Screenings

The discussion on October 18th will be held in English and interpreted into German sign language.

Synopsis

Filmed over five years, WRITING HAWA is the story of three generations of Hazara women from the same family in Afghanistan. With unique access and empathy, director Najiba Noori films her mother Hawa and her niece Zahra in their aspirations to emancipate themselves from patriarchal traditions.
Forced into marriage as a child, Hawa is 52 years old when she can truly start learning to read and write. With the support of her daughter, she opens a small textile business: she searches for traditional Hazara embroideries in the Bamiyan region and turns them into modern dresses to sell in Kabul.
Hawa eventually saves her granddaughter Zahra from her abusive father in a remote village and brings her to the capital. There, they study together and make plans for the future. However, the takeover by the Taliban in August 2021 turns the lives of the three women upside down: Zahra has to return to the village she escaped from, and Najiba is forced to flee the country, living as a refugee in France. From afar, she helps Hawa continue fighting for her dreams.

Director

Najiba Noori

Biography

Najiba Noori was born in 1995 in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, an now lives in France. She began volunteering with media organisations at the age of 15 and took part in numerous photography and filmmaking workshops in Kabul. She has worked on reports and photo stories for AFP, the Huffington Post, MSF, FMIC, NRC and UN Women. In 2019, she joined AFP as a video journalist. She participated in the Close-Up program (2020–2021) and the IDFA Academy in 2022. After the Taliban takeover in 2021, she was obliged to leave Afghanistan. WRITING HAWA is her first documentary film.

Filmography

Writing Hawa (2024)

Links /Contacts