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 مهاجرة صوماليه بهولاندا تستعمل الصورة لنشر رؤيتها حول الدين الاسلامى
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AMSTERDAM JOURNAL
A Graphic Film of Protest, and Cries of Blasphemy
By MARLISE SIMONS
Published: September 27, 2004
Shown on Dutch television, a scene of a bride with a Koranic verse wrttien on her skin. The film's author has received threats on her life.
MSTERDAM - As she begins to pray, the woman looks heavily veiled, showing her eyes only, but her long black chador turns out to be transparent. Beneath it, painted on her chest and stomach, are verses from the Koran.
More women appear. A bride is dressed in white lace, but her back is exposed. The Koranic verse that says a man may take his woman in any manner, time or place ordained by God is written on her skin.
The images roll on, now showing a woman lying on the ground, her back and legs marked by red traces of a whip. The Koranic verses on her wounded flesh say that those guilty of adultery or ####### outside marriage shall be punished with 100 lashes. There are chilling sounds of a cracking whip; there is the haunting beauty of the Arabic calligraphy and soft music.
These are scenes from "Submission," a 10-minute film shown on Dutch prime time television, written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born refugee, now a member of the Dutch Parliament. Since the English-language film was shown in late August, it has been at the center of a national uproar, which is exactly what the author wanted.
Ms. Hirsi Ali, 34, who grew up as a Muslim but has abandoned her faith, said her purpose was not to give offense but to draw attention to what she contends is widespread but hidden violence against Muslim women, even those living in Europe.
She turned to the power of images, she said, to focus attention on abuse, incest, forced marriages and the suicides of young immigrant women. Despite her writing and speaking on the subject for several years, she said she felt that the subject remained a public taboo. "Muslims deny it," she said, "and many Dutch are afraid of taking it on, of causing religious tension, of being called racists."
The stories of the four women in the film are composites, she says. Critics have called them simplistic, even caricatures. But the images fired up a new debate in the Netherlands on how to modernize or adapt Islam as it expands across Europe.
The film has brought new death threats against her. She already has two round-the-clock government bodyguards.
In this nation of 16 million people, a million of them Muslim immigrants or their descendants, Ms. Hirsi Ali is part of a small but growing group of women who say they want to spread the message that the Muslim faith can be practiced without what she calls "savage Medieval customs" like genital cutting, beatings or the confinement of women to their homes. Some of those advocates contend that modernization of Islam must come from women, particularly European Muslim women.
The film and the photographs taken from it have appeared in Dutch newspapers, magazines and television shows, drawing an outpouring of both praise and outrage.
"Of course it's a political pamphlet, that's undeniable," said Theo van Gogh, who directed the film and insisted that he does not see why many Muslims are so shocked. He said he was deliberately cautious, adding that if he had really wanted to shock, the film would have been different.
It opens with a prayer, and then the narrator tells stories of four women who ask for God's help to lighten their suffering. According to the narrative, one was forced to marry a man she hates, one was raped and made pregnant by her uncle, one was whipped after she had sexual relations with her boyfriend and one was repeatedly beaten by her husband. The women feel abandoned by God, despite their devotion to him.
As a close-up of a battered and bruised face appears, the narrator says: "Oh Allah , most high. You say that men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because you have given one more strength than the other. Yet I feel at least once a week the strength of my husband's fist on my face."
The woman who was raped, says she has always turned to "you Allah, covering myself as you wish it. And now that I pray for salvation, you remain silent as the grave I long for."
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