The hijab is the traditional head covering that Muslim women wear to convey modesty and piety. It has also become a flashpoint for the so-called “clash of civilizations” between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. For some, it is a potent symbol of the inherently repressive and misogynistic nature of Islam. In France, the hijab has faced legal challenges from the secular state and was even banned from public schools. On the contrary, in an increasingly modern and nuanced way, the hijab is being championed by neo-feminist thinkers, activists and artists as a tool to reject the commodification of the female form. Regardless of the perspective, the hijab conjures up the issue of female sexuality and patriarchal reactions to either confine or exploit it.

Hijabi follows the story of Alia, a young Muslim-American girl, navigating her own sexual identity against this context. We see her move through two different worlds. One is a typical high school party, wild and disinhibited, where she has snuck off to one night. These scenes play out in flashback as we see her donning her hijab and sneaking back into her home – back to her quiet and somber life where a very different kind of drama plays out between her and her father. The party scenes are filled with Alia moving through smoke filled, strobe lit rooms and hallways against the kinetic movements of sweaty teenage bodies. She encounters her friends who typify the kind of permissive immorality her hijab is intended to insulate her against. A hand-held approach will be utilized to convey a frantic and chaotic pace. At home, in more intimately framed and formal shots, still focusing closely on Alia’s body, we see her interaction with her father who has been waiting up for her.

This is the central conflict in the film - the dynamic between father and daughter as she is discovering sin and, in a larger sense, the dialectical opposition between her Islamic identity and her hedonistic impulses. Their body language, as he has her sit on his lap, is tender and familial but still echoes a possessive/obsessive streak that her father has over her. However, Alia has a sense of the power of her growing allure. She is able to subvert and defuse the potential tension of displeasing her ever-watchful father. There are Freudian overtones. Instead of the usual arc of a male child harboring libidinal impulses towards his mother, this film is an exploration of the father-daughter dyad when there exists a female Oedipal victor. The film will use dialogue sparingly. Instead, juxtaposing the scenes of Western/American teenage bacchanalia with the subtle sexually improper tableau of a teenage daughter in her father’s lap builds the tension surrounding the two alternatives available to Alia as she tries to understand her sexuality. Alia is stimulated in both circumstances though in a far more subconscious way at home where she is dealing with a father who is simultaneously noticing but trying to control and conceal her body. By the end of the film Alia has internalized the aggressive introject of a seductive, yet ultimately frustrating, and thus harmful, patriarchy.

Our first short film, Pornistan (www.pornistanthemovie.com), a satirical look at the role sexual repression plays in religious fundamentalism, was completed in 2013 and completed its festival run in 2014 garnering recognition at the Central Florida and Flatland film festivals. Pornistan was accepted into the 2014 Cannes Court Metrage and we ultimately sold non-exclusive rights to 3 different distribution companies; a French, an American, and an Indian distribution platform. We were also offered an exclusive distribution contract from Shorts International LTD but ultimately went with the other offers as this allowed us to reach the widest audience. With Hijabi we will not only attempt to get the film into the main American festivals we will also focus on high-profile international festivals such as Oberhausen, Clermont-Ferrand and the Berlinale. Specialty film festivals focused on Muslim narratives will also be targeted. The relationships we made at Cannes, not only with the distribution companies that offered us a deal, but with many others that expressed an interest in our future work, will be the springboard we use to get Hijabi out to a world-wide audience.