Safaa, Safaa, Safaa.... The most beautiful girl in the world. When I was putting the list of characters together, I think she might have been one of the first, if not THE first character I immediately knew the character of. She was strong and confident, in as many ways put together as a human, mature and professionally respected, but… having come to terms with her sexuality in a way that accepted its limitations within her faith, she had a hidden side from the very beginning. The original character description said:
Safaa is the MCs partner, she is muslim, very strong and professional, but sassy among friends. She is a lesbian, but not out to her family yet because of her faith. She is always the voice of reason and is not afraid to make her opinions clear, even if they go against MCs.
I could have made her sassier, but her nerdiness felt more defining of her character, so whenever she did something sassily, she'd get very self-conscious, and I really loved that about her. In my head, she always tempered her intelligence and kept her hobbies private to “keep the peace” if that makes sense. As an adult, she gets regular confirmation that her intelligence is valid and appreciated and she’s proud of it, but dismissing her own achievements is still a form of ingrained behavior, causing her to feel embarrassed whenever she voices pride in her abilities. Which is wildly endearing to Ghita, naturally.
Their romance is constructed as an instant-connection-but-I-don’t-want-to-ruin-it. In classic workplace crush tradition, the context of their relationship meant they had to work on becoming a team while simultaneously processing why this new person made them smile so much. Several questions would’ve come up; Is this a friend-crush or a romantic-crush? Does she even like girls? And how can Ghita approach the subject of romantic feelings when Safaa is so obviously dedicated to her faith?
Safaa is not an asexual route, but there is no sex or even sexual tension within it—it’s all emotional. This was new for me, as I personally prefer to accelerate romance with physical intimacy and when I play Romance Club myself, it’s important to me that my MC has as much sexual tension as justifiably possible. But here’s Safaa, who doesn’t fit this at all! I originally considered the possibility of them sleeping together eventually, but after talking it over with friends in the faith and doing some research through hijabi forums, I abandoned the idea. Why engage so heavily with her Muslim identity, if I was just gonna abandon one of the most commonly understood practices? And why have her struggle so much with aligning her sexuality with her faith, only to add pre-marital sex as a second thing for her to feel guilt about? It felt out of character that she would pick and choose her struggles like that.
Trusting Muslim voices on the matter was important to me, as I am an outsider. I found that in many hijabi chat forums, the subject of homosexuality was met with understanding rather condemnation, which was honestly a huge anchor in how I developed Safaa’s own journey. I also found a research paper on Somali immigrants to the US which informed my approach to Safaa’s relationship with her parents. All in all, I did my best not to go blind into this, even though I know many voiced discontent with Safaa's representation in the beginning.
One thing I was very deliberate about was to ensure Safaa was a constant in season 1 and season 2 so her absence in season 3 would be felt. Safaa is Ghita’s partner, no matter if you romance her or not. If this was a buddy-cop movie, these two would be the main characters! Which is why O deliberately isolates Ghita from the one person who could talk her out of risking it all for the truth. Ghita is already thrown into turmoil with the death of Hoyer and retreats into her pain as a way of coping (I tried to show her many evenings alone in her apartment on the couch, gradually finding it more and more difficult to share her pain because she feels she has to maintain a level of professionalism so as to not get removed from the case). At the same time, the scale of the investigation means that hers and Safaa’s responsibilities diverge. They are pulled away from each other at a crucial time for Ghita's arc. O exacerbates the situation by subtly exposing Ghita to information and situations that she would want to keep Safaa out of, like the visit to Anna-Stella’ apartment, and then later, the way Ghita is manipulated to go with the Crows to the estate without back-up.
If you’ve ever had a toxic partner, some of these tactics might feel familiar—and that’s the point. Ghita’s self-isolation starts to rub off on Safaa, who becomes anxious without understand why, causing her to blurt out the true nature of her and Ghita's relationship to her mother. It’s terrible, but to me also a testament to the strength of their bond; even if Ghita wanted to suffer alone and handle things herself in secret, she can’t really, because Safaa is subconsciously affected by it.
In the end, they find each other again, Ghita managing to reach out in the last moment, breaking through the hold that O has on her, in order to warn Safaa. Some will have noticed that some choices lead to a gentle rejection of the marriage proposal in the final romance scene, but that the consequences of being unfaithful are solely your conscience. Safaa went through so much to get where she is and Ghita may be corrupt but she would never do that to Safaa... ending their relationship a few days after she was disowned by her parents!
I tried my best to avoid condemnation and judgement of Ghita's actions because the story is about the inner destruction of her moral compass and how she is allowed to continue despite everything—just like Hoyer. Bad people walk among us and the tragedy of corrupt Ghita's arc is that the system that wronged her also becomes her. Including the choice to deceive those she love.
That was a bit of a side track..... I had several ideas for the final scene between Ghita and Safaa, among them also a throwback to season 1 of them going to a forest to read comics, and a recreation of this:
.... but in the end, another iconic Copenhagen location felt most fitting. Safaa is a Copenhagen girl through and through and they are the type of girlfriends to really make the most of the city.
She's the character I'm probably the most proud of and she represents so many things to me, trying something very different and also taking chances, so I like to think there's a future for her and Ghita where all her dreams come true. She deserves it.
Do you have questions? Leave them in the comments or submit an ask!
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