Cosplay Arabia - April 2019

48
sHE\`s
unbreakable
SHE IS NOT HERE
TO INSPIRE YOU,
THIS IS NOT
ANOTHER CLICHÉ
ARTICLE WHERE
I TELL YOU HOW
SHE BYPASSED
HER DISABILITY
AND EMERGED AS
A CREATIVE.
You may think Cosplay is merely
a hobby, an act of escapism that
flees ones reality into that of the
unknown. For Enhiar ; Arabic for
‘Collapse’ it is a life line. This, Saudi
based artist and designer, sees this
art form as a savior, a tourniquet,
a passion that endures pain. She is
not here to inspire you, this is not
another cliché article where I tell
you how she bypassed her disability
and emerged as a creative. She is
doing it regardless of disability. This
interview was conducted through
text messages, and so I could not
put a voice to this young woman
but I imagine it to be low, fierce
but wounded, a combination that
forbids you to turn away. I could not
turn away.
On an early Instagram post,
Enhiar confessed to this,
“I couldn’t find many pictures of
myself in costume, I did not care to
take any. But this year I’ll be doing
that. I don’t think I’ll be a very good
Cosplayer, but it’s become a journey of
finding myself through costume, and I’m
enjoying that very much.” Later, I found
myself scrolling through a myriad of her in
different presentations of these characters,
all in masks. When my knowledge of
photography was that of a good filter, E
insisted that nothing beats the magic
of a photoshopped image, nothing is
like the perfecting of a picture on
a screen, no filter could compare
to that precision. I concluded,
that regardless of her everinching
disease, an illness