Western Representations of the Muslim woman (Part two)

Hafidh Shamseddine
Anisa Saeed

By ‘contradictions,’ I do not simply mean the contradicting beliefs and images that the film provides, nor only the contradictions that emerge between the viewpoints of the film’s director and her subjects, but, most importantly, the contradictions that occur within the director’s own narrative. Instead of adhering to her claim of being objective in presenting the changing position of Saudi working women’s according to these women’s perspectives, the filmmaker—as  it will be shown bellow—strives to present the status of these women according to her own perspective. Based on the filmmaker’s perspective, another contradiction emerges i.e. the contradiction between these women’s self-perception and the “reality” of their situation. However, it would be argued that, this contradiction exists in the film due to the documentarist’s subjective way of seeing these women’s reality through her Eurocentric eye which is impotent to see these women’s “difference,” or what Homi Bhabha calls the “cultural difference.” That is to say, she sees these women’s reality through her Western norms, or to use Stuart Hall’s words “cultural maps of meaning;” and thereby she does not understand and agree to the Saudi women’s self-perceptions as not oppressed. In other words, she shows these women’s self-perceptions to be just self-perceptions, which are very different than their lived reality. Thus, this is not a lived contradiction on the part of these women as the filmmaker tries to show, but a documentarist’s imposed contradiction.  

In the film’s opening scene, the documentarist states that Saudi women’s lives are changing and her aim is “to explore the change from the perspective of Saudi working women.” I will disclose the extent to which the film attempts to show the changing status of Saudi working women according to their viewpoints.

Right from its very beginning, Saudi Solutions drops obvious hints that Saudi women face discrimination and suffer from the oppression of an imposed veil. The introductory night scene opens by the sound effect of natural dark environment (indicated by the annoying sound of hooting owls) mixed with contrasting sound of urban environment (suggested by the street soundscape created by the sound of cars). These conflicting auditory codes are superimposed on a dark screen creating a sense of tension and mystery and they continue to accompany the first shot that shows an image of a veiled woman. In this dimly-lit medium shot the woman is displayed in a car. The camera then intercuts to a shot of a street with colorful night lights and crowd of cars. As the woman explains to a male driver her aimed destination, the camera alternates her image in the back seat of the car with the image of the car’s male driver. Sequencing shots in this way suggests that although Saudi kingdom is modernizing, women in Saudi society can never be completely modernized due to the incorrigibility of the Islamic culture that is described in the opening scene as fundamentalist. In this way, sound effects are produced to convey the binary of “the traditional versus the modern” and the sequenced shots does not only continue to emphasize this meaning, but further stress that it is the Saudi women, not men, who are forced to live a traditional away of life out the process of modernity.

Figure 1: Sequenced shots in the introductory scene establishe the message that although Saudi kingdom is modernizing, Saudi women are not.

A similar contrast is accentuated in the film’s opening scene; in this scene, sequenced shots of images of modern city and completely veiled woman operate in the following way: an initial establishing shot of the modern city of Riyadh is displayed; this is succeeded by a long shot of a veiled woman with her back turned to the camera. The woman looks at the modern scene from distant location which indicates that she seems outside of the process modernity. It is also important to note that the English music imposed on the shot that displays the image of the veiled woman is as significant as visual editing in highlighting modernity/tradition conflict.

 

Figure 2: Opening scene’s sequenced shots accentuate modernity /tradition conflict, suggesting the oppression of Saudi women.

In the same scene, the camera displays the veiled woman in a long take shot, zooming in on her back in a medium shot, before zooming in more closely to show a medium close-up of her covered hand. This focus of the camera heightens the exoticism and invisibility created by this woman’s dress code. Employing such film language, the film says to the viewer look how this woman is oppressed by her veil which makes her an invisible and shapeless figure.

Figure 3: The camera movement invites the spectator to gaze at a woman’s veil which is constructed to epitomize the oppression of Saudi women.

To be Continued HERE:

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