Mohtarama

Director: Malek Shafi’i, Diana Saqeb
Afghanistan, 2012, Blu-Ray, Black & White, 60’, Dari Language, English and Turkish Subtitles

In 2009, during the rule of Karzai, it was forbidden for women to go out of the house without the consent of their husbands and to object the sexual demands of their husbands, according to the Shia Family Law accepted by Afghan Parliament. Afghan women against this law met in front of the religious school where this law has been written, and protested the law. The non-violent protests of women were suppressed with violence by male students of the religious school who declared them as “supporters of the west”. Mohtarama is a sincere witnessing about the present and future anxieties of Afghan women denied of education, political and social rights, trying to cope with various problems from domestic violence to harassment on streets; made by the directors who took part in this protest, in track of the protest...