Writing Hawa at The Screening Room – Newburyport, MA

Filmed over five years, Writing Hawa follows three generations of Afghan women who — each from the same family and each in their own way — are working to free themselves from patriarchal traditions. With unique access and empathy, this is “a tremendously powerful work on emancipation, freedom, and opportunity” – Cineuropa

Sheila Trieff, a volunteer working with our local Afghan families over the last 3 1/2 years will be joined by a member of the Afghan Women’s Group to take questions and share stories.

Forced into marriage to a much older man at the age of 13, the beginning of the film finds 52-year-old Hawa spending most of her time confined to her home, caring for her husband. She’s fed up with the drudgery and isolation of her daily life and gradually sets out to open a small textile business, searching for traditional embroideries to turn into modern dresses to sell in Kabul. She also takes in her niece, who escapes an abusive father in the countryside. And she supports her children’s education, even beginning to learn to read, herself. But the looming takeover of the Taliban hovers in the background on TV screens and news reports, threatening to turn all of their lives upside down. An essential testimony to women’s resilience in the face of oppression, Writing Hawa is both a portrait of hope and an eye-opening look at dreams that were cut short by the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan.

“An intimate film that touches on how it feels to become your mother’s friend. Writing Hawa shows how the gains of an entire generation of Afghan women determined not to repeat [their parents‘] idiocy for their own daughters was reversed from one day to the next – but also, in its spirit of guerrilla-shot defiance, it also offers hope for the future.” —Screen Daily