virgin media

Description

Full Cover Girl 9pm, Tuesday 3rd July 2012 PBS Sky 166 Virgin Media 243 Award-winning film-maker Folke Rydén's documentary looks at the establishment of the new Iraqi parliament after the 2003 invasion and the clash between two very different women whose views could not be further apart. The film asks disturbing questions about the very nature of democracy and human rights. Determined to protect women's rights in the new Iraq, American administrators pushed for a mandate that guaranteed women one third of the seats in parliament. What they had not foreseen was the election of members such as Jenan al-Ubaedy of the United Iraqi Alliance. A devout Shia Muslim, fully covered in black, al- Ubaedy's stated objective was to implement Sharia law, with all its implications for women's rights, including polygamy and wife beatings. A majority of the 87 women who won seats in parliament shared her views, but they were by no means unopposed. Abir al-Sahlani (pictured left) spent years in exile before returning to Iraq to set up a secular political party. A prominent human rights campaigner, al-Sahlani hates the veil and everything it represents. Her campaign in Iraq, however, proved unsuccessful. Since the making of this film she has returned to Sweden, where she now sits as an MP. Filmed over four years, the programme confronts some fundamental issues. If democracy can be used to protect some rights, such as free speech, can it also be used to restrict other rights for certain groups? Should a democracy curbing some rights for women be encouraged? Jenan's answer is a definite yes.