![]() ‘Haanji’ is Punjabi, while ‘aiwa’ and ‘na'am’ are Arabic – and it doesn't take long to figure that out through Google Translate. Remember when Miranda informs the rest of her Sex and the City gang that ‘haanji’ is the Arabic word for ‘yes’ while en route to Abu Dhabi in that trainwreck of a sequel? Ironically, no, it's not. I find Rajah's name far less ridiculous than some of the other conflations between Indians and Arabs in Hollywood. Elsewhere, Arab names are repeatedly mispronounced, a nonsensical scrawl appears in place of the Arabic script, and Jasmine's pet tiger has a name of Hindi origins, Rajah (despite the film being set in a fictional city based on Baghdad). Turns out, Aladdin was modelled after Tom Cruise, while Jasmine was voiced by a blonde voice-over artist by the name of Linda Larkin, whose high-pitched voice was considered too childlike for the oversexualised 15-year-old character. As for the ‘bad guys’, like the burly street vendor who accuses Jasmine of theft and threatens to cut off her hand? Bushy eyebrows, a full beard, a crooked nose, and a noticeably foreign accent. The ‘good guys’ – Aladdin and Jasmine – have American accents and Western facial features. It wasn't until after my conversation with Alsultany and a subsequent rewatch of Aladdin earlier this year that this problematic representation became glaringly apparent. Any representation of an Arab that was not as a terrorist and in a leading role was memorable and meaningful – even if problematic.” Stereotypes have been commonplace and normalised. It shows that the bar was so low 30 years ago. “Seeing it again after learning about the history of stereotypes and picking up on all the stereotypes in the animated version is both crushing and eye-opening for them. “I teach a course on representations of the Middle East in Hollywood and many of my Arab, Iranian, and South Asian students have reported that Aladdin was extremely meaningful to them, because it’s all they had in terms of representations growing up,” says Evelyn Alsultany, a leading expert on the representation of Arabs and Muslims in US media. The word ‘barbaric’ remains in the revised version, which reads: It was the summer of 1993 when members of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee protested its racist lyrics, resulting in the rewrite of two lines – a rare occurrence considering Aladdin was released in November 1992, and composer Alan Menken had already won the Oscar for Best Original Score. Little did we know that 8,339 miles away in Los Angeles, a debate around the film’s opening song ‘Arabian Nights’ was brewing. And we'd relish the dialogue that felt tailored just for us – I said “wake up and smell the hummus” for years to sound cooler. We'd laugh uncontrollably when the genie broke down his three-wish rules, despite comedic references to Peter Lorre and William Frank Buckley Jr. We'd giggle over the fact that our father shares a name with Aladdin's alter ego, Ali. After a childhood dominated by the (very white) likes of Cinderella, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast, we'd liken Jasmine’s long, dark locks to the braids my mother sported in her younger days. The thrill we felt when a new VHS tape gave way to a brown-eyed, tan-skinned Disney princess in the form of Jasmine is not one we could articulate as young girls. But we were content, in a way that now feels foreign.įor me and my sister, that meant watching Aladdin on repeat. And weekends rooted in boozy brunches weren't a thing. The city was drastically different from what you see on The Real Housewives of Dubai today. ![]() Still, as a Pakistani pre-teen growing up in a much simpler Dubai, the last analogue decade was gloriously uncomplicated. Nothing about our collective longing for the 1990s surprises me, even though I was far too young to enjoy most of it – the slip dress was dubbed age-inappropriate, shows like Beverly Hills, 90210 were off limits, and owning a Super Nintendo Entertainment System remained a pipe dream.
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