First Comic-Con opens in Saudi Arabia

First Comic-Con opens in Saudi Arabia JEDDAH: Nobody gave Ahmed al-Dainiy a second glance (झलक) Thursday as he walked among the youthful crowd on the opening day of Saudi Arabia's first Comic-Con event, wearing a horse head mask. Dainiy, 18, was among thousands of people who filled a recreation centre in the Red Sea city of Jeddah for the international pop culture event which is helping

to break stereotypes about the Islamic kingdom.  The three-day festival of anime(मोबाइल फोनों) , pop art, video gaming and film-related events is part of a government initiative to bring more entertainment to Saudi Arabia which bans alcohol, public cinemas and theatre.

Unrelated men and women are normally segregated (जुदा) in Saudi Arabia, where restaurants have sections for "single" men and families.

Comic-Con had different male and female entrances but inside the darkened hall, where the conversation was drowned(डुबा हुआ) out by rock music, there was barely room to move, and men and women were side-by-side.

Some young men dressed in the costumes of their favourite Japanese anime characters but most wore Western clothes.

A thobe, the traditional long white Saudi robe, was a rare sight.

"You're free here," said Dainiy. "You are yourself."

He said he wore the horse head because it is a character on the channel he operates on YouTube, one of the many popular Internet platforms where Saudis live much of their lives to escape from the strictures of a rigid society. Comic-Con began in 1970 as a convention of a few dozen geeks who swapped superhero magazines in the United States. Tens of thousands of people now descend(उतरना) on San Diego in southern California every July for Comic-Con International where they don costumes and see previews of films by Hollywood's Marvel and Warner Brothers. 

Other Comic-Con events occur around the world, including in Saudi Arabia's Gulf neighbour Dubai.

Iron Man, Captain America and other members of Marvel's Avengers took to the Comic-Con stage in Jeddah, which is considered a more liberal city than the capital Riyadh.

"Raise your hand if you are bad," one of the Avengers asked the audience, provoking enthusiastic hoots.

The government's General Entertainment Authority said it supports the event organised by Saudi firm Time Entertainment.

Providing more entertainment is one of the goals of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 economic diversification plan being pushed by the kingdom's young Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 31.

He is keen to harness (साज़) the energy of the kingdom's young population, more than half of which is under 25.

But authorities are moving cautiously(सावधानी से)  in a country where Muslim conservatives are wary of Western entertainment.

Last month, the kingdom's highest-ranking cleric, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, warned of the "depravity(भ्रष्टता) " of cinemas and music concerts.

glance

झलक

Definitions of glance noun a brief or hurried look. Sean and Michael exchanged glances synonyms: peek, peep, brief look, quick look, glimpse, gander a flash or gleam of light. a shiny sulfide ore of lead, copper, or other metal. It is usually assumed that when lead glance is opened up with nitric and tartaric acids and water, the silver remains in solution as nitrate. verb take a brief or hurried look. Ginny glanced at her watch synonyms: look briefly, look quickly, peek, peep, glimpse, have a gander hit something at an angle and bounce off obliquely. he saw a stone glance off a crag and hit Tom on the head synonyms: ricochet off, rebound off, be deflected off, bounce off, graze, cli

depravity

भ्रष्टता

Definitions of depravity noun moral corruption; wickedness. a tale of wickedness and depravity synonyms: corruption, vice, perversion, deviance, degeneracy, immorality