Celebrating South Asian Heritage Month: Is Kamala Khan important?

In a blog to celebrate South Asian Heritage Month, Senior Associate and our Verve Ethnicity Network South Asian Champion Priyesh Dave asks, 'Is Kamala Khan important?' See below for this thoughts.

Last year for our inaugural celebration and commemoration of South Asian Heritage Month, we highlighted some hidden figures and the contribution they made. This year, I want to put the spotlight on Kamala Khan.

Kamala is a 16-year-old Pakistani American living in New Jersey. Although entirely fictional, she represents stories and characters that we haven’t been able to experience in modern TV/films. Starting as a comic book hero in 2013 and with her own series, Ms Marvel, debuting in 2014, Kamala has grown in leaps and bounds, being the first playable character of the Avengers video game and now the first Disney+ South Asian hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the form of Ms Marvel.

A strong focus of the Ms Marvel show is Kamala and her family’s Muslim and Pakistani heritage. A show which has a positive representation as a core element is rarer than it should be in 21st century life. However, bucking the trend, the Ms Marvel show invites us into the Khan family, showing us the importance of their family dynamic and cultural heritage, attending their local mosque with them and providing glimpses into their interactions which feel like genuine representations of real South Asian families for many. The family is shown often speaking in Urdu, which the show reflects unapologetically, without a second thought, and without it appearing gratuitous or unnatural. The show uses very common phrases like acha (okay/good),?beta (child), and?chalo (let’s go)?without needing to subtitle them, as these phrases are so basic that they will be understood through context.

We are uniquely shown Kamala’s and her friend, Nakia’s, experience in their mosque. Turning up late, taking their shoes off, performing Wudu (performing ablutions with water before entering the mosque) with taps that aren’t working, comments on how the women’s section of the mosque is not as well kept as the men’s side, back to the shoes where, unfortunately, Nakia’s have been stolen. These few minutes of the show, show us an essential aspect of her and her family’s life which are lived experiences (and almost as an inside joke) for many of South Asian background. Rarely are we able to see these finer details in a Hollywood or mainstream TV series without a negative aspect being hinted at or expressly stated – and especially in a superhero show! We have never seen this level of representation in such a successfully commercial show.

During the show, as Kamala attempts to learn more about her superpowers, she is taken back to her motherland, Pakistan - Karachi, where Kamala (and we) learn about the events of Partition in 1947 and the impact that had on her family. The show gives us a taste of what Partition was like, with families attempting to board packed trains to find a better and safer place. It is great to see the depiction of Partition, an event that is often not discussed at all in South Asian families due to the tragic loss of life on both sides of the India/Pakistan border. It is also very appropriate timing to explore this since Partition Commemoration Day is on 17 August – the final day of South Asian Heritage Month.

Kamala reflects early on that “it’s not really the brown girls from Jersey City who save the world”. Maybe it is time to see that brown girls can save the world just as well as anyone else, and for that reason alone, Kamala Khan is important.

Ms Marvel can be found on Disney+. Fittingly, the first show under their South Asian Heritage Month category.