“Big Little Women” – A Tribute to Women’s Courage
Published: Tuesday, Oct 17th 2023, 14:10
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Big Little Women is a documentary film by Swiss-Egyptian filmmaker Nadia Fares, which parallels the story of feminism in Egypt and Switzerland. The film takes its starting point from Fares' own family history, and follows three generations of women who are willing to pay the price for their freedom as women. It begins with Fares travelling to Cairo for her father's funeral in 1984. The film is a tribute to her father, who gave her the freedom to be who she wanted to be. It is also a tribute to the courage of women who fight for equality in the East and West. The film follows three young women who ride their bicycles through the busy streets of Cairo, despite it being forbidden in conservative circles. They use this as an opportunity to talk to women in the poorer areas of Cairo, in an attempt to change the attitude towards the position of women in society. Fares also tells her own story of how the Swiss patriarchy affected her life, as it was her grandfather in the Emmental who caused her father to be expelled from Switzerland, taking away her father from her as a young girl. The film is dedicated to the late Nawal El Saadawi, an Egyptian pioneer of feminism, thinker, writer, doctor and psychiatrist, who passed away after the filming. She tells her story, which is also the story of the Egyptian women's movement, from the reign of King Faruq, the rise of Nasser, the setbacks under Sadat, the strengthening of the Muslim Brotherhood, the revolution of 2014 on Tahrir Square, to the present day. Big Little Women does not tell its story chronologically, but weaves together the three storylines, the stories of the old woman, historical footage, film sequences and photos from the family in Switzerland, and the three young women in modern Cairo. The film is a touching portrait of the fight for women's rights, and shows that women are not only victims of patriarchy, but can also be complicit in it. It also highlights patriarchal structures in Switzerland, such as the fact that women in Switzerland had to wait until 1971 for the right to vote, while Egypt introduced it in 1956. Big Little Women is a thought-provoking film which is now showing in cinemas in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.
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