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Movies & TV

Four Women of Egypt

FOUR WOMEN OF EGYPT (Tahani Rached) Screens Saturday (June 18) at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Rating: NNN


Four women who disagree on just about everything except their passion for social justice demonstrate how they’ve maintained a friendship for over 40 years in this fascinating documentary made in 1997. It’s part of TIFF Cinematheque’s Egypt Rising series, which shows that the seeds of the Arab Spring were sown over a decade ago.

Amina, raised as an aristocrat, found socialism in the 50s. Wedad was the first woman to sit on the student union at the university in Cairo. Shahenda’s radical husband was assassinated in the 50s and she was jailed shortly after. She met Muslim radical Safynaz in prison.

For 90 minutes, often while watching archival footage of political leaders, the quartet talk politics, including Nasser’s use of the Aswan Dam as a propaganda tool, Sadat’s problematic dependency on the superpowers and conservative, oil-rich Arab countries and, most importantly, the relationship between religion and the state.

It’s on this last topic that the conversation is most lively. Wedad is a Christian, while Amina is totally secular. Shahenda is a Muslim who believes religion has no place in politics, and Safynaz supports a Muslim state.

“Yes to Allah, no to oppression,” she says. All four are brainy and articulate. If you think radical Islam is intellectually bankrupt, Safynaz will definitely change your mind.

The film reminds us that there was such a thing as feminist fury long before the North American so-called second wave. It also illustrates how people can loathe each other’s opinions and love each other at the same time.

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