The Judge

The Judge is a documentary film about Judge Kholoud Al-Faqih. Judge Al-Fagih was the first woman appointed to a Shari'a court in the Middle East. The movie was directed by Erika Cohn.

In Palestine, most courts are secular. The exception is family courts, which are religious courts under the rule of Shari'a, or Islamic law. Judge Al-Fagih is highly qualified to be a family court judge, but the cultural bias against women has held her back.

As the movie begins, we find out that Al-Fagih has been made a judge. The rest of the movie documents the ongoing struggles that she faces when her activity is opposed by a large number of people in her society.

My friend Michael, who is very knowledgable about the Middle East, has written this: I think the fact that the judge is Palestinian is relevant to mention. In other Muslim societies there aren't role models. The struggle of the Palestinians has had a positive (but still limited) impact on the role of women, plus the interaction with Israeli society has influenced how women see things.

We saw this movie on the large screen at Rochester's great Little Theatre. It was shown as part of The High Falls Women's Film Festival. It will work well on the small screen. FInd it and see it!

Why was this made? It could have been a great satire comedy piece but an informative, educated documentary it is not. A good laugh though...

There is so much I could say about this documentary! Where to start?

First, briefly, what it's about: It follows a Palestinian woman who insisted that women should be allowed to serve as judge on the Shari'a Court, the family court which deals with marriages, divorces, domestic disputes, etc. She went on to become one of the two first women to serve as judges on this court. And she goes on to mentor other women who serve in other legal roles.

One of the most amazing things about this documentary was the peek it provides into life in Palestine. We honestly rarely ever get to see how life proceeds there and to see people living their normal lives, and women challenging the patriarchal status quo amidst all the craziness happening in that region was eye-opening.

Second, Judge Kholoud Al-Faqih was a tour-de-force of inspiration. Wow, that woman has guts and conviction and courage and strength to soldier on despite all the obstacles. Her job is to uphold the Shari'a, and although many of us in the audience may not agree with the Shari'a, we see her trying to apply the law in the way that would be most helpful to the people. (As a side note, this would be enlightening for those people who think of "The Sharia Law" as a scary barbaric concept - this documentary gives a good depiction of what it actually covers. It has its questionable parts; it has its severely outdated parts, but much of it makes sense at least for the time when it was written. Why it's not up for amendment, well, that is an issue our protagonist and her fellow women in law struggle with.)

The last observation I will include is about the men. They are all over the board. There are some who are incredibly supportive, like Judge Kholoud's husband. There are some who genuinely want to see progressive change, like the Justice who appointed the women in the first place, but subsequently lost his job. There are the many male defendants at court against whom their wives bring cases (but of course given the nature of Judge Kholoud's work, she would be exposed to men like that). But then there are those men who make you angry, like the Islamic scholar who is staunchly against women serving in any legal capacity. What's worse is how strong and genuine his convictions are. He's not a slimy politician trying to demonize a group to win political favor. His opinions about women are completely genuine and that's what's so disturbing. The supportive men aren't necessarily paragons either. The former Justice for example, talked about his 4 wives in his interview and how he's grateful for that rule...it sounded like because he couldn't have found it in himself to be monogamous. Despite their shortcomings, at least there are people trying to bring about positive change.

But as with many issues, change is a slow process, and things often go backwards. There has only been one new female judge since Judge Kholoud and her colleague first started. But they all hold out hope that it will get better. But the patriarchy isn't the only battle they will be fighting. The uncertain status of their nation, the obstacles to natural economic development, etc. will surely be challenges the Palestinian women will have to contend with.