“Afghan Women” Documentaries: The Political Economy of Giving and Taking Voice

Abstract

Given the long history in the mainstream and popular media as well as in academia of marginalised people being unable to tell their own stories, and of subaltern groups traditionally being positioned as the subjects of films in which white and/or privileged cosmopolitan filmmakers and researchers drive the narrative, in this article I explore documentary and fiction films about and by Afghan women in Afghanistan and in the diaspora, to consider the hierarchies of power involved with giving and taking voice, and to ask whose perspective these films privilege, why and to what effect. Specifically, I will focus on the prolific “saving Afghan women” films that emerged in the pre- and post-9/11 moment to justify the US war in Afghanistan and compare them with more agentic films, including my own, produced during the twenty-year US “Forever War” in Afghanistan. I argue that we need to critically analyse films that are hailed as collaborative and participatory for including Afghan women in producing the representation of their own lives and narratives, as sometimes these films extend hegemonic power and further disempower Afghan women.