Dignity for All: Building a Culture of Human Rights
October 2008
Banner photo: © Carr Clifton
Paving a Way to Dignity
The SGI Quarterly spoke with Khadija Al-Salami, born in Sanaa, Yemen, the first female filmmaker and producer from that country. Her early years as a young woman fighting for her own independence in extreme circumstances are described in her autobiography, The Tears of Sheba (2003). She has produced several documentaries about women in Yemen including Amina (2006), A Stranger in Her Own City (2005), Yemen of a Thousand Faces (2000) and Women of Islam (1995). She is also the press and cultural counsellor for the Embassy of Yemen in Paris.
When I first read the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood," I thought it was quoting my own thoughts. I have always said, "Everybody was born free and has the right to live in freedom and live with human dignity." That is what I have been saying for so long. It inspired me to be what I am right now. In fact I cannot live without these things--if I didn't have my freedom or my dignity or my human rights.
In my films I allow women to tell their own stories. Women in Yemen have some difficulty in telling their own stories freely without being afraid of what people are going to say, or accuse them of. For me, making films allows women to express themselves without any fear. In our culture women are not used to being given a chance, and when I give them a chance, it is a shock for society, but then people get used to it. That is the only way to get rid of the bad habits.
I don't want people to see me as a female--I want to be seen as a human being. We are all born in the same way, and we both have the same mind, and men and women complement each other, and that is important, but it doesn't mean that he is better or that I am better. From what I learned as a child growing up in Yemen, Islam doesn't distinguish between females and males. The Qur'an addresses both sexes; it shows the equality already. A story from the Qur'an that they don't tell so often is that the Prophet's first wife was a businesswoman. The Prophet used to work for her, she was older than him, and she was a businesswoman. That is the biggest example for me; women had a role, with independence and dignity, and they were equal to men. From what I learned, Islam taught freedom and dignity for everyone and that everyone is equal.
But there have indeed been times in my own life when I felt that my dignity was not being respected at all. When I was 11 years old, I was forced into an early marriage, but I did not accept the oppression and I am glad that I did not, because I am really happy in my life right now. Otherwise I would not be able to travel, and instead I would be a grandmother already.
Changing Perceptions
However, after this long experience, I now feel that I am truly respected. At first I wanted to show that I was different, but people could not understand me, because I was a girl, and a woman. Even my own family could not understand why I wanted to do these things. But later on when I attended school and I did what I felt was respectworthy for myself, I started to gain their respect and their admiration.
Khadija filming in Yemen
I feel great now because I can see that there are changes: people now look at me with a look as if to say, "You are different," but at the same time I am also successful. Men were the ones who really opposed me, but now women from our family and other families wish their daughters to follow the same path that I did. It was very hard, but in the end you reach your goal, and that is important. My goal is to be free, to be respectworthy, to be dignified.
I look for the basic things. We are all born free, we all have choices in our lives. I asked for basic needs and I got them. But in my culture it was not easy at that time; I had to fight for them. I used to be the bad example, now I am the good example.
I receive a lot of e-mails these days from Yemeni girls, saying, "You are our example, and when we grow up, we want to be like you," and that makes me happy. I would never have imagined that one day I would be the example. I just wanted to live my own life and have my own choice. But it's great that I became an example for these girls.
Headmistress Hiam Radman, aged 26, at Kwod Al-Othman School in a slum area of Aden, Yemen
[Abbie Trayler-Smith/Panos Pictures]
I believe education plays a vital role. Until 1962 there weren't even schools for women in the northern part of Yemen. Then we had the revolution, and schools were built by the government. Girls and boys were both encouraged to go, but unfortunately the families were afraid to send their daughters to school. For them it was a new experience and it was bad. My grandmother told me that school is dangerous. I asked her, "Why is it dangerous?" And she answered, "Because if you learn to write and read, you will start writing love letters." People were ignorant, they did not know any better, but now you will see that most of the girls are in schools. The more girls are educated, the more they know their rights, and how to protect themselves and how to defend themselves and also how they can live and be useful to society, themselves and their families.
If I could do one thing to change the world and make human rights a reality, I would establish a firm law that education is an absolute obligation, because through education we can make better people. I would also really apply it strictly. States that didn't apply it would be punished. They always apply punishments to the countries that make weapons of mass destruction, but ignorance also breeds a lot of destructive behavior.
