Docs: Writing Hawa

Filmed over a five-year period, Writing Hawa tells the story of three generations of Hazara women from a single family in Afghanistan. With unique access and empathy, director Najiba Noori captures her mother, Hawa, and her cousin, Zahra, in their quest to emancipate themselves from patriarchal traditions. Forced into marriage as a child, Hawa is 52 years old when she finally begins to learn to read and write.

With her daughter's support, she opens a small textile business: she searches for traditional Hazara embroidery in the Bamiyan region and transforms it into modern dresses, which she sells in Kabul. Eventually, Hawa rescues her granddaughter, Zahra, from her abusive father in a remote village and brings her to the capital. There, they study together and make plans for the future. But the Taliban takeover in August 2021 turns the lives of the three women upside down: Zahra is forced to return to the village from which she escaped, and Najiba is forced to flee the country, after which she goes to live as a refugee in France. From a distance, she helps Hawa continue to fight for her dreams.