Honor Diaries | |
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Directed by | Micah Smith |
Written by |
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Produced by |
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Cinematography | Micah Smith |
Edited by | Micah Smith |
Music by | Sharon Farber |
Distributed by | Brainstorm Media |
Release date |
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Running time | 60 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Honor Diaries is a 2013 documentary film produced by the Clarion Project, whose films have been criticized by some for allegedly falsifying information and described as anti-Muslim propaganda. [1] [2] Honor Diaries explores violence against women in honor-based societies, with particular focus on female genital mutilation (FGM), violence against women and honor killings and forced marriage, and lack of access to education.
The film profiles nine women’s rights activists with origins in the Muslim (and non-Muslim) world, and follows their efforts to effect change, both within their communities and beyond. Honor Diaries premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival in October 2013 and won the Interfaith Award for Best Documentary [3] at the St. Louis International Film Festival in November 2013. It was featured from December 2013 through April 2014 [4] on DirecTV’s Audience Network as part of the Something to Talk About film series.
The Southern Poverty Law Center listed the Clarion Project as an "anti-Muslim hate group" in 2016-2019. [5]
Honor Diaries traces the work of nine women’s rights advocates who came together to engage in a discourse about gender inequality and honor-based violence. Combining in-depth interviews and round-table discussions with archival footage, the film examines human rights violations in honor-based societies, and the growing trend of honor crimes in Western societies.
Honor Diaries is divided into five main sections. The film begins with a broad analysis of women’s rights in Muslim-majority countries, drawing attention to issues such as lack of access to education and restrictions on movement. From there, the film expands on three major crimes targeting women: forced marriage, honor killings and female genital mutilation (FGM). In the final chapter, the documentary explores the rising trend of honor-based violence in Western societies, and efforts to silence voices of opposition by intimidation.
The film features in-depth interviews with nine women who represent diverse communities throughout the Muslim and non-Muslim world. The women reside in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Sudan. In the documentary, the featured women share their stories from their personal lives, professional work and their struggle to fight for broad-scale change.
Film production began in April 2012, prompted by producer Paula Kweskin’s participation in the Association for Women's Rights in Development conference in Turkey. There, Kweskin was introduced to numerous women’s rights activists, including Fahima Hashim, Director of the Salmmah Women’s Resource Center in Sudan and one of the featured women in Honor Diaries.
The nine women who are profiled in the film met for the first time at a gathering in June 2012 in New York. The film’s producers based the concept of the meeting on the salons of the French Enlightenment, in which women hosted assemblies of intellectuals to discuss progressive issues of the day. Subsequently, producers filmed women separately, in their home towns.
After more than a year in production, the film was completed in May 2013.
The film website claims the following organizations have supported the promotion and distribution of Honor Diaries: [9]
Honor Diaries premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival in October 2013. One month later, the film screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival, where it won the Interfaith Award for Best Documentary. It featured throughout December 2013 on DirecTV’s Something to Talk About film series on the Audience network (Channel 239).
The international launch of Honor Diaries coincided with International Women’s Day on March 8, 2014.
Make no mistake: The work of the nine activists featured in [Honor Diaries] is extremely important as they fight for women’s rights.
— Los Angeles Times / Red Eye Review [10]
[Honor Diaries] consists of a roundtable discussion by nine courageous and highly articulate women of different ages, all from Muslim majority countries …. They speak eloquently, with reasoned passion, about their personal experiences and of threats against them, and talk of their efforts to change the situation of women in their country of origin and in the wider world.
— The Commentator [11]
Honor Diaries won the Interfaith Award at the St. Louis International Film Festival in 2013. [7]
The film was nominated for a 2015 Islamophobia award, with the nomination stating it "portrays Muslims societies as misogynistic, backward, and dominated by brutal practices that oppress women and stifle [ sic ] debate around practices". [13]
Kurdish women have traditionally played important roles in Kurdish society and politics. In general, Kurdish women's rights and equality have improved dramatically in the 21st century due to progressive movements within Kurdish society. However, despite the progress, Kurdish and international women's rights organizations still report problems related to gender inequality, forced marriages, honor killings, and in Iraqi Kurdistan, female genital mutilation (FGM).
The role of women in Egypt has changed throughout history, from ancient to modern times. From the earliest preserved archaeological records, Egyptian women were considered equal to men in Egyptian society, regardless of marital status.
Khitan or Khatna is the Arabic term for circumcision, and the Islamic term for the practice of religious male circumcision in Islamic culture. Male circumcision is widespread in the Muslim world, and accepted as an established practice by all Islamic schools of jurisprudence. It is considered a sign of belonging to the wider Muslim community (Ummah).
The Clarion Project is an American nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 2006. The organization has been involved in the production and distribution of the films Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision For America, Iranium, and Honor Diaries. These films have been criticized by some for allegedly falsifying information and described as anti-Muslim propaganda. The organization publishes a weekly "Extremism Roundup" newsletter.
Raphael Shore is a Canadian-Israeli film writer, producer, and rabbi. He is the founder of OpenDor Media, a Jewish educational organization, and Clarion Project, whose stated mission is "exposing the dangers of Islamist extremism".
There is a widespread view among practitioners of female genital mutilation (FGM) that it is a religious requirement, although prevalence rates often vary according to geography and ethnic group. There is an ongoing debate about the extent to which the practice's continuation is influenced by custom, social pressure, lack of health-care information, and the position of women in society. The procedures confer no health benefits and can lead to serious health problems.
Raheel Raza is a Pakistani-Canadian journalist, author, public speaker, media consultant, anti-racism activist, and interfaith discussion leader. She is among the most prominent Muslim supporters of Israel. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Daisy Khan is a Kashmiri-American Islamic campaigner, reformer, and executive director of the Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE), a women-led organization committed to peacebuilding, equality, and justice for Muslims around the world. Khan is a frequent media commentator on topics such as Muslim women's rights, Islam in America, Islamophobia, and violent extremism. In 2017, Khan published WISE Up: Knowledge Ends Extremism, a report intended to prevent the rise of hate and extremism and develop narratives of peace. Her memoir, Born with Wings, was published by Random House in April 2018. Khan has consistently been recognized for her work. She was listed among Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People", the Huffington Post included her in their "Top Ten Women Faith Leaders", and More magazine has described her as "a link between moderate Islam and the West."
Iranium is a 2011 documentary film by director Alex Traiman, Written and Distributed by Clarion Fund.
Research Action and Information Network for the Bodily Integrity of Women is an international non-governmental organisation working to eliminate female circumcision and female genital mutilation.
The status of women in Iraq at the beginning of the 21st century is affected by many factors: wars, sectarian religious debates concerning Islamic law and Iraq's Constitution, cultural traditions, and modern secularism. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi women are widowed as a result of a series of wars and internal conflicts. Women's rights organizations struggle against harassment and intimidation, while they work to promote improvements to women's status in the law, in education, the workplace, and many other spheres of Iraqi life, and to curtail abusive practices such as honor killings and forced marriages.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting (FGC), female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is practiced in 30 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, in parts of the Middle East and Asia, and within some immigrant communities in Europe, North America and Australia. The WHO defines the practice as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."
Prosecution of gender-targeted crimes is the legal proceedings to prosecute crimes such as rape and domestic violence. The earliest documented prosecution of gender-based/targeted crimes is from 1474 when Sir Peter von Hagenbach was convicted for rapes committed by his troops. However, the trial was only successful in indicting Sir von Hagenbach with the charge of rape because the war in which the rapes occurred was "undeclared" and thus the rapes were considered illegal only because of this. Gender-targeted crimes continued to be prosecuted, but it was not until after World War II when an international criminal tribunal – the International Military Tribunal for the Far East – were officers charged for being responsible of the gender-targeted crimes and other crimes against humanity. Despite the various rape charges, the Charter of the Tokyo Tribunal did not make references to rape, and rape was considered as subordinate to other war crimes. This is also the situation for other tribunals that followed, but with the establishments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), there was more attention to the prosecution of gender-targeted crimes with each of the statutes explicitly referring to rape and other forms of gender-targeted violence.
Sudan is a developing nation that faces many challenges in regard to gender inequality. Freedom House gave Sudan the lowest possible ranking among repressive regimes during 2012. South Sudan received a slightly higher rating but it was also rated as "not free". In the 2013 report of 2012 data, Sudan ranks 171st out of 186 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI). Sudan also is one of very few countries that are not a signatory on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Leyla Hussein is a Somali-born British psychotherapist and social activist. She is the founder of Dahlia project, one of the co-founders of the Daughters of Eve non-profit organization and a Chief Executive of Hawa's Haven. In 2020, Hussein was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews, making her the third woman and first woman of colour to hold this position. Her 3-year term in the position has been labelled as 'chronically absent' and 'disappointing'.
Aneesa Ahmed is a Maldivian women's rights activist who was also the first speaker(vice) of People's Majilis from 2004 to 2009.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as Female circumcision or Female Genital Cutting (FGC) in Nigeria accounts for the most female genital cutting/mutilation (FGM/C) cases worldwide. The practice is customarily a family tradition that the young female of the age 0-15 would experience. It is a procedure that involves partial or completely removing the vulva or other injury to the female genital organs whenever for non-medical reasons.
Mandy Sanghera is an international human rights activist. Since 1990, she has been supporting victims and survivors of honour-based violence and cultural abuse such as female genital mutilation, forced marriages, faith-based abuse, and witchcraft.
Jaha's Promise, is a 2017 American-Gambian documentary drama film co-directed and co-produced by Patrick Farrelly and Kate O'Callaghan. The film revolves around the life and activism of Jaha Dukureh, a Gambian anti-female genital mutilation campaigner against the most extreme form of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), called infibulation or Type 3 FGM prevail in Gambian society.
Rayehe Mozafarian is an Iranian women and children rights activist, author, and documentary filmmaker. The founder of Stop FGM Iran group and Woman and Zoorkhaneh campaign, she is best known for her researches and raising awareness about female genital mutilation in Iran and challenging the country's Zoorkhaneh Sports Federation to unban women from participating Iranian's ancient sport pahlevani and zoorkhaneh rituals.
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