BREAD & ROSES, REVERSI, MURDERBOT

And Báyò Akómoláfé on Pragmatism

Kathleen Norris on THREE FILMS AND ONE SERIES

1. Bread & Roses (above) is not a great film, but the fact that it exists at all feels like a miracle, and makes it worth watching. Since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021 we seldom hear from women there who suffer under increasing oppression, and can be grateful to Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and actor Jennifer Lawrence for producing this documentary. In it we see Afghan women risking arrest, suffering beatings, and being assaulted with water cannons and tear gas, for demonstrating in public against the closing of schools for girls, and insisting on basic human rights. We hear a dentist, Zahra, describe how the Taliban made her remove her name from the sign advertising her business. But she continued to work, and began offering dental services for free. Her clinic soon became a place for activist women to meet and plan more protests. Zahra’s founding of the Unity and Solidarity Team of Afghan Women and her attendance at a large protest demanding the release from prison of two other activists led the Taliban to abduct her from her office and imprison her. We hear from Sharifa, who once had a thriving career in government service and now is stuck at home struggling with depression and claustrophobia. A third woman, Transom, is an activist living in a safe house with other women in Pakistan.

The film’s odd, uneven narrative structure comes from the difficult situation these women are in, and the fact that most of the footage comes from recordings sent from Afghanistan to the director, Sahra Mani. There is so much sadness for these women, some of whom start sleeping in a different house every night for their safety. We hear from a woman whose marriage license was revoked because she had a job, a woman who’s told that it’s illegal for her to take a taxi without a male relative, and women chastised by family members who feel ashamed when they’re arrested. Comments like these rend the heart: “I miss the days when girls wore colors.” But we find hope in the voices of teenagers who are determined to get an education and enjoy freedoms that are now denied to them.

Coda: After watching the film I went online to find out more about Dr. Zahra’s fate. On her release from prison she found refuge in a safe house and eventually escaped Afghanistan. She kept her location hidden until September, 2024, when a news report mentioned that she had joined a public demonstration of Afghan women refugees in Tirana, Albania.