Directed by Julia Meltzer and Laura Nix
Shot on the eve of the Syrian uprising, The Light in Her Eyes is a portrait of a remarkable woman, Houda al-Habash, a conservative Muslim preacher who 30 years ago founded one of the first religious schools for girls in Syria. It provides unique insight into the women's mosque movement, a piety movement that calls for greater freedom for women and encourages them to claim space within the mosque, a space historically dominated by men, while considering the changing roles of girls, women, and Islam in the Middle East.
Every summer, hundreds of girls and teenagers in Houda's mosque immerse themselves in a rigorous study of Islam, in addition to their secular schooling. They attend intensive Qur'an classes where they learn to memorize the holy book with perfect enunciation. At the end of the summer, the program ends with two joyful ceremonies: while the young girls who are old enough to wear the hijab, the Muslim headscarf, are veiled for the first time by Houda, the older students who have succeeded in memorizing the holy book in its entirety proudly graduate from the program.
Through lectures and one-on-one dialogue, Houda teaches a complex mix of progressive and conservative values. Challenging tradition, Houda insists education for women is a form of worship that can challenge extremism. It is not Islam that has deprived women, rather "Muslims themselves have deprived women of everything". While she encourages her students to pursue higher education, jobs, and public lives, she remains strongly committed to an interpretation of Islam which prioritizes women's roles as wives and mothers.
Houda represents the new face of women's leadership in Islam. Women like her are an indication that, if and when political freedom comes to places like Syria, the local definition of freedom will likely differ dramatically from its definition in the West.
Reviews
~ "A remarkable documentaryˇ The Light In Her Eyes provides an inside look into the Islamic revival from the women's perspective." - The Huffington Post
~ " A remarkable documentaryˇ A rare, and much needed, glimpse at the world through the eyes of modern Muslim women". - Foreign Policy in Focus
~ "The Light in Her Eyes is unique in that it is a documentary that allows for an unprecedented look into the rarely seen and seldom independently defined world of Muslim women. A must-see documentary that can open up an array of conversations on gender, politics and religion , and is also a film that introduces the viewer to the stories of real people, outside of the lens of judgment." - Islamic Horizons
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