Alrawabi School for Girls

***Alrawabi School for Girls*** (Arabic:مدرسة الروابي للبنات RR:*Madrasat Alrawabi Lilbanat*) is a 2021 Jordanian teen drama series about the impact of bullying on young women.

## قطعة (Plot)

Three bullied outcasts at a prestigious all-girls school plot revenge to get back at their bullies.

## لماذا لن يؤذوا أحدا بعد هذا (Why They Won't Hurt Anyone After This)

1. It's not afraid to address a lot of issues that are considered taboo in Arabic culture and shed light on them such as:
	* bullying and its impact on victims
	* mental health
	* suicide
	* honor killings/violence against women
	* sexual assault
	* homosexuality (without the use of an LGBT character)
	* patriarchy society
	* hierarchy
	* purity/modest culture.
2. Talented and fantastic acting by Andriah Tayeh, Rakeeen Sa'ad, Noor Taher, Yara Mustafa, Joanna Arida, and Salsabiela.
3. It has a very interesting plot about a progressive and introverted feminist turned malicious and sadistic anti-hero, Mariam, along with two other bullied outcasts chatty girly-girl childhood friend Dina and new emo student Noaf after getting expelled from her previous school after she was caught distributing quiz answers to students plotting on getting revenge on queen bee Layan, right-hand outspoken redhead gal pal Rania, and pretty but dimwitted old-fashioned follower Ruqayya one by one.
4. It borrows elements from Mean Girls, Elite, Odd Girl Out, Carrie, Joker, and 13 Reasons Why and uses them very well.
5. Alrawabi School for Girls has well-written characters that developed over the series and showed a lot of personalities.
6. What Goes Around Comes Around and The Calm Before The Storm are considered the most liked episodes of the 6 as we see Ruqayya (after her a photo of her without a hijab gets leaked online, gets treated as an outcast by her family and classmates and is banned from going to any school or see her friends), Rania (gets caught by Ms. Abeer and the P.E teacher partying on a nightclub during a school field trip, is beaten up by her alcoholic and abusive father), Layan (presumably dies in an honor killing after getting caught by her brother Hazem skipping school to be with her boyfriend), and even the rest of the students and the principal herself, Ms. Faten Qadi (gets her honorary award destroyed and yelled at by Layan's father and threatening to shut the school down) finally get their comeuppances for what they did to Mariam.
7. Great life lessons and morals like “Don't do unto others what you don't want done unto you.”, "Your child's wellbeing is more important than your ego and reputation", "Your actions will come back to you" and "Your home/family lives shouldn't be an excuse to bully others".
8. The pacing is sweet and simple as there are no moments that are too slow or fast.
9. Beautiful cinematography.
10. Great soundtrack with the music fitting the scene well, especially the cover of 3 Daqat and the dark reprised version of the school anthem.
11. Suspensful plot twist where it's revealed that Laith is Ms. Faten's son.
12. The show represents women writers and directors really well and has a huge influence on it.
13. ***"The right thing"? The right thing would've been to not turn your back on your friend when she needed you. The right thing would've been to stop them when they were beating me up. The right thing would've been to tell everyone what you saw. Don't act all self-righteous when you obviously don't know what the right thing is. If you want to be hypocrites, that's up to you. But at least have the guts to admit it.***
14. ***You guys hurt me "a bit". You have literally no idea what you've done to me, do you? "A lot worse"? You still don't get it, do you? You have destroyed me. You have ruined my life. Yet you're lecturing me, saying that what I'm doing is worse?***
15. Like *Joker* and *Squid Game*, Layan's death in the last episode is very chilling to watch (even though we may not know who Hazem shot or who died or was injured).
16. Satisfying ending where Mariam, after her plan worked perfectly, while the dark reprised version of the school anthem is being played in the background, struts around the school hallway, not caring about what the other students are saying about her or not regretting the consequences for getting back at the bullies and gives Rania (while crying), her fake friends and the audience a cold death stare before it goes to the credits. Turning into something she became against, becoming a protagonist to an anti-hero and taking Layan's place as queen bee.

## الصفات السيئة (Bad Qualities)

1. Akward and forced dialogue with some conversations felt like being scripted.
2. Uresolved issues like Mariam's mental health and if Hazem actually shot either Layan, Laith, both of them, himself, or the air.
3. Like Jang Deok-su from *Squid Game*, Yoon Gwi-nam and Lee Na-yeon from *All Of Us Are Dead*, Layan, Rania, and Ruqayya are very mean-spirited and selfish. They even went as far as to accuse Mariam of homosexual assault, beating her up, leaving her to die, and exposing her suicidal thoughts and issues with mental health (which they caused) to the entire school! Although to be fair, Layan and Rania can be selfish, Layan saved Noaf from a pervert in the spa and invited her to a nightclub and Rania covers for both Layan and Noaf and said she went to the nightclub alone and are loyal friends and face repression and/or abuse at home at the hands of their families, but that still doesn't excuse their behavior, unlike Dina and Noaf who are fakes and will flip-flop whenever they get upset or don't get their way.
	* Speaking of Rania, she gets off lightly for sneaking off to a nightclub (along with Layan and Noaf) during the school field trip, when she's apologizing to Mariam, she says she and her friends only hurt Mariam a bit and is only apologizing because Layan's life is in danger and not because she regretted her actions, wasn't even sincere in her apology and is somehow the surviving bully at school when she deserves a fate worse than Layan or Ruqayya's for being Layan's right-hand woman.
4. Like fellow Jordanian Netflix original series *Jinn*, the show is criticized for its heavily Westernized way of living and unrepresentative portrayal of Arab society.

## أمور تافهة (Trivia)

* It is the second Jordanian original Netflix series after *Jinn*.
* It has an all-female crew.
* Alrawabi means the hills.