What Will People Say
is a gripping autobiographical film from Norwegian filmmaker Iram Haq that
deals with the cultural conflict of first generation Muslim immigrants who must
find a way to fit into the lifestyle of their newly adopted country while also adhering
to the traditions and culture of their parents.
Born in Norway to Pakistani parents, Actress, Writer,
Director Iram Haq tells a disturbing personal story about the harrowing experiences
she was subjected to by her own family when she was only 14 years old. She
waited a long time to tell this story in order to give it the balanced
treatment she felt it needed to understand her father’s behavior and also be
true to her own feelings.
Part of the Platform program at the 2017 Tiff Toronto
International Film Festival, where What
Will People Say had its world premiere, the film is a searing indictment of
the brutal subjugation inflicted on Muslim girls that continues to exist today in
many European and North American countries where the practice of forced child
marriage and so called ‘honor killings’ has been imported with immigrant
families from India and Pakistan.
Nisha (Maria Mozhdah), born and living in Norway with her
Pakistani parents leads a typical life of a European teenager when she is
caught with her Norwegian boyfriend in her bedroom by her father Mirza (Adil
Hussain) who is so outraged that he physically assaults the boy and tries to
marry her off believing that they must have had sex.
When the misguided father disowns his daughter and Child Services
gets involved, the family is so concerned about their reputation in the Pakistani
community that the mother deceives Nisha into believing that all is now fine
and she can return home only to be kidnapped by her father and brother who secretly
take her by force to Pakistan to live in isolation with an Aunt she doesn’t
know.
Horrified at being abandoned by her family in a country she
has never been to, she makes several attempts to escape and communicate with
her friends in Norway. Unable to leave, she is threatened with being married
off to a poor family where she will spend the rest of her life as a child slave if she
tries to escape again.
Incredibly, Nisha’s ordeal only gets worse from there and
she’s eventually forced to flee her family who subject her to ever increasing
humiliations in the name of restoring their status in the community.
Maria Mozhadah and Adil Hussain’s performances as the
suffering father and daughter are powerfully convincing with real conviction
and passion. A strong feeling of anger and outrage may accompany the viewing of
this film and others like it that deal with this controversial topic. Forced
child marriage is still widely practiced in all parts of Pakistan.
What Will People Say
is part of an increasingly vocal and ever growing movement by female and male filmmakers
to expose the shocking truth about the treatment of women by oppressive
patriarchal and religious societies, but as the film points out, even as we
become aware of these issues that exist in our own neighborhoods and cities,
there is little that can be done to protect children from such abuses in the highly
insular and socially controlled Muslim communities.
Giving voice to issues of gender inequality has become vital
in recent years as more female filmmakers are working now than ever before opening
our eyes to disturbing practices in an ever increasing diverse world where it’s
becoming imperative that we learn to live together in harmony.
JP
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