Chahinaz: What Rights For Women?

A film by Samie Chala and Patrice Barrat

Chahinaz is a young Algerian college student studying architecture who loves her country but feels suffocated by the weight of its tradition and religion, specifically as spelled out in the government's stringent Family Law. How can you change society in a country where the law officially sanctions inequality between men and women? The filmmakers chose her to explore this issue. She questions women across several continents, using her computer, comparing her situation with theirs.

Online, Chahinaz meets a formidable Indian feminist and journalist as well as a conservative young American woman. To further explore the gap that exists between East and West regarding the status of women, she arranges a dialogue with Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland and the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights. She also talks with the president of the General Assembly of the UN, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, who comes from Bahrain.

Chahinaz brings a fresh and intelligent view to the condition of women in the developed and less developed world. In the process she challenges some widely prevalent cliches about Muslim women. It is clear to her that legislation is needed to enhance the rights of women.

Middle East Studies Association, 2007

52 min. Video or DVD. Sale $295. Rental $85.