Sheikha Stories and Women in Islamic History

For the second week of class, we delved into the past, looking at women in the history of Islam and how it pertains to cinema. Having studied Islam as a subject in previous classes, I was interested to revisit the material with a gendered lens. We watched Sheikha Stories, a collection of short documentary pieces directed by Brigid Maher about women across the Arab world who are involved in teaching Islam and religious studies, and complimented the information provided by Leila Ahmed from her book, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of Modern Debate.
In her chapter “Women and the Rise of Islam” Ahmed discusses the different roles of the wives of the Prophet Mohammed and how through the various marriage practices we see the role of women shifting. While Mohammed was monogamous with Khadija, his first wife and the first convert to Islam, following her death he married multiple women at a time, his favorite being Aisha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, his most ardent supporter. In Sheikha Stories, a number of the sheikhas often look back to this earlier time and point to the wives of Mohammed, particularly Aisha, has having taught both men and women about Islam. Aisha also provided around 2,000 Hadith, or sayings of the Prophet, which still contribute to Islamic jurisprudence until today.
The issues of the veil, polygamy, and divorce are also discussed by Ahmed, and Sheikha Stories offers a counterpart to the historical data. In the piece “Magda’s Calling”, Magda Amer, a trained caller and teacher of Islam, teaches her students about women’s inheritance, an often-contested issue in the West with regard to the Muslim world. One of Amer’s students remarks that she feels a purpose when there is “more knowledge, more faith.” A trained doctor and professor of immunology, Amer describes her teaching method as one part scientific, one part religious.
All of the women in Sheikha Stories are extraordinary intellectuals and scholars, but Viola Shafik, author of Popular Egyptian Cinema, explains that female representation in cinema has faced enormous conflicts throughout history, and it is refreshing that filmmakers such as Brigid Maher are dedicated to portraying Muslim women in films. Shafik believes that even when feminist films began in Egypt, access to them was limited by class and profession. Furthermore, in the 1970s and 1980s, women were mostly portrayed as adjuncts to men, and when they had professions it was out of economic necessity or for fun. She believes that this is a reflection of society; at independence, Egyptian women were at odds with men over the right to vote.
Sheikha Stories has a few examples of the sheikhas relationships with men. Amer’s husband, for example, is interviewed saying that all that Amer does is for god (Allah), and therefore he supports her fully in her teaching. In the story “Mosque of Light”, the male director talks about how over 100 female instructors teach about 20 classes a week, with the curriculum ranging from religious studies to history, geography, math, and foreign languages such as English and French. In “Ladies of Brilliance”, the female professors at Al-Azhar University in Cairo emphasize that there is no difference in the quality of education that men and women receive.
And while none of the subjects, nor authors such as Ahmed, Shafik, or Sonbol, who discusses women’s lack of opportunity in a Jordanian village, argue that gender equality has been achieved, the examination of the role of women throughout Islam as well as the strides that individual scholars and sheikhas are making is certainly noteworthy.

Afghanistan Unveiled: Women in Islamic Cinema

When addressing the issue of women in the Middle East, analyzing gender and its representation is an important issue. Universal comparisons are not a useful tool when doing such, and according to Diane Singerman, the “question of women” has often been used to legitimize intervention by colonial powers. Many times these Western powers, formerly Europe and increasingly the United States, are not women’s rights activists in their own country, and yet use the supposed struggle of women in the Middle East as an excuse for intervention. Afghanistan plays a key role in this debate, and an extraordinary film, Afghanistan Unveiled, shows how the supposed “question of women” must be addressed within a thoughtful historical debate. As Singerman proposes in her chapter, “Gender and Politics”, from the book Politics and Society of the Contemporary Middle East, patriarchy, like many other issues, has a foundation in history; therefore, it can have a historical end.
In 2002, a group of young female journalists filmed the experiences of women in Afghanistan, which was experiencing the aftershock of the Taliban’s departure. For the first time in Afghani history, women were allowed to interview and film other women about the hardships of their lives, the difficulties of having lost loved ones, and the economic challenges they face every day. The documentary is eye opening and riveting, both about the opportunities allowed for women in Kabul and the lack thereof that are available to most women in the countryside. Seeing as the film was shot extremely recently following the end of the Taliban’s regime, these experiences are fresh in the collective memory of the women portrayed in the film, which makes it even more accurate.
The shocking difference between the metropolitan women and the powerless women of the more rural areas is a stark reality very accurately portrayed in the film. It is clear from the access to education, travel, and equipment, as well as social cues such as dress and language that the journalists belong to a far higher socioeconomic status than most of their subjects, who are often rural and uneducated. One woman tells an emotional story about how a man wanted her for marriage, and when she refused, she was forced to go into hiding. She weeps as she expresses her strongest desire- to study and receive an education; however, she is too scared to even leave her house. The chaduri, full-length veil covering the entire body and face, is another key point in the film; it is representative of the larger social and class issues that are at play. One of the journalists remarks that when she traveled to Jalalabad, she is the only woman in the street and is the only woman they encounter who does not wear the chaduri.
While issues regarding women’s rights are obviously critical when looking at the Middle East, Singerman reminds her readers that men in the region also have limited political rights, due to the monarchical structure of many of those societies. When looking at women’s role in Islamic cinema, Donmez-Colin looks at the history of women as subjects, viewers, and finally filmmakers themselves in Islamic societies. In Iran, for example, only non-Muslim women were portrayed until 1933, and until today the defintion of women’s value is directly linked to the representation of her sexuality. And while these issues are of grave importance, Afghanistan Unveiled is a powerful and moving documentary that shows the strength of women in Afghanistan as representing women all over the Middle East in overcoming obstacles and demanding representation.

Afghani Women in Chaduri

The Afghan chadri typically covers the wearers' entire face leaving only a small net-like opening for the eyes. Prior to the rise of the Taliban, the chadri was rarely seen in major Afghan cities, and is more commonly seen along the North Western part of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan. While filming Afghanistan Unveiled, the women often remarked on the use of the chadri in the Afghan countryside, whereas in Kabul they were not used to wearing or seeing it worn in public.