Mohtarama

In 2009 the Afghan government headed by President Karzai adopts a family law that restricts the rights of women significantly. Among other things, it makes it illegal for women to leave their homes without their husband's consent, and women are not allowed to resist their husband's sexual needs. The Afghan journalist and director duo Diana Saqeb and Malek Shafii follow in the footsteps of some of Afghanistan's most courageous women, as they decide to organise a demonstration in front of the country's largest religious school, where the Shia law came into being. During the demonstrations, the women are greeted by degrading shouts, men spitting at them, and other violent extreme Islamists. In other words, the women challenge the prevailing traditional dogmas, on the barricades of the women's rights movement that is one of the first of its kind in Afghan history. Mohtarama is in many ways an admirable film, which tackles some of the most inflamed issues in an Afghanistan that is marked by violent value struggles and the clash between modern trends and traditional dogmas.