Sahraa Karimi: "I don't want to have children, I want to tell stories"

Afghan director Sahraa Karimi, who came to present her latest film "Hava, Maryam, Ayesha", during the Festival of Asian Cinemas in Vesoul on February 13, 2020. RFI / Marine Jeannin

Text by: Marine Jeannin Follow

Afghan director Sahraa Karimi was invited to the Festival des Cinémas d'Asie in Vesoul on Thursday, February 12, to present her feature film Hava, Maryam, Ayesha during her French premiere. Portrait.

Publicity

Read more

From our special correspondent in Vesoul,

The problem with Afghan men is that they don't like strong women. Sahraa Karimi sets the tone right away. New star of Afghan independent cinema, the director is barely in her mid-thirties, but already has a dozen films to her credit. The last one, Hava, Maryam, Ayesha , was presented last year at the Venice Film Festival. Bowl and polite smile, but without affectation, it is a resolute who claims to Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolfe. His main source of inspiration? His mother, Zibaa. " She overcame the war, the death of my father and immigration, " she lists . She never stopped fighting. "

Sahraa Karimi belongs to the second generation of Afghan refugees born in Iran. She studies in Bratislava, Slovakia, and becomes the first Afghan woman to obtain a doctorate in cinema. In 2013, she decides to leave Europe to return to her country of origin, which she will never leave. Its mission: “ To tell stories of women. "

" I have crossed many Afghan villages to shoot my documentaries, " she says. Karimi quickly realizes that her dual position, both Afghan and foreign, is ideal for obtaining the secrets of village women. As a woman, she is not perceived as a threat by men, who let her into their homes. Persian-speaking and raised in the Afghan culture, she understands the problems of these mothers, widows and young girls who are just waiting to pour out. Above all, she comes from elsewhere: women know that their secrets will be well kept. They had no one to talk to about their suffering, their struggles or their dreams. They were condemned to silence. I understood that as a director, I could give them a voice. "

Hava, Maryam, Ayesha

Hava, Maryam, Ayesha , which comes out in France on February 15, is Sahraa Karimi's first fiction. This triptych tells the stories of three Kabulian women, from different backgrounds and ages. Hava, a traditional housewife, constantly rebuked by her husband and stepfather, has the sole joy of talking to her unborn child. Maryam, an independent and cultured 30-something television presenter, is about to divorce her unfaithful husband when she learns that she is pregnant. Ayesha, just out of adolescence, accepts an arranged marriage with her cousin, after her boyfriend abandoned her on learning of her accidental pregnancy. " This film is a tribute to Afghan women," explains the director. I wanted to show their lives behind the clichés. That their problems were not just bombs or burqas. "

This feature film is one of the first to have been shot entirely in Kabul, by a woman moreover. " In 40 days of filming, there were five big explosions," says Karimi. And then people are not used to seeing film crews in the street, we were not safe from a madman who tumbled down to hit us. It was dangerous, but ultimately it was not impossible ! And then, I like the risk. "

The director intended to film with a local female team, she said, " to empower young girls in Kabul, " but had to work with a majority of men. Even on the actresses' side, only one, the interpreter of Ayesha, exercised this profession before filming. " It is difficult to recruit women to make a film in Afghanistan," explains Karimi. The image of cinema is not very positive here. In fact, people only know Bollywood. They think I'm going to hire actresses to make them dance and sing. So men don't want to let their sister, wife or daughter show up for the casting . "

" Maternity should be a choice, not an obligation "

The film tackles a number of feminist themes, a daring bet for such a conservative country: reason marriage, love, sex outside marriage, and above all, unwanted pregnancy and abortion. It's still a taboo in Afghanistan, points out the director. Besides, it's still illegal. Two of the main characters choose for this option, including the journalist in the process of divorce, Maryam, who refuses to let an accidental pregnancy hamper her independence. It is with her that Sahraa Karimi most identifies, she recognizes. Here, when you get married, you have to give birth, it's automatic. If you want to be respected, to have a place in the family and in society, you must be a mother. But for me, it should be a choice, not an obligation. That's why I made this film. "

This choice, she still claims during the exchange that follows the projection, while not a spectator has left her chair. " When I say that I do not want children, I am often told that I am of no use, that I have no place in society, says Sahraa Karimi, the shadow of a tear in her eyes . But I'm here to tell stories. I gave birth to something : my film. She returns the microphone under a round of applause.

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

subscribe

Download the app

google-play-badge_FR

  • Cinema
  • afghanistan
  • our selection

On the same subject

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

[Reportage] Domestic violence a scourge for Afghan women

Great report

Afghanistan: women's education under threat

Literature

Afghanistan: When women speak out "Under Kabul's sky"