Director: Joanna Head; Editor: Chris Curling; Photography: Kim Longinotto; Anthropologist Reem Saad; BBC TV Productions. 45 mins. 1991.
Page Content Menu
Exploring the nuances and contradictions of marriage, this film focuses on Wiza, an Egyptian woman, who works as a house cleaner and lives in al-Hussein, Cairo. She was abandoned by her husband, who now lives with his other wife, as Wiza settles in a one-room house with her daughter and sons. Wiza talks about the problems of her own marriage while at the same time trying to find suitable partners for her son and daughter.
2 May 2010: 14:00-16:00
AUC New Campus, Core Academic Center C205
Marriage Egyptian Style is a vital contribution to the discussion about the representation of Middle Eastern women, and in particular, women from low-income communities. Wiza presents a case that does not conform to the “the oppressed Muslim woman” stereotype. Likewise, her agency cannot easily equate with resistance to male domination, as defined by some secular liberal feminist (Mahmood 2004). Instead Wiza has her own opinions about marriage and family which she expresses freely and confidently. She seeks “an obedient wife” for her son. Meanwhile, she advises all woman to “sleep with one eye open as men can never be trusted”.
When the film was first broadcast in Britain in August 1991, it was received with great disdain by some members of the international Egyptian community. Dr. Reem Saad, who worked as the anthropologist of this film, reports in her article, “Shame, Reputation and Egypt’s Lovers: A Controversy over the Nation’s Image” (1998), that many of the attackers felt that this film portrayed an Egyptian character in ways that harmed Egypt’s reputation. A significant part of the attacks were centered on Wiza, the subject of the film. For example, the editor-in-chief of al-Kawakeb weekly described Wiza as an “impertinent woman [who] does not cease to throw insults and express opinions which cannot possibly be expressed by an Egyptian mother, whatever her social or cultural level. For the Egyptian mother is by nature compassionate and would give up her life for her children, whereas [Wiza] starts her dialogue in the first scene of the film with a shocking sentence: my children are my enemies” (Saad 1998: 404).
Reception of the film as being defamatory for Egypt’s reputation raises important questions about what is considered to be an ideal image of a Nation and its moral qualities of marriage and family relations. Who gets to represent the real-life of “authentic Egyptian women” (ibid: 407)? What visual references are employed?
Some of these issues are addressed below in an interview with Dr. Reem Saad. Dr. Saad begins by explaining a bit about the project’s background. She explains that she worked as an anthropologist on this BBC production in collaboration with the British producer Joanna Head. An abridged transcript follows each video.
Dr. REEM SAAD: The film was part of an anthropological film series of the BBC called Under The Sun. Each one of the documentaries in this series was based on a collaboration between a producer and an anthropologist. So, really, the film part of it is the producer [Joanna Head], and the anthropologist does the research and the anthropological perspective on the production. So I was the anthropologist and Jo was the filmmaker.
I asked Dr. Saad why the film was titled Marriage Egyptian Style. The title of the film has often been paralleled with the film Divorce Iranian Style (1998). Here, Dr. Saad explains that it was actually a reference to an older comedy film, Divorce Italian Style (1961). The title also cites the main focus of the film, which is marriage, but marriage understood through the life of this particular woman.
Dr. REEM SAAD: It was mainly about women through the life of this particular woman, but with an emphasis on marriage. Marriage in the life of this woman. So marriage is central to the film. And “Marriage Egyptian Style” was sort of a film about marriage and Egypt and that, but it was sort of a play on the title “Divorce Italian Style”.
As mentioned above, this film ignited a strong nationalistic response by what Dr. Saad likes to call “the society of Egypt’s lovers”: those people who seek to protect “Egypt’s image” (Saad 1998: 402). Such discourse involves a contest over who is to represent the nation. Here I ask Dr. Saad: If Marriage Egyptian Style was broadcast today, would it receive the same strong reaction as it did in 1991? Her response was “no”.
Dr. REEM SAAD: I do not think, I hope not, that it would have the same reaction as it did many years ago. Almost 20 years ago now. And this is mainly because of huge developments, both on the art scene in general, and on the discourse on nationalism. Developments in the art scene and the film scene have been huge. Actually, I would even say there is progress. There is great progress and filmmakers and artists have really gained a lot of territory, in terms of right of expression. So there were fights and battles and other things like that. And also by just sheer variety and numbers it’s a growing force that is gaining ground everyday. So this is one side. On the other hand, the idea of the “Egypt’s Lovers”, as I call them, have in fact now become a subject of irony by a considerable force in the society. On the political scene it’s now a joke, this “Egypt’s Lovers”, and Egypt’s reputation. It has become accepted now that the idea of Egypt’s reputation is used to disguise other interests and, in fact, is used by the official “voice”, either the government, or by the more conservative voices, to conceal problems, to divert attention from problems. So there have been different terrains in which this idea has been discussed really critically. And now, when you say Egypt’s reputation, it will very often evoke sarcasm, and a very wide sort of complicity about what this means, or about what this slogan hides or disguises. For these two reasons, I think that the film today if broadcast would probably get different reception. It would still get similar kinds of reactions from certain quarters, but these reactions would have a lot more different voices to answer.
A central point of the IGWS Arab Women Doc Film Series was to address representations of women that are not commonly seen in the mainstream; this includes representations that contradict certain terms associated with “femininity”, “motherhood”, or what it means to be married. One may argue that documentary film plays a crucial role in creating social change for gender justice. I asked Dr. Saad if she consider Marriage Egyptian Style to be a part of a greater genre of film activism? She responds by making a differentiation between giving justice to women’s representations, and gender justice as a political project.
“[The film] was to remedy an absence of the poor woman’s voice who is speaking for herself.”
Dr. REEM SAAD: At least in terms of its reception and the discussions it generated in Egypt, it equally raised questions about class, not just gender. And the fact that when these two issues were combined, then the reaction was very strong. So it was class and gender. Because the woman was not just a woman, but also a working-class woman from the more popular part of the city. The bit that I’m unsure about is the bit on gender justice: “Is this about gender justice?” Maybe there is more that has to do with women’s voice, maybe, rather than justice. Giving justice to women’s representation. But not gender justice as such.
LARA: Right. So more of taking on a woman’s standpoint within a particular context that, perhaps, women are underrepresented?
Dr. REEM SAAD: Yes. Poor women are underrepresented, or are underrepresented as main subjects. They can be well represented in terms of quantity or frequency of representation, but not in the forefront. They would take secondary influence. So in that sense it [the film] was to remedy an absence of the poor woman’s voice who is speaking for herself.
Presented below are a few audience reactions to Marriage Egyptian Style. The videos are arranged according to some main themes that came up during the Q&A period.
Discussion themes tended to focus on:
1) The gap between the ideals of family life and its daily realities, particularly the departure of ideals up held by religious institutions and human rights discourse.
2) Reactions today versus reaction of the past: What was it about about the representation of Wiza that ignited such negative reactions in 1991? How are reactions today different and similar to the nationalistic discourse of “Egypt’s Lovers?”
Read below the excerpt of Dr. Saad’s article, “Shame, Reputation and Egypt’s Lovers: A Controversy over the Nation’s Image.” Visual Anthropology. 10, 1998: 401-412.
A final reason for the uneasiness many people felt towards Wiza is that she did not conform to the stereotype of the poor held by the urban middle class. Peasants and the urban poor can be tolerated only if patronized or romanticized. Wiza’s world is sometimes viewed romantically as the “soul of Egypt”, or melodramatically as the site of constant misery that can only be alleviated by the efforts of charitable philanthropists. Wiza’s “problem” was that she simply does not look miserable. Worse still, she looks as if she is can actually enjoy herself. It is true that she works very hard to make ends meat, but her life is more than just a grim struggle for survival…Her concerns in life include love, the marriage of her children, friendship, leisure- things which do not have a place in either the romanticized or the melodramatized stereotype of the poor. Her concerns were substantially the same as those of her would-be “betters”, and this contradicted a sense of social distinction essential to middle-class identity (409).