Leiden University Student Repository

Haddoudi, Zineb (2022)

The Power of Feminist Documentaries and the Female Gaze: A Case Study on Palestinian Women

Master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (MA)

This research explores the relationship between the female gaze and feminist documentaries in the case of Palestine through three feature-length documentaries: The Judge by Erika Cohn, What Walaa Wants by Christy Garland, and Naila and the Uprising by Julia Bacha. This thesis argues that the films demonstrate a few common features of the agency of Palestinian women and emphasize the importance of various issues related to their lives under patriarchy. This thesis argues that through their female subjectivity, experiences, and use of feminist aesthetics, this thesis argues that the female filmmakers innovatively and creatively expose these issues and put their subjects’ struggles at the forefront, as feminist documentary practices are set to do. As such, through their female gaze, the findings demonstrate that the sample of female filmmakers’ works leads to the critical re-thinking of the representation of Palestinian women and the questioning of patriarchy in Palestine.

Feminist documentary

female gaze

Palestinian women

empowerment

Author

Haddoudi, Zineb

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Modern Middle East

Supervisors

Dr. N. Schonmann

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en