{"id":10308,"date":"2018-12-20T12:57:29","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T10:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=10308"},"modified":"2018-12-20T13:39:48","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T11:39:48","slug":"in-the-judge-a-middle-eastern-trailblazer-upholds-womens-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2018\/12\/in-the-judge-a-middle-eastern-trailblazer-upholds-womens-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018The Judge,\u2019 a Middle Eastern Trailblazer Upholds Women\u2019s Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Times<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Jeannette Catsoulis<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kholoud Al-Faqih is the subject of “The Judge.”<\/span>Credit<\/span>Credit<\/span>Idle Wild Films<\/span><\/h6>\n
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The Judge,\u00a0Directed by\u00a0Erika Cohn,\u00a0Documentary\u00a01h 16m<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A conventional portrait of a highly unconventional woman, Erika Cohn\u2019s documentary \u201cThe Judge\u201d has a worthy subject in Kholoud al-Faqih, the first woman to be appointed, in 2009, to the Middle East\u2019s religious courts.<\/p>\n

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Dealing mainly with family disputes like spousal abuse, divorce and alimony claims, these courts are governed by Islamic law that can vary in interpretation from region to region. Further complicating matters are chauvinistic cultural traditions that can overrule religious dictates, resulting in adjudications that are fraught and combative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Undismayed, Ms. al-Faqih presides over a bustling courtroom in the West Bank (intimately filmed by the cinematographer Amber Fares, who directed the warmhearted documentary\u00a0\u201cSpeed Sisters\u201d<\/a>). The proceedings are vexingly vague, serving mainly to highlight a personality at once firm and compassionate, sharp-witted and immune to male privilege. A visit with Ms. al-Faqih\u2019s parents \u2014 who put almost all of their 12 of their children through college \u2014 is brief but revealing, as is footage of the judge educating a women\u2019s group on their rights. In countries where domestic violence is viewed as a shameful private matter, and honor-killing excuses can be used to deflect a murder charge, women need all the help they can get.<\/p>\n

Against this backdrop of domestic strife, \u201cThe Judge\u201d is, like its namesake, defiantly upbeat. Though voices both welcoming and hostile to women judges are represented, Ms. al-Faqih\u2019s likely Sisyphean battle to reach her position feels insufficiently underlined. Her mettle is on full view, though, when a new chief justice tries to sideline her; quietly and patiently fighting back, she emerges as someone who\u2019s no threat to religious law, but who\u2019s a real problem for patriarchy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n