This afternoon, I returned to the NFB to watch (Un)Veiled: Muslim Women Talk About Hijab. The film was only 36 minutes and clearly much too short to get into any depth on the topic. In the documentary, we met a handful of women living in the United Arab Emirates, but originally from different countries. There was a Canadian, a couple Americans, a Swiss, a Brit, an Egyptian, a Saudi and one woman from the UAE. All of the woman said they had Muslim backgrounds, although many stated that they didn't practice their faith. Some of the women wore a hijab, while others didn't. In 36 minutes, I think I learned a little bit more about what the Qur'an says about women, but based on the person who was doing the explaining and how she expressed her views, I don't know if there was any bias in her explanation. All of the women raised some interesting and of course, conflicting issues, however I see the reasoning behind each of the sentiments an can understand why the hijab raises many discussions. I'm not sure to whom I would turn to for an authentic lens on the issue, because I think everyone has a bias in some way. I don't mean bias to be negative by any means, but culture is a very broad scope which has so many variables enacting on it.
I'm not really sure what to say about the documentary. It think it would be great to have a conversation about the topic (I wonder if teachers will use this film as a teaching tool in the classroom) but I think such a discussion need to be conducted in an open-minded space where participants feel safe to really examine the issues without having to worry about offending anyone.
If anyone is up for it, let me know. And see if you can get a copy of the documentary as I'd be interested to share reactions.
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