WUNRN
Women Make Movies
FILM SEGMENT:
QUEST
FOR HONOR - DOCUMENTARY FILM
A
film by Mary
Ann Smothers Bruni
US/Iraq,
2009, 63 minutes, Color, DVD, Kurdish, Subtitled
There
is an alarming rise in “honor killing,” the heinous act of men killing
daughters, sisters, and wives who threaten “family honor,” which endangers tens
of thousands of women in Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and adjoining countries. Global
communication through satellite television, internet, and cell phones has
raised the expectations of young Middle Eastern women, who now are not content
to marry a much older relative to their father might choose and live a life of
servitude. While young women respond to new ideas from cyber pals in Los
Angeles or episodes of popular Western sitcom, their fathers and brothers
demand strict tribal justice for their acts.
The Women’s Media Center of Suleymaniyah, Iraq, has joined forces with Iraq’s
Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) to end the heinous practice of “honor
killing” of women. First time filmmaker Mary Ann Smothers Bruni – who is an
author and photographer – documents these horrible acts and the people who are
fighting to end these senseless killings that take place in Kurdistan.