More than a headscarf; a Muslim woman’s world in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan

Anthony Romanelli
Sep 7, 2018 · 5 min read

In Europe’s Dark Ages, women were controlled by their husbands. They kept the household while men worked the fields. Even the richest noble ladies were little more than child factories, expected to produce heirs and look beautiful while doing so. Since then Europe has come a long way for gender equality, and the continent is used as a model of progressive thinking.

Conversely, the Middle East, and by extension the Islamic world, is held as the example of what you should not do. Whether villains or heroes, Muslims are portrayed as uniformly ultraconservative and reactionary, and all 1.8 billion of them apparently grew up in households dominated by the father and his sons, while the mother and daughters are confined to housework and denied education. I would be lying if I said this wasn’t true. The oppression of women and non-Muslims is the chiefest obstacle to the progress of the Middle East. However, such depictions usually cause bleed over into the public consciousness. The Muslim girl who lives three blocks down must be abused at home. After all, that’s super common in Saudi Arabia. Her dad must hate it when she goes to school because he doesn’t believe in it. Islam is Islam, right? It’s pretty much the same thing, right?

Imposing third-world standards on first-world citizens because of a shared religion is insulting and ignorant, regardless of race or religion. Imagine the backlash if someone assumed all black Africans were cannibalistic apes unless convinced otherwise. That was a belief held by many in the late 1800s, but nowadays that would be unheard of. Jack Ryan is primarily a spy thriller, but through the character of Hanin, it somewhat unintentionally creates a new set of expectations for viewers, that Muslim women aren’t universally oppressed or backward, and that many are heads of their households.

Hanin is the wife of “Suleiman”, the elusive terrorist leader that serves as the show’s antagonist. When we are first introduced to Hanin, she is playing soccer with her children, watched over by gun-toting Syrian terrorists. The audience is made confused, pleased by the laughter and happiness in the foreground, yet scared of the terrorists watching for intruders in the background. This stark contrast sums up Hanin’s entire character; she is compassionate in a world without compassion, and it’s clear she doesn’t belong. Even her clothes are clean and vividly colored to stand out from the drab uniforms and dusty tunics of her terrorist bodyguards.

A column of terrorist technicals arrive at her estate, and we see the first inkling of a cultural transmission. The leader of the newcomers, Sheikh al-Radwan, demands to know where Suleiman is. Surprisingly, Hanin stands up to al-Radwan, politely telling him that “my husband’s affairs are his business”. Most movies and TV have reinforced the norm that Muslim women are powerless in their households, and that the Middle East is in its own “dark ages” where armies of bandits roam and the people are still loyal to kings. Here, we see an unarmed Muslim woman talk back to a terrorist leader, albeit with restraint, and incredibly, he backs down! Sheikh al-Radwan gives her a surprised look, but decides not to say anything, and returns to business as usual. This shows the audience that the inequality is still there, but even among these terrorists, followers of the most backwards ideology on Earth, Hanin stands her ground, and manages to escape unscathed. Al-Radwan never moves to strike her, and while this could be because he respects Suleiman, he doesn’t attempt to insult her either, instead just leaving her be. This is a remarkable demonstration of restraint from such an evil man, and that goes to show how respected Hanin is in the community.

Later in the show, we see Hanin bringing tea to a bombmaker that al-Radwan dropped off at her home. She lays down the tray and asks if the man wants any. In broken Arabic, he thanks her and admits his Arabic isn’t the best, only for Hanin to say, “We can speak English, then,” in perfect English. This disrupts the assumption that women in her culture are uneducated, and serves to surprise both the audience and the bombmaker at how educated Hanin really is. This exchange shows viewers that Muslim women cannot be defined by their religion alone. There are many Muslim women, literate and illiterate, wise and foolish, prejudiced and tolerant. If Hanin was Christian or Jewish the whole scene would have lost its value, because we as a culture are taught that all Middle Easterners are a backward culture that haven’t advanced to our level.

Perhaps the most subtle and yet most powerful cultural transmission occurs in between the previous two, right after Sheikh al-Radwan leaves the estate. It is the reaction of one of Hanin’s guards to the bombmaker’s arrival. He looks to her. Due to his short stature, he literally looks up to her. This Syrian Muslim man is dutifully waiting for orders from a woman, who society tells us should have no authority in this situation. Yet here she is, in complete command, surrounded by scruffy terrorists who refuse to lay a finger on her. It’s a powerful moment that you need to watch twice to really see, and I think that subtlety is what makes it great. This isn’t a great revelation. It’s normalization. Jack Ryan’s pilot episode, intentionally or not, plays this off as a possible thing that could happen. No one ever says “for a woman, you have a lot of power here”. Not even al-Radwan, who had a number of opportunities to do so in his short scene.

This episode introduces the cultural transmission that no, the Middle East is not a “lost cause” when it comes to feminism. Viewers might not have sympathy for Hanin quite yet (she does house terrorists in her home, after all), but they can appreciate her independence in a culture that tells her to shut up and cook. Despite standing up for herself, Hanin doesn’t talk back or call out the Sheikh. She remains polite and cautious. This shows the audience that while the Middle East has a long way to go for women, Hanin represents those women who are quietly doing their part to level the playing field and bring her world out of its Dark Ages.

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