Hazara Nation

The Passionate Eye

Filmmaker Hadja Lahbib's documentary provides vivid portraits of two powerful Afghan women leaders in defiance of conventional notions about the country's extreme repression of women. Habiba Sorabi is Afghanistan's first female governor. Aisha Habibi, also known as Commander Kaftar, is the country's only female warlord. Both women wear head scarves. The governor dresses in long-skirted Western-style suits over pants; the "commander" in more traditional long layers over pants.
Their dress is the only predictable thing about them. The governor is trying to bring democracy to Bamyan, where the Taliban infamously destroyed ancient Buddha statues. She won't tolerate tribal infighting or discrimination against women. She's seen openly advocating family planning, speaking to a gathering of men in a mosque and helping a family caught up in an arranged-marriage drama. The commander's rule, although autocratic, covers many of the same issues on a smaller scale. She oversees a community of more than 2,000 villagers in the remote Saijan Valley. We see her settle a dispute between neighbours and deal with a son who has assaulted his mother. Although the two women represent the old and the new order, that they exist at all in Afghanistan is heartening. In capturing everyday routines, Lahbib reveals a beauty and dignity in the lives of ordinary Afghans. And Afghanistan is gorgeous to look at, too, thanks to Louis-Phillipe Capelle's cinematography.