Mrs El Araby explores the ‘respectable’ space within which Arab women are allowed to exist in Western media.

Echoing a scene from Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy, in which the protagonist delivers a monologue to an audience of cardboard cutouts, the film shows an anonymous Arab woman, seen from behind, addressing a similarly imaginary crowd. In borrowing this device, the film reflects on the absence of Arab women from the Western cinematic imagination, and on the ways one might still carve out a place for oneself, even before an audience that isn't really there.