Being a filmmaker in Pakistan is tough – even harder if you’re trying to do real work and shine a light on stories that go beyond the surface. my mother’s daughter, Mariam Khan and Ahmen Khawaja’s short documentary about child marriages and the forced conversion of a Christian girl was undermined by the Central Board of Film Censorship. The producers told images that they will continue to fight for their movies even though they are “discouraged”.
Called “propaganda” by the Board, my mother’s daughter Its screening at the Women Through Film Festival was stopped. On Wednesday, Khan shared a letter from the board on Instagram, writing: “On International Women’s Day, we learned that Pakistan’s Central Board of Film Censorship (CBFC) in Islamabad has decided to censor our short documentary. my mother’s daughter and it won’t allow it to be screened at the Women Through Film film festival this weekend.
He explained that the film follows the true story of a little Christian girl who is kidnapped by a middle-aged man in Faisalabad, forced into marriage with him, and converted to Islam. “As many as 1,000 young girls are forcibly converted every year, and calling it propaganda is a gross injustice to their plight and their stories. We spent months verifying the case and going to court hearings with the survivor to ensure the highest authenticity in the film,” she said.
the directors told images They were shocked to hear that their film was censored at a film festival. “We were disappointed to hear that international films from India and Israel were approved but ours was banned. It’s not even fiction, it’s non-fiction. A Pakistani film is being stopped at a Pakistani film festival,” said Khawaja.
In the letter, the CBFC claimed that the film in question was reviewed by a Board delegation on February 27 and that “members unanimously did not approve of the documentary film because the short documentary looked more like propaganda.” An unconfirmed judicial procedure was demonstrated, and false values contrary to Pakistani culture and society were highlighted.
In response, the filmmakers requested a full board review, but this was denied to them. “When we spoke directly to the president we were told that ‘the full board review cannot be done before the festival as the office is under renovation’.” They suggested an online review, but the board members were asked to arrange a hall at the Centaurus in Islamabad for the film to be screened.
my mother’s daughter It was screened at three Pakistani film festivals – Prism, Divvy and Women of the World – in Karachi and Lahore and there were no issues. The curator of the Women with Film festival told the producers that films are screened by the censorship board every year and they had encountered this problem before with a different film.
Khawaja said that many international festivals wrote letters to them and that they loved their films. It is screened at the Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival in Canada later this month. The film won seven or eight international awards. It would be fair to say that Pakistani films are more appreciated outside than inside, so the industry cannot grow,” he said.
“We are emerging filmmakers, we don’t need disappointment or rejection, we need local support,” he said, adding that the Pakistani filmmaking industry has their backs. But when the government stops you from even chatting, where do you go from there? How do we make an impact?” asked.
Many people have reached out to us and said that your movie has been banned, so it will attract attention and people will want to watch it. This is sad,” he commented. “Is this how people want to see our movie after being swayed by the controversy flag?”
The producers emphasized how real these cases are and how people deny it. They compared their documentaries to the news and said, “The news shows these cases, are we going to censor the news too? So is the news also propaganda?”
Khan and Khawaja decided to keep fighting for their movie. They have accepted that such a thing is not possible for the remaining days of the festival, but they do not intend to shift this issue. “The idea of making this documentary came to us because we wanted to let people know that girls like Mehak exist. We are especially discouraged as emerging female filmmakers, we don’t know where to go from here.”
“We can’t keep sweeping issues like this under the rug. By doing this, we’re providing a safe space for criminals. How will things go down if we don’t even have these conversations?” Khan said.