Naïf Al-Mutawa
PopTech 2009
"Why not an Islamic comic book?”
That was the question Dr. Naïf Al-Mutawa asked himself after noticing that from Wonder Woman to Superman, most of our kids’ fantasy figures are decidedly Western. So he created The 99, a resourceful crew of teenage superheroes who have taken it upon themselves to battle the forces of evil, and whose methods and beliefs are seeped in Islamic culture and history. Since the comic’s debut in Kuwait in 2006, The 99 has been translated and published in several languages, and was recently anointed one of The Top 20 Global Trends by Forbes.
Dr. Al-Mutawa brings an extensive background in clinical psychology to his work—he holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology and a Masters in Organizational Psychology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, among other academic degrees—but also on-the-ground experience working with former prisoners of war in Kuwait, as well as in the Survivors of Political Torture unit at Bellevue Hospital in New York. In addition to international media attention, Dr. Al-Mutawa has received a raft of honors for his genre-busting, tolerance-promoting series, including the Festival Internacional de Humour e Quadrinhos Comics Award in Brazil, the Eliot-Pearson Award for Excellence in Children’s Media, and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations “Marketplace of Ideas” Award. In May 2009, he received The Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneurship Award at the World Economic Forum on The Middle East, in Jordan. He is the father of four.