"No one can coerce you.
You must coerce yourself because it is required by the Divine."
The viewer who sees this POV film with an open mind may recognize the influence and power of peer pressure and political spin. No one is forcing you to wear the hijab, but you must make yourself do it, because Allah requires that you do it.
Well, if God requires it, and your teen peers are all doing it, and you want to be accepted and protected by your community and your elders and God himself, of course you will desire to cover your offending hair and obey. Imagine going home to your parents and telling them that you have decided that you do not want to wear the required garments. What courage that would take. What risk to life itself?
I remember my own baptism, which I chose to do - because I was newly widowed and unemployed and homeless and suffering from cancer and cancer treatments and alienation from my family. I was sick and grieving and bald and poor and very scared. The future was deep and dark. An abyss.
The "touch of Christ" was powerful. The healing services were powerful. The atmosphere of mystery and the friendship of the community were intoxicating. And I do not regret becoming a Christian. Jesus is a light in my life - myth or folk hero or the Divine Son of the Only True God sitting on a cloud in Michelangelo's sky.
Jesus has been good for me. But I do recognize that lying in ecstasy on the floor, struck by the Holy Spirit, may not be so much the effect of the personal touch of Our Lord Jesus as from my own desperate need for hope. But it really feels good and it gave me hope that God cares for the individual.
Does the hijab help a woman to stand on her own two feet? Does it give her hope and independence and strength - for this life here on earth - as Christ has done for me ?
Or is it mostly about peer pressure, fear, a need to be accepted and safe from rejection, isolation and even from injury ? Is it about enjoying the support and safety of the community? Does it have anything to do with being a person ?
Phyllis Carter
The Light in Her Eyes
Houda al-Habash, a conservative Muslim preacher, founded a Qur'an school for girls in Damascus, Syria, 30 years ago. Every summer, her female students immerse themselves in a rigorous study of Islam. A surprising cultural shift is underway — women are claiming space within the mosque. Shot right before the uprising in Syria erupted, The Light in Her Eyes offers an extraordinary portrait of a leader who challenges the women of her community to live according to Islam, without giving up their dreams.
Houda al-Habash, a conservative Muslim preacher, founded a Qur'an school for girls in Damascus, Syria, 30 years ago. Every summer, her female students immerse themselves in a rigorous study of Islam. A surprising cultural shift is underway — women are claiming space within the mosque. Shot right before the uprising in Syria erupted, The Light in Her Eyes offers an extraordinary portrait of a leader who challenges the women of her community to live according to Islam, without giving up their dreams.
An Official Selection of the 2011 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Produced in association with American Documentary | POV.
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