When Saudi Arabia's high school students opened their social studies textbooks, they did not expect their former monarch, King Faisal, to be signing the UN charter with none other than Star Wars’ Yoda.
The doctored picture was created by 26-year-old artist Abdullah Al-Shehri. However, the artist confessed to the New York Times that he has no idea how the picture ended up in a textbook.
Al-Shehri works with pop culture and historic photographs, often merging the two. The inspiration to superimpose Yoda into the historic photograph of King Faisal occurred to him when he came across the photograph and immediately thought of Yoda, due the similarities between the king and the fictional character. The shared spirit of intelligence and popularity among Saudis sealed the deal.
Speaking of the king, he told NYT:
He was wise and was always strong in his speeches. So, I found that Yoda was the closest character to the king. And also Yoda and his lightsaber – it’s all green.
Incidentally, Al-Shehri was alerted of the doctored photograph by his mother, who is a biology teacher. However, while insisting that he never meant to offend the king, Al-Shehri says he had gotten many positive comments praising his work from fans of both Yoda and the King alike.
On 21 September, Ahmed al-Eissa, the Education Minister of Saudi Arabia, tweeted apologising for the 'unintended mistake'. According to NYT, he wrote:
The Ministry has begun printing a corrected copy of the curriculum and withdrawing the previous copy and formed a legal committee to determine the source of the error and to take proper measures.
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