Counter Aesthetics of Arabfuturism: Cultural Sustainability in Fadi Zaghmout’s “A Jaha in the Metaverse”

Abstract

This article addresses how Fadi Zaghmout’s “A Jaha in the Metaverse” (2024), a humorous Arabic sci-fi short story, propagates epistemic relationality to counter western control on futuristic imaginaries. Through its decolonial and cross-epistemic approaches that unsettle the traditional-technical binaries, Zaghmout’s narrative particularly destabilizes the authority of the western metaverse and interrogates its enforced futuristic paradigm that marginalizes the entrenched reality of traditions and local values. In this regard, Zaghmout’s narrative situates the enduring Jordanian pre-wedding tradition of “Jaha” in the recent virtual-reality platform of the metaverse to substantiate its sustainable presence. To this effect, the study reveals how Zaghmout’s narrative exposes the limitation of the paradigmatic metaverse to conceptualize an ontologically hybrid space for visibility and inclusion that reimagines both a traditional and progressive Jaha. The research findings further evince the story’s counter futuristic vision that promotes the sustainability of a collaborative project, at the intersection of technology and culture, which is grounded in relationality, justice, gender equity, and mutual responsibility. Ultimately, “A Jaha in the Metaverse” promotes collective activism to maintain a democratic and participatory culture in the local variant of the metaverse.