Resources
Below you can find a selection of films, books, social media accounts, websites, podcasts, and artwork in relation to the topics explored within the film. Hopefully these can help you in some way or form be it by informing/educating yourself, seeking belonging or comfort, or finding liberation.
TABOO TALK & SHAME
Nadine Labaki, a Lebanese filmmaker establishes a strong female leadership and sisterhood throughout her films. Caramel, delivers the struggles of five women who work in the same hair salon, facing societal, cultural, and religious pressures that cause fear and guilt in their everyday lives.
Egyptian-born and London-raised, Alya Mooro grew up between two cultures and felt a pull from both. Where could she turn for advice and inspiration when it seemed there was nobody else like her? Today, Mooro is determined to explore and explode the myth that she must identify either as ‘Western’ or as one of almost 400 million other ‘Arabs’ across the Middle East.Through countless interviews and meticulous research, as well as her own unique experience, Mooro gives voice to the Middle Eastern women who, like her, don’t fit the mould.
In the political unrest that has swept across the Arab region in 2011, all eyes have been on the streets and squares erupting in protest. But for the past four years, Shereen El Feki has been looking at upheaval a little closer to home - in the sexual lives of men and women across the Arab world.
The Pact We Made tells the story of Dahlia who is staring down the barrel of her thirtieth birthday, the age when a Kuwaiti woman from a good family is past her prime marrying years.
Dahlia straddles two worlds: one in which she’s a modern woman living in a modern city, and another where she can’t have male friends, or leave the country without her father’s consent.
A series of podcasts discussing the truths about taboo topics, womanhood, mental health, relationships + more!
Soma’s experience of rape culture began in her early teenage years. Conversations with friends throughout her time at school and university began to reveal to her just how widespread the issue is for young people. While finishing her English degree at UCL, she began sharing her experiences of rape culture on Instagram. In light of the overwhelming response from those that resonated with her story Soma founded Everyone’s Invited in June 2020. Everyone’s Invited is a space created for survivors to share their stories. Since the 8th of March 2021, over 15,000 anonymous testimonies have been submitted and shared on Everyone’s Invited, sparking a conversation about rape culture with millions of people. Soma is hopeful that this conversation will help lead to the global exposure and eradication of rape culture.
SEXUALITY & SEX EDUCATION
The first work of non-fiction in English from the prize-winning and internationally bestselling author of Lullaby and Adèle, translated by Sophie Lewis.
In these essays, Leila Slimani gives voice to young Moroccan women who are grappling with a conservative Arab culture that at once condemns and commodifies sex.
In these essays, Leila Slimani gives voice to young Moroccan women who are grappling with a conservative Arab culture that at once condemns and commodifies sex.
Sex From Scratch is a love and dating guidebook that gleans real-life knowledge from smart people in a variety of nontraditional relationships. Instead of telling people how to snag a man, seduce a woman, or find “true love,” the book sums up what dozens of diverse folks have learned the hard way over time.
A wealthy iranian family struggles to contain a teenager's growing sexual rebellion and her brother's dangerous obsession.
Nour Emam, known as “This is Mother Being” has been a brave voice in changing misconceptions in sexual health, and myth-busting old traditions through "motherbeing" social media account as well as through podcasts.
An instagram platform which informs/educates on Sexual and Reproductive Wellness by and for Arab Women.
Female Pleasure is a 2018 Swiss-German documentary film directed by Swiss director Barbara Miller. The film explores female sexuality in the 21st century around the globe.
WOMANHOOD
AZEEMA is a print magazine, online platform, community and creative agency, exploring women and non-binary folk within the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, diasporas and BEYOND. Azeema challenges and confronts issues surrounding representation and diversity by creating a space that is inclusive and celebratory of our cultures.
"This collection of stories, speeches, essays, poems and memoirs bears fierce testimony to a tradition of brave Arab feminist writing in the face of subjugation by a Muslim patriarchy."
Walking through Fire takes up the story of Nawal El Saadawi's extraordinary life. We read about her as a rural doctor, trying to help a young girl escape from a terrible fate imposed on her by a brutal male tyranny. We learn about her activism for female empowerment and the authorities that try to obstruct her. We travel with her into exile after her name is put on a fundamentalist death list. We witness her three marriages, each offering in their way love, companionship and shared struggle. And we gain an unprecedented insight into this most wonderful of creative minds.
An instagram platform and website which is aimed at Amplifying women’s voices and inspiring change.
AMAKA is a digital media publisher that presents diverse and nuanced stories for women from Africa and the diaspora. They provide a platform that highlights and maintains the diversity, dynamism and vigour of Pan-African womanhood.
Hammam Radio is meant to be a place where women in all their diversity meet, talk, participate, think, shout, cry, laugh, become angry, love, and raise their voices. We will be cursing, dancing, singing, playing music, and songs that reflect our moods and current state. We will also be reading, telling stories, and everything else in between.
SELF-CENSORSHIP
The struggle for Muslim women's emancipation is often portrayed stereotypically as a showdown between Western and Islamic values, but Arab feminism has existed for more than a century. This groundbreaking documentary recounts Arab feminism's largely unknown story, from its taboo-shattering birth in Egypt by feminist pioneers up through viral Internet campaigns by today's tech-savvy young activists during the Arab Spring. Moving from Tunisia to Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, filmmaker and author Feriel Ben Mahmoud tracks the progress of Arab women in their long march to assert their full rights and achieve empowerment.
In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of “orientalism” to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined “the orient” simply as “other than” the occident.
Said argues while representations are essential for the function of human life and societies, as essential as language itself—what must cease are representations that are authoritatively repressive, because they do not provide any real possibilities for those being represented to intervene in this process. Therefore, we must give ourselves as women the chance to tell our own stories , without male influences.
Said argues while representations are essential for the function of human life and societies, as essential as language itself—what must cease are representations that are authoritatively repressive, because they do not provide any real possibilities for those being represented to intervene in this process. Therefore, we must give ourselves as women the chance to tell our own stories , without male influences.
Contrary to popular perceptions, newly veiled women across the Middle East are just as much products and symbols of modernity as the upper- and middle-class women who courageously took off the veil almost a century ago. To make this point, these essays focus on the “woman question” in the Middle East (most particularly in Egypt and Iran), especially at the turn of the century, when gender became a highly charged nationalist issue tied up in complex ways with the West. The essays challenge the assumptions of other major works on women and feminism in the Middle East by questioning, among other things, the familiar dichotomy in which women’s domesticity is associated with tradition and modernity with their entry into the public sphere.
Against the tumultuous backdrop of Iran's 1953 CIA-backed coup d'état, the destinies of four women converge in a beautiful orchard garden, where they find independence, solace and companionship.
An enteprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
gal-dem is a new media publication, committed to telling the stories of people of colour from marginalised genders. With our online and print magazine, we’re addressing inequality and misrepresentation in the industry through platforming the creative and editorial work of our community across essays, opinion, news, arts, music, politics and lifestyle content.
Unfunded feminist film journal. Free film programmes at another-screen.com. Issue 04 out now (link in bio to buy)Distributed by Motto & Central Books.
A platform supporting women’s empowerment through collaboration with local artisans on a global level.
Short film:
Measures of Distance,
Mona Hatoum
Measures of Distance,
Mona Hatoum
Measures of Distance is an uncharacteristically autobiographical work which, Hatoum speaks of displacement, disorientation and a tremendous sense of loss as a result of the separation caused by war. Hatoum was born to Palestinian parents living in exile in Beirut. In 1975, while visiting London, Hatoum herself became an exile; war broke out in Lebanon and Hatoum stayed in England. In this video, the artist overlaid footage of her mother with scrolling Arabic script—the text of letters Hatoum's mother wrote to her from Beirut, which the artist reads aloud in English.