Third World as We Do Not Know It Why We Need More Black Panthers That Defy White Patriarchy BY JAYLAN SALAH
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hen I first started my international film criticism career, I never thought anyone would be interested in what a twenty-something Egyptian feminist woman had to say. I was not Western, I had not studied the art of filmmaking at a prestigious international film academy, and I most certainly did not belong to any film “cliques.” My feelings bordered on isolation, insufficiency, and envying white privilege. A male colleague once told me—rather bitterly—that had I been born in a European country or an American state, my life would have taken a completely different toll. “Just compare your position to a Western woman your age with a similar set of skills,” he said. From that moment, I grew to hate white privilege and believe there was no way out of that enormous capsule of being a non-Western, nonwhite female. Fighting for my rights sounded a bit cliché and spoiled when I had to fight for a regular desk job and put food on the table amid patriarchal societal restrictions. That’s why cinema needs to bring more films like “Black Panther” (2018) into the spotlight. In a pivotal scene from “Black Panther,” when T’Challa is asked not to freeze when he faces his fierce, beloved warrior Nakia, Nakia—disguised as a kidnapped poor black girl among a group of stolen African females by a Boko Haram–like gang—removes her long khimar, the Muslim dress code which covers the head, neck, and shoulders, showing her glowing black skin and ath-
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