him immediately.
From this revelation, Zahid almost does a complete-180. His demeanor is changed, and he starts to resemble a stereotypically-strict, Muslim-immigrant father. While it does make sense that he would behave this way due to his inflexible outlook on boys, and Hala’s secret relationship with Jack, any of the prior warmth he displayed towards Hala, disappears. He becomes permanently angry with her. I found this to be a drastic change that could have been developed more extensively - especially when he ends up lashing out at Hala and slaps her because of her relationship.
But Hala’s own world crashes down on her while this is happening, for a different reason; her father’s infidelity. While out with Jack at a diner, she sees her father with another woman from their law firm, when he was supposed to be out of state for a work trip. It is already a horrible thing to know that a parent is being unfaithful, but when that parent is supposed to be the person that implements and adheres to the cultural and religious morals in a household, the hypocrisy becomes overwhelming.
From that point on, Hala’s actions get progressively messier as she struggles to deal with her disillusionment. Out of impulse, she sleeps with Jack and becomes consumed with guilt over it. This leads to their sudden breakup, initiated by Hala. Female sexuality is already an aspect of life, which the world of film often does not like, or even know how to show. So, I found it daring to show Hala’s struggle with her sexuality, and to express it in such an honest, confusing manner. It is hard for teens, especially teen girls, to navigate the world of sex, but it is made even more difficult when religious guilt and cultural taboos are factored in.
Hala’s disillusionment with her father leads to her feeling the same way towards love and sex as a whole; concepts that differ greatly in her home life and the outside world. However, to me, the break-up did not make much sense. If Jack and Hala’s relationship resembled that of Christine and fuckboy-Kyle in Lady Bird, it would have been more understandable, since the latter did not form a connection on a deeper level like Hala did with Jack. The relationship ended abruptly by Hala, who pined for him in the beginning, yet he was never mentioned again. That said, I also understand that she is going through major turmoil with herself and her family, so she is bound to act out in response to that. She even says it herself that it is possible for a person to be, “full of contradictions.”
Hala’s struggles come to a climax following an incident with her English teacher. After her family hosts a dinner with the family of a potential ‘suitor’ for Hala’s arranged marriage, she runs away from home. Hala finds solace in her teacher’s house, who reluctantly allows her to spend the night there. However, he kicks her out after she attempts to kiss him; the incident is discovered by the school principal. Hala is called for a meeting with the principal and her parents, to which her dad sends the associate he had an affair with, instead of showing up.
The character development of Hala’s mother comes to a height. Eram seems to go back-and-forth between being standoffish and closed-minded and being compassionate. She tries to get Hala to talk to her, telling her that she understands her frustration and need to act out. But Hala does not give in to her mother’s newfound warm behavior, claiming that she did nothing when her dad humiliated her at the dinner, (which I found to be a strong response). People, often women, become bystanders in households where gendered expectations and rules continue to exist simply because it is easier to stay quiet and uphold them than try to destroy them. Yet Eram’s apparent silence, whilst also trying to defend and comfort her daughter, illustrates how misguided a mother’s affections can be. Parents generally want the best for their children and want them to avoid the same fate, but often cannot bring themselves to confront and deconstruct the sexist standards they grew up with. Eram proves to be successful ultimately, as she finally stands up to Zahid about his infidelity, his failure to support his daughter, and his unrelenting minimization of her, finally declaring that she is divorcing him.
At the end of the movie, Hala finds herself on a plane to college, finally becoming fully-independent from the world she left behind. After prayer, she takes off her hijab and walks out the door, a changed person. Now, this trope could have been executed horribly. A lot of people in the film industry, when writing hijabi characters, tend to treat the hijab as the main source of oppression for women, which completely disregards the reality that many hijabis wear it by choice. I think this decision, on the other hand, was more nuanced; it is shaped by Baig’s experiences, rather than relying on an outside view. At that moment, the hijab was not working out for Hala, because it was a choice shaped more by her family’s expectations, rather than her own accord. In a way, this parallels her parents’ relationship, which additionally was not of choice, but due to their family’s expectations. Hala could go back to her hijab in the future, it just has to be through her own choice.
I was pleasantly surprised by Hala. It is not without flaws, but I found it to be a relatable story for any teenager feeling the pressure of incoming adulthood and family dreams. While her family was not written with as much complexity as Baig gives to Hala, I considered the movie to offer a valuable look at what it is like for an Arab-Muslim teen to grow up in a different environment from their parents and the struggles that arise consequently. The film does not attempt to show the picture-perfect, clean image that people in our community would like to see, but it also does not succumb to hollow stereotypes non-Arab-Muslim writers tend to fall back on. It is a step in the right direction; Arab-Muslim creators telling their own stories, uninhibited.