''No Burqas Behind Bars'' is a 2012 Swedish feature-length documentary film made by Maryam Ebrahimi and Nima Sarvestani on life in a women's prison in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. In Takhar Prison, Afghanistan, 40 women are locked behind bars together with their 34 children. They all share four cells. Through the prisoners’ own stories, the film explores how "moral crimes" are used to control

women in Afghanistan Women's rights in Afghanistan are severely restricted by the Taliban. In 2023, the United Nations termed Afghanistan as the world's most repressive country for women. Since the US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban gradua ...

. The film shows that women fleeing from their husbands get a longer punishment than those who have committed murder. Outside the home,

burqa A burqa or burka (; ) is an enveloping outer garment worn by some Muslim women which fully covers the body and the face. Also known as a chadaree (; ) or chaadar (Dari: چادر) in Afghanistan, or a ''paranja'' (; ; ) in Central Asia, the Ara ...

s cover the women of Afghanistan from head to toe, masking their identity, making them faceless and voiceless in society, except when they are in prison. Sima was forced to get married at the age of ten and had five children by the time she was 20 years old. She is locked away, together with her children, for 15 years. Her crime consists of fleeing from an abusive husband, who had already murdered one of his other wives and their child. Sara, one of the main characters of the film, is locked away because she fell in love. Najibeh, Latife, and many more names – they all carry stories that show the inner strength and dignity of the human being when she faces obscene living conditions. The film premiered at the 2012

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Description IDFA is an independent, international meeting place for audiences ...

References

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Swedish Film Institute
* * Documentary films about women in Afghanistan Swedish documentary films Documentary films about the penal system Documentary films about violence against women Violence against women in Afghanistan Penal system in Afghanistan 2012 films 2012 documentary films 2010s Swedish films {{bio-documentary-film-stub

See also

References

External links