GRITtv: Najla Said: Characterizing Arab Women

Actress and writer Najla Said discusses the Arab characters she plays in the new play Prophecy, and why she was careful to ensure that they were two separate individuals with motivation.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• grittv
• grit tv
• laura flanders
• acting
• east fourth street theat
• edward said
• george bartenieff
• hijab
• Iraq
• karen malpede
• kathleen chalfant
• Lebanon
• Middle East
• najla said
• noam chomsky
• prophecy
• soldiers
• theater
• Vietnam
• war
• women

[viklow]

Women are closer to GOD than man in the way of they give BIRTH! Man,We just spit in them.

and now were almost not required to do it so for those think women should be threat a certain way You are Little in every ways.

[planetarypatriot1]

so very pretty. shame white racist false jews aka zionists run hollywood she would be famous by now. one day.

[Thedarksecret1]

She's the whitest looking Arab I've ever seen.

[charlesmesmer]

@badfoods It's perfectly clear what she meant: that she wasn't interested in playing a stereotype, and that the portrayal of an Arab woman in hijab is often stereotypical. The male equivalent for Arab actors in dealing with stereotypes is the suicide bomber. Clearly she wasn't suggesting a moral equivalency between women in hijab and suicide bombers. She was discussing them as tropes, solely from an actor's perspective.

[badfoods]

yeah! representing women who wear hijab IS like representing suicide bombers!

Edward Said's daughter should've found a better way to express what she meant. For God's sake.