Evaluating and valuing Muslim women’s autobiographical film-making
Muslim women around the world have faced multiple barriers to film-making which explores their personal and collective histories. These range from patriarchal oppression to religious fundamentalism and sociocultural and political restrictions. “Despite this, Muslim women around the world have made an important contribution to cinema, in particular since the 1980s, with the growth of accessible video technologies,” according to Laura Rascaroli, project coordinator of MUSLIMWOMENFILM from University College Cork, the project host. The emergence of more autobiographical films by women has played a key role in supporting Muslim women’s resistance through film, within their home countries and in diaspora. To explore this, the EU-funded project brought together a number of research fields including: histories of Muslim women’s film-making, feminist cinema, first-person cinema and autobiography in film. “We’ve identified Muslim women’s autobiographical film-making as a missing chapter of the history of cinema,” remarks Rahat Imran, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellow. “We present our film-makers as historiographers and counter-historians, drawing on their personal experience and often tacitly located within the film narrative.”
Categorisation and analysis
As the study of Muslim women’s autobiographical cinema has been neglected, one of the project’s primary objectives was first to identify film-makers and films from as many regions as possible, then classify them. Classification involved a number of categories classifying content, genre and mode of film-making. “We used broad film studies categories adapted to our specific needs, including headings such as ‘auto-fiction’ and ‘portrait’, alongside genre terms like ‘animation’ and ‘experimental’, and more specific terms like ‘gender activist’ and ‘testimonial’,” explains Rascaroli. Many sources were explored, including scholarly studies, governmental and non-governmental records, and film websites – for instance, of film festivals, producers and film-makers. Some 290 films were identified and catalogued providing a rich resource now available to researchers, cultural organisations and schools. Another important objective was to study some of these films in their historical, filmic and artistic contexts. MUSLIMWOMENFILM focused on two countries in particular. Pakistan was chosen for its growing range of women’s activist film-making, while in Afghanistan women have borne the brunt of religious extremism and their film-making remains an understudied area. Since the Taliban’s return to power most women film-makers are now in exile. “While this makes research difficult, it also highlights its importance,” Imran says. One case study from each country was chosen. Pakistan’s Sabiha Sumar is an example of testimony where there is a lack of records about women’s histories, as shown in an article published in ‘CINEJ’. Contrastingly, the films of Afghanistan-born, Canada-based, Nelofer Pazira, meant for Western audiences, were studied in the context of theories of diasporic cinema. “Pazira’s work reveals the complexity of the mediation between cultures, film markets and audiences, for example in the way she and her subjects are exoticised for Western film festivals,” Rascaroli explains.
Widening the focus
A 2-day film symposium, held online due to the pandemic, was organised to explore women’s autobiographical and first-person film. Here, presentations, online screenings and discussions by leading film scholars and film-makers offered diverse perspectives. The film observatory (launched online) regarding women’s auto/biographical cinemas from the Muslim world will continue to promote knowledge about this area. A chapter by Imran on women’s activist film-making against gendered violence in Pakistan, stemming from the project’s findings, will be published next year in ‘The Routledge Companion on Gender, Media and Violence’. A monographic study of women film-makers from Afghanistan, the first of its kind, will also be developed.
Keywords
MUSLIMWOMENFILM, film-making, Muslim, Pakistan, Afghanistan, patriarchal, religious fundamentalism, feminist, autobiography, historiographer, diaspora, women
