THE JUDGE
SINOSSI
La legge della Shari’a, un quadro giuridico spesso frainteso e difficilmente comprensibile per gli stessi Musulmani, viene raccontata attraverso gli occhi della prima donna a essere accreditata come giudice presso una corte religiosa in Medio Oriente. Quando era una giovane avvocata, Kholoud Al-Faqih entrò nell’ufficio del Presidente della Corte Suprema palestinese e dichiarò di volere diventare giudice, ottenendo dall’uomo una sonora risata. Pochi anni dopo, Kholoud è la prima donna giudice a operare in un tribunale della Shari’a. Il documentario, presentando il suo coraggioso percorso da avvocata e la lotta instancabile per una giustizia rispettosa delle donne, mostra i conflitti presenti nella vita familiare palestinese – la custodia dei figli, il divorzio, le violenze – e offre uno sguardo sulla vita delle donne sottoposte alla Shari’a.
“The Judge” provides a rare insight into Shari’a law, an often-misunderstood legal framework for Muslims, told through the eyes of the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East’s religious courts. An old Chief Justice remembers that, when she was only a young lawyer, Kholoud Al-Faqih walked into his office and announced one day she would have joined the bench. He laughed at her. But just a few years later, Kholoud was the first woman to become a judge in the Shari’a courts, despite the strong opposition from the most conservative judges. They declared that a man is a better judge than a woman, just because “a man can divide his mind from his heart,” and a woman can’t. And moreover, women “give birth, are pregnant, bleed”, so they are not able to do such a difficult job. In the process, the film illuminates some of the universal conflicts in the domestic life of Palestine—custody of children, divorce, abuse—while offering an unvarnished look at life for women under Shari’a law.
