Rumours are buzzing around Bollywood of a possible film about Benazir Bhutto. Apparently, efforts were undertaken to make such a film back in the early ’80s by British-Pakistani playwright and author Tariq Ali, but due to tensions between Pakistan and India this did not happen. At that time, Benazir had just recently lost her father […]

The Egyptian film Heen Maysara (حين ميسرة) was released on Eid last year. Since then, it’s been making headlines in the English-speaking blogosphere. Could this be due to the film’s popularity at the box-office? Perhaps people are intrigued by its look at the slums of Cairo? But no. The coverage is on the negative attention […]

Muslimah Media Watch thanks Safiya for the tip! The U.K.’s Channel 4 is airing a film festival this week, titled: “Unveiled: Love and Sex in the Arab World.” (sigh) Nice title. Very original. So we’re guessing that the aim is…to show that Arabs love and have sex? If that is the aim, then it’s not […]

This originally appeared on the blog epiphanies, written by Tasnim. Persepolis, the animated film based on Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, will be released in the US on 25 December. The film, like the novel, is in black and white and just as visually striking. Satrapi says that she sees “images as a way of writing” […]

Arab News reported that a new DVD entitled Gurlz vs. Guyz will be on sale over Eid. Gurlz vs. Guyz is a 12-minute long video that was based on a year-long survey on young Saudi men and their views on dating the opposite sex. The DVD is being released by Izzaty Islamy, which is a […]

Here’s a really good review of The Kingdom. I’m not surprised by anything in the review, but I am curious about how Muslim women are portrayed in the film; I remember seeing a sloppily-placed cut of a Saudi niqabi somewhere in the commercial trailer. Has anyone wasted any money on this film? If you did, […]

Talking about access in my post awhile ago, I touched on sexuality. Since this is one of my favorite topics, it got me thinking about sexuality in the Muslim world, and the binaries that Orientalism creates for Muslim women’s sexuality. When you think of a Muslim woman in the context of sexuality, which images come […]

This article talks about a new movie, Coffee & Allah. It tells the story of a Muslim refugee “who feels isolated in her new country until someone reaches out to her through a spontaneous game of badminton.” Directed by Dr. Shuchi Kothari and nominated for the best short film at the Venice Film Festival, the […]