ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the complex place of feminist discourses relating to ‘Afghan women’s emancipation’ within landscapes of displacement generated by conflict. In particular, it identifies a radically non-Western mode of cultural production – that of Iranian cinema directed by women – as offering sophisticated representations and negotiations of female agency that reveal the very different pressures and possibilities faced by displaced Afghan women from those imagined by the imperialist frameworks of the U.S. military and connected ‘humanitarian’ efforts. The complexity of displaced Afghan women’s quest for agency surfaces in this chapter’s exploration of two works by female Iranian directors: Samira Makmalbaf’s feature film At Five in the Afternoon (2002) and Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s documentary Sonita (2015). Through analysis of these films, the problematic alliance between Western feminist assumption and imperialist ideology falls into view – as does the absolute necessity of a creatively decolonial feminist approach to women’s forced migration.
