The Sharp Edge of Peace is among the most exasperating documentaries about Afghanistan. The film premiered worldwide on April 27, at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival.
The documentary tells the story of women leaders’ efforts to regain Afghan women’s rights through talks with the Taliban. It opens with peace negotiator Fawzia Koofi in a hospital bed; she has just survived an assassination attempt. Koofi is one of four women picked for the Afghan government’s negotiating team as the country tries to get back on its feet following the withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops, and the rise of the Taliban.
Also on that team are journalist and politician Sharifa Zurmati, physician and politician Habiba Sarabi, and politician Fatima Gailani; it is impossible to do justice to these tireless advocates and what they do for Afghanistan (and its women) in a few words, but this film does provide a good shorthand. By focusing on them and their work, director Roya Sadat paints a vivid picture of where the country stands now.
After 40 years of war and an ongoing authoritarian regime, Afghanistan is suffering under religious oppression combined with gender apartheid.
Women leaders who are trying to make positive changes in Afghanistan “have two options: leave or be killed,” as The Sharp Edge of Peace points out. These four women are always at risk as are their families.
But hope springs eternal? The peace talks began last year. There are 26 people on that government team; these four women represent only a portion of those working toward an immediate ceasefire and recognition of women’s rights in the country.
It is Gailani who says she hopes to show the Taliban that this isn’t same old Afghanistan when they took over 25 years ago there was no education for girls but then again that may not matter because by next year there won’t be any educated girls left alive anyway so who cares what year it is? Something along those lines.
The most telling footage here may be Dr. Sarabi’s work in the human rights and vulnerable groups consultations; we see people testifying to what their lives became after, say, losing a leg in an explosion or becoming hearing impaired because too many bombs went off close by.
It’s a brief and devastating sequence that makes clear what decades of war look like.
The women discuss what the peace talks are about: the Taliban say they recognize women’s rights within Islam. What does that mean, asks one?
It means the Taliban take over again and women have no rights education ends this year for them, they don’t leave the house without a burqa and male guardian, there are no more women judges or lawyers or in public spaces generally etc.
It makes me so mad to see these bearded assholes ruling by violence while Afghan women risk life and limb literally just to exist. The Sharp Edge of Peace is a gentle tribute to four women, but it made me want to burn things down.
Together with “Like An Unfinished Journey,” directed by Aeyliya Husain and Amie Williams, The Sharp Edge of Peace is also a Hot Docs film which sends a strong message to everyone else, specifically those who think “it can’t happen here.” Any person who isn’t concerned about the worldwide rightward shift and its effect on women’s rights should watch these Hot Docs films on Afghanistan women immediately.
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