AlRawabi School for Girls (Arabic: مدرسة الروابي للبنات) is a Jordanian teen drama television series, created for Netflix by Tima Shomali. The series mainly focuses on the impact of bullying within school systems and societal expectations of young women.[1] The series premiered worldwide on Netflix on 21 August 2021. It is the second Jordanian Netflix original series after Jinn.[2]
In May 2022, the series was renewed for a second season after originally being announced as a miniseries. Filming for the second season concluded in May 2023.[3] The second season premiered on 15 February 2024 on Netflix.[4]
Plot
After a teenager named Mariam is bullied by girls in her elite private school, she plans revenge with her friends. However, her actions have unexpected consequences. The show also portrays different aspects of school that are not talked about. The show reflects and represents the patriarchy, corrupt school systems/industries, bullying, sexual assault, reputation and the tradition of honour killings.[5]
In the second season, a girl named Sarah faces similar challenges with bullies at AlRawabi. This season delves deeper into themes of cyberbullying and the dangers of social media.
It's a new school year, and Sarah dreams of going viral, but her posts aren't getting much traction -- until she posts a video that gets some attention.
Nadeen teams up with a past rival for a risky mission to save their friend. Farah chases her dream of performing with Tasneem in front of the school.
Production
Development
When Tima Shomali developed the idea for AlRawabi School for Girls, she was not thinking about a release on Netflix. According to an interview Shomali gave for Amman TV (and summarized by Al Bawaba) however, "the global streaming platform loved the show and translated it to several languages."[7] Shomali also indicated in the same interview that her goal was to create a dialogue about the concept of bullying, as when she was growing up, the term "was not used, and we did not know what bullying meant, but we lived through it and did not know about it."[7] Shomali also commented on her intent to introduce women's voices the "one thing I always found lacking in most shows that talk about women is the female perception on their issues. So I gathered around a brilliant team of women to work on developing and executing the show's creative vision. Together, we envisioned and built the elements of the Al Rawabi world, starting from the characters, set design, colors, lighting and even the music."[8][9] Later, on 13 April 2019, Shomali announced to her followers on Facebook that she was working on creating an original Arabic Netflix series, in collaboration with her Jordanian production company Filmizion Productions, titled AlRawabi School for Girls.[10] On 18 May 2022, Tima Shomali, Netflix MENA and the cast announced a season two to AlRawabi, despite the fact it was supposed to be a mini/limited series. She shared 3 photos via Instagram.[11] Filming wrapped in May 2023.[12]
Casting
Working alongside the writer Shirin Kamal, Tima Shomali created a full female cast drama series,[13] that takes place in an all girls school and explores the ideas of revenge and bullying.[14] They cast "new faces", and allowed the actors to choose the characters that they wanted to portray.[15]
Release
Response
According to Jordanian psychologist Samira H., AlRawabi School for Girls "depicts the significant impact of bullying on the mental health of young girls." She also states that she hopes "stories like the one portrayed in the series encourages parents and schools to be more sympathetic with those who are bullied so that they don't feel so alone."[16]AlRawabi also created controversy, as many thought it was an inaccurate representation of Jordan, their culture, lifestyle and society, along with Arabs as a whole. People have also criticized AlRawabi for some of the topics mentioned in the show.[5][17] However, many loved this show. On social media, many praised the show for openly portraying topics which don't often get talked about. Many have also praised the show for portraying young/teenaged Arab girls.[5][17]
