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By Tamreez, May 12, 2012 10:17 am

Earlier last month Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, admitted that she’s been leaving work at 5:30pm to be able to have dinner with her kids. While she’s been doing this for many years, it is only in the last two years that she felt comfortable about admitting it publicly.

The fact that this admission made headlines brings to light the huge hidden costs and informal penalties associated with choosing flexible hours, even if they are on your company’s official books. Sandberg was widely lauded for making this public admission, but it must be noted that she only did so at a stage in her career where she may be considered ‘unpenalisable’.

Sandberg has made it her mission to support women. She frequently gives speeches about promoting female leaders and what women must do to take responsibility for their own careers.

In her iconic speech at TEDWomen in 2010 titled ‘Why we have too few women leaders’, viewed over 1.3 million times, she suggests three things that women must do to make it to the top. First, they must ‘sit at the table’ in the literal but also the figurative sense: Very often women stay on the sidelines and are not as proactive in seeking opportunities or negotiating their careers as their male counterparts. Next she asks women to choose partners in life who will support them in not only their career choices but will also split housework and childcare responsibilities. And finally, Sandberg argues that women stop playing the game way too early, sometimes when they’re even just trying for a baby. They need to keep their ‘foot on the gas pedal’ until it is truly and finally time to leave.

In this talk, while she admits there are institutional and external barriers that women face, she only wants to focus on what women can do themselves. This has been Sandberg’s unwavering stance at other forums as well and is summed up well in what she said in her Commencement Speech at Barnard College last year,

Don’t let your fears overwhelm your desire. Let the barriers you face—and there will be barriers—be external, not internal.

As such, Sandberg proposes what some have called “a private solution to a public problem”. Her efforts seem to be targeted to a certain elite group, or dare I say class, of women.

Sandberg’s uplifting and inspiring speeches have touched the hearts of many women. She herself is a living testament to the merits of her advice: If you’re determined, ambitious and don’t give up, you can make it to the top.

However, we have to acknowledge that other factors of a woman’s circumstances also come into play than just her attitude. Women from disadvantaged backgrounds, working low-income jobs, or from ethnic minorities are given less chances and opportunities in life. Or stated in the language of Sandberg’s TED talk; they are never presented with a table to sit at; they have less choice in the matter of choosing a partner who will enter into 50-50 household and childcare responsibilities (or like Sandberg, be able to afford a full-time nanny); and less choice of when, or even if, to leave their jobs.

Given women’s differing circumstances, a change in attitude or behaviour can be quite inspirational for some women, but it may not be enough for others. It only addresses one side of the problem by not taking into account systemic reasons and structural causes for women’s career struggles.

Factors such as legally instituted paid maternity and family leave, childcare support, provisions for breastfeeding at the workplace and health insurance cover are vitally important to support women, especially mothers, in their careers.

By not addressing these external factors, Sandberg puts the onus of responsibility on the women themselves. Women can continue to play the game as hard as they can, but they won’t be able to overcome what Sandberg calls a ‘stalled revolution’ until the playing field is levelled.

Structural and institutional factors determine the ‘choices’ women can make in their lives. For example, take the issue of maternity or family leave. The United States is one of the few developed countries where workers are not guaranteed paid family leave, according to a recent report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) titled “Failing its families: Lack of paid leave and work-family supports in the US”. HRW noted,

“Having scarce or no paid leave contributed to delaying babies’ immunisations, postpartum depression and other health problems, and caused mothers to give up breastfeeding early. Many who took unpaid leave went into debt and some were forced to seek public assistance. Some women said employer bias against working mothers derailed their careers”.

In admitting that there is no such thing as a work-life balance for working mothers, Sandberg famously said that she used to pump breast milk while on conference calls at Google. While this admission shows that things are not easy when you’re juggling a high-powered career with family life, the fact that she was able to do so was a privilege and not a legally guaranteed right that other women in her country could also take advantage of.

Compare this to a low-income worker in the US who was interviewed by the Human Rights Watch in relation to their above-mentioned report. This woman was denied a place to pump breast milk for her baby when she returned to work after a six-week unpaid maternity leave. She had been mistreated by her employer during her pregnancy, did not have any health insurance and was later even denied time off for medical appointments for her sick baby. It is no surprise then that she suffered from acute postpartum depression. Would it have made a difference in her circumstances if this woman had taken on Sandberg’s 3-pronged career advice?

Sandberg is right about the fact that individual attitudes and choices are vitally important to help women succeed in their careers. Unfortunately they are not enough. These must be accompanied by societal changes, policies and laws that support women in the workplace, especially those who are less privileged.

Sheryl Sandberg has inspired countless women to seek ‘real equality in the workforce’. Frequently listed as one of the most powerful women in the world, Sandberg has the massive success and public leverage combined with her charming personality to achieve incredible advancements for women.

If she truly wants to see women leaders at the top, she must concern herself with women who are at the bottom.

–

This article was first published in the Express Tribune on 12 May 2012. You can find it here.

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By Tamreez, April 19, 2012 10:17 am

On her show aired yesterday on CNN, Christiane Amanpour suddenly stopped in the midddle of posing hard hitting questions to the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, and informed her that her scarf had slipped off.

Yes, you heard me right: sandwiched in between questions about Osama Bin Laden and Pakistan’s relations with India, Amanpour found it perfectly natural to make this interjection.

Here is the relevant section from the transcript of that interview:

AMANPOUR: I just want to let you know that your scarf has slipped off your head. If you — if you care, you can put it back on right now. Otherwise, I can continue.

KHAR: Sure. Please continue.

AMANPOUR: OK. Perfect.

I was so shocked and enraged at this inappropriate and impertinent interruption that I found it hard to focus on the interview from then on. I have to wonder as to what was going on in Amanpour’s head when she said this.

- Did she think the Foreign Minister was sinning and perhaps she wanted to set a believer straight?

- Was she just being courteous to her guest, along the lines of “hey chica, just to let you know you’re flashing some cleavage there. Better fix it!”.

- Or was she scared for her guest’s life thinking some mullah in Pakistan will kill Khar for *gasp* showing off her hair?

You expect more awareness from a seasoned journalist like Amanpour. Or perhaps she was trying to be a bit too culturally aware. But anyone who has seen any pictures of Hina Rabbani Khar knows that she wears her scarf symbolically as part of her political persona (I don’t have any issues with that). Sometimes it does slip off and she fixes it without being too bothered by it. No one has ever thought it was such an issue before. And even if it weren’t symbolic and it, horror of horrors, briefly slipped off- why make such a fuss about it?

Would Amanpour have stopped the Ugandan President (who was the guest before Khar) to inform him if, let’s say, his spectacles had slipped off his nose? “Mr. President, I want to let you know that your glasses have slipped off your nose. If you care, you can put them back on right now. Otherwise, I can continue.”

President: Of course Christiane! Thank you for letting me know. How else could I  have answered such important questions about foreign policy if my glasses had not been securely fixed to my nose!

I have to give it to Hina Rabbani Khar though. For the briefest second she seemed confused or amused by this interruption, but after fixing her scarf, she continued to answer questions with a lot of poise and presence of mind.

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By Tamreez, April 17, 2012 9:35 pm

Eat Pray Love is one of those books I’d been wanting to read for a while but just hadn’t got around to. A few days back I saw it on a friend’s bookshelf and asked if I could borrow it. It’s been a great read. It’s a woman’s journey of self discovery: to find happiness, pleasure and love in her life. Or as the book’s subtitle reads: ‘One Woman’s Search for Everything’.

Liz Gilbert seemingly has everything anyone could ask for: she is a successful writer, is married, has a beautiful house and great family and friends. But at age 31, she finds herself broke- financially and emotionally.  After a long-winded divorce and simultaneous love affair that ends in disaster, she’s left horribly heartbroken and depressed. To pick up the pieces of her life she decides to just leave everything behind and travel for a year to the three ‘I’s: Italy, India and Indonesia and spend four months in each of the places.

She travels to Italy because she has always wanted to learn the Italian language, not for any other reason but that she finds it beautiful. Her journey in Italy was my favourite part of the book. It is dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure, which in her case is in the form of lounging around in the sun near beautiful fountains and gardens, exploring the different cities in Italy at a leisurely pace (but mainly Rome where she is based), making friends, learning and practising Italian with new friends and strangers; and most importantly eating massive quantities of amazing food: fresh pasta and pizza, farm fresh vegetables, fish and meats and amazing gelato and pastries. She would just go to a restaurant based on recommendations and without even looking at the menu and ask the proprietor to bring her something great to eat and most of the time, she would be blown away by what was laid in front of her. Reading about her experience, I just wanted to visit Italy again and experience everything the way she did.

She had been introduced to a spiritual healer through her ex-boyfriend and had started meditation which brought her solace. So she decides to go to the Ashram of her guru in India and devote 4 months to spiritually cleanse her life. That part of the book was not an easy read and its not meant to be either I guess. She talks about her spiritual experiences, beliefs of the Yogic practice and her struggles with certain practices which were a reflection of her own ego or inner state. Having lately been struggling spiritually, I realize the importance of spirituality in one’s life to fill an internal void. I wish the book had inspired me enough to whip a prayer mat and start my own prayer/meditation, but unfortunately as I could hardly relate to some of her almost out-of-body experiences, this wasn’t the case. I agree that in such cases, having guidance and someone to talk to really helps.

Her last stop was in Bali, Indonesia where she had been a few years ago and had found the place the most beautiful she’d ever been to. She figures that after her indulgences in Italy and her abstinence in India, she will use her time in Bali to find balance in her life in beautiful surroundings. As the names alludes to, there she not only finds happiness but also love.

The book is a great read and thoroughly entertaining even if it is essentially one woman’s self- obsessed ruminations. But that’s where the writer is so gifted: she sustains your interest through her journey of self-discovery for nearly 350 pages. Parts of the book are witty, parts are heartbreaking but most of it is so beautifully written. Her honesty about her failings and her ability to analyze her own life and come out on the other side victorious is absolutely inspiring. She makes you want to throw caution to the wind, pack your bags and leave on your own journey to places where you’ve always wanted to go to and do the things you’ve been storing in the recesses of your mind.

ps. Next stop: I have to watch the film!

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By Tamreez, April 11, 2012 9:52 am

We’ve come to Germany (Munich to be specific) for a month. Asim has a work project here and so Elhaan and I have tagged along. I was pretty excited as it gave us the chance to ‘live’ in another country as opposed to ‘visit’, but without making too much of a commitment.

We drove here from England through France. Although we were there only for a night, I was excited about the chance to ‘use’ some of my French. Even if it just amounted to ordering lunch at a creperie or asking for directions. The creperie, a cute little place called La Petite Hermine, was in a small town near the German border called Soufflenheim. The staff was super friendly, perhaps because I was making such an effort with my baby French. Buerre d’escargot on the menu sounded interesting but I couldn’t be sure what sort of butter this was. The waitress kindly drew a SNAIL on her notepad for me!

That’s for French but learning German is another matter altogether. The language seems really intimidating at first impression. Asim bought a phrasebook and it almost gave me chestpain skimming through it. The words seemed so bulky and so harsh sounding (almost like Pashto!). But just by looking at signs and labels (EVERYTHING is in German), you do begin to pick up a few things. The thing I’ve noticed about German is that while written down, it seems very different from English, when you actually say the word its a lot closer to its English counterpart. As opposed to French where the written word is sometimes almost the same as it’s English counterpart, but it’s pronounced very differently. So for example, “Das Wetter ist gut” is “The weather is good” which when said out loud is even closer to English than it is when written.

I still haven’t come to my impressions of Munich because to be honest, I don’t know what to make of the city yet. It’s interesting and beautiful, relaxed and rushed. But I feel like I don’t have my finger on it. You can’t really give a review in the middle of a movie, can you?

Glockenspiel at the Marienplatz

So I’ll share a few very random observations. I love the city centre (the area near Marienplatz) where I can spend hours just randomly walking through the streets and outdoor market and the many cafes.  I love the cafe culture here. Unlike England, where it’s very difficult to find a cafe open after 6pm, here the cafes are open almost as late as restaurants and bars. Oh and also the gelaterias serving the italian gelato. There seems to be a lot of Italian influence on the food culture here.

Sometimes it seems there are more dogs than kids on the streets. Every second person on the street has a dog with them. To the extent that you’ll even see them in restaurants or cafes which we’re not used to at all coming from England. I will not say Pakistan, because there dogs are a totally different matter. Considered unhygeinic and ‘polluting’, people would have a mini heartattack seeing one at a restaurant.

Having the lowest birthrate in all of Europe, German people seem to have an extreme reaction to babies. Mostly they’ll dote and fawn over them and random strangers will smile at you if you’re accompanied by a baby. I thought people were very smiley, but our friends who lived here pointed out that it’s just because of Elhaan. Normally strangers won’t make so much eye contact or smile at you. Some have even stopped to comfort Elhaan on the bus or even on the street if he’s crying a lot. But then there are others who find it annoying when a baby is crying on the bus. We dragged Elhaan to a cafe past his bedtime one night and he was super cranky and loud. One old guy literally shoved his fingers in his ears and kept on grumbling in German glaring at us until we actually rushed out of the cafe! But I would like to believe that’s the exception rather than the rule.

On the topic of babies and dogs, they almost seem interchangeable though. I was pointing out someone’s dog to Elhaan (hoping to instil a love of animals in him), when the person stopped and said ‘Oh this is great. I wanted to look at your baby. So now you can look at my dog and I can look at your baby!’. I burst out laughing thinking how someone in Pakistan would respond if their baby was just equated with a dog.

A word on travelling with a baby. It is NOT easy. At least this baby of mine will protest and scream and get his annoyance conveyed to you in the loudest possible manner if his naptimes are sacrificed for sightseenig or if he’s pushed way past his bedtime. Also it was a big mistake to leave his comfy pushchair behind with the sunshade and footmuff and instead bring the lighter ‘travel-friendly’ stroller. It is impossible for him to fall asleep in it and when it’s cold, he is miserable and crying to get out of the stroller.

This is not what Salzburg looked like on the day we visited. Make it grey and snowy and you have a more accurate picture.

We went to Salzburg and Vienna over the weekend, and the whole time Elhaan was miserable with a runny nose. Just our luck it had snowed that very day and it was frrrreeezing. The only time he was happy was when we let him push his own pushchair and walked at a snail’s pace through Vienna’s city centre or at the Belvedere Palace. The Palace is beutiful and majestic without being imposing or intimidating. Asim put his finger on it when he said the architecture and the landscaping has a calming effect on you rather than leaving you awestruck. This is where a lot of Klimt’s paintings are hosted, but we didn’t have the time to actually go inside or visit any museums. My homage to Klimt is in the form of a beautiful umbrella I bought from Salzburg with his artwork on it.

Both the cities are amazing though. Salzburg, Mozart’s hometown, has a beautiful mix of architectural traditions and I’m sure it’s gardens and streets would be breathtaking on a less snowy and grey day than the one on which we visited.

Belvedere Palace in Vienna

Vienna is just grand and beautiful and has so much character. I wish next time we get a chance to relax and enjoy it rather than just rushing and stressing with a cranky baby. Vienna is world famous for it’s coffeehouses. But for us trying out the coffee and sacher torte seemed more of a tick on a to-do list than a pleasurable activity.

Some day we’ll go again and laugh about how bad our last trip had been to this beautiful city.

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By Tamreez, March 20, 2012 10:31 pm

I just finished reading ‘The Sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes which is last year’s Man Booker Prize winner. Don’t remember the last time I read a book which was such a page turner or went so fast. ‘Readability’ may not be such a bad criteria for judging books after all!

Last year’s Man Booker Prize raised a lot of controversy when the judges selected ‘readability’ as their main criterion. One of the reasons for this was in the past a lot of the books that had won the award had been bought by people, but not many had been able to finish them. In other words, they were literary masterpieces and critically acclaimed, but not very ‘readable’. Even I had been critical of this criterion sharing concerns that it shouldn’t be the overriding principle. But now I thank the judges. As a mother with a young baby, it was fun to be able to finish a book in two days.

The Sense of an Ending is a simple story of an old man who is looking back on his life. The narrative is light but at the same time has some very beautiful and thought provoking insights into time and memory and how we think of our lives. The protagonist is an ‘average’ guy but now in old age discovers some extraordinary truths about his life and the impact it has had on those who were once close to him. The novel almost becomes a suspense thriller as you try to discover what really happened.

While being a simple narrative, the book still leaves a lot open to individual interpretation of events and characters and I found that interesting. It didn’t spell everything out for you and didn’t end in a predictive way. In fact the end almost left you feeling a bit disappointed. You wanted more of the story. The book itself just gives you ‘the sense of an ending’ without really telling you what the end is.

An interesting quick read. I highly recommend it.

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By Tamreez, February 7, 2012 12:54 pm

I just came across this talk by Matt Cutts where he suggests taking on a 30 Day Challenge. Try something new or take on something you’ve been putting off for a while. I agree with Cutts that 30 days is just the right chunk of time. Not so long that you get intimidated and not so little that the new habit or action would be meaningless.

In my case, I’ve been feeling a bit lost and spiritually disconnected lately. As a Muslim, my prime source of ‘guidance’ should be the Quran but I never find time to read it. While praying I go through the motions and find my mind drifting, making mental to-do lists . More than ever before I find myself asking what’s the purpose of life: what gives meaning to my life. Life seems monotonous and mundane and the only way we all try to escape it is by keeping ourselves busy. And I’ve been keeping myself busy with the most frivolous and inconsequential things. At the end of the day, I still feel restless and dissatisfied.

So I’ve decided to take on my 30 Day Challenge to read the Quran and other sources of inspiration to find some answers to these questions. A quest for inner peace you could call it (Kung Fu Panda style).

Some other 30 Day Challenges I would like to take on (after this one) would be:

- photoblogging

- call a different friend every day (I hate making phonecalls and so don’t stay as connected with friends as I’d like to)

- exercise

What 30 Day Challenge would you like to take on?

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By Asim, January 2, 2012 7:51 pm

Ay naye saal bata, tujh main naya pan kiya hai?
Har taraf khalq nay Q shorr macha rakha hai

Roshni din ki wohi taaron bharee raat wohi
Aaj hum ko nazar aati hai har baat wohi

Aasmaan badla hai afsos na badli hay zameen
Ek hindsay ka badalna koi jiddat tou nahi

Aglay barson ki tarha hongay qarenay teray
Kisay maaloom nahi baran mahinay teray

January, February aur March main paray sardi
Aur April, May, June main hogi garmee

Tera munn dahar main kuch khoye ga kuch paye ga
Apni miyaad basar karkay chala jaye ga

Tu naya hai tou dikha subha nayee shaam nayee
Warna in aankhon nay dekhay hain naye saal kayee

Bay sabab detay hain Q loge mubarakbaadain
Gaalibann bhool gaye waqt ki karwii yaadain

Teri aamud sey ghatti umar, jahan sey sab ki
Ay naye saal bata tujh main naya pan kya ha?

-Ahmed Faraz

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By Asim, December 31, 2011 8:11 pm

I joined Tamreez and Elhaan this week and it’s great to see them again. Elhaan seems to have been influenced by Pakistani politicians and greeted me with estranged looks, perhaps complaining about my unannounced disappearance from his life for over a month and a half. He has decided to change parties. He who would only sleep in my arms now refuses to even let me hold him when he is sleepy. I am sure I will lure him back into my party soon.

Changing parties is the order of the day in Pakistani politics at the moment, as Imran Khan’s PTI has undoubtedly registered itself as the third big force in the political arena. It is yet to be seen if it is for the good.

In the UK, the Lib Dem vote bank in the last elections was mainly boosted by those who resented the two main parties. Likewise, Imran’s PTI is banking a lot on those voters who are fed up of the PPP/PML(N) led governments in the past.

Lib Dems also came up quite strong in the pre election polls yet could not translate that into tangible success. The momentum was still enough to give them a stake in the coalition government. Since then, the amount of U turns and compromises they have done, has completely shattered any hopes for them to do well in the next elections. I know there is a big difference in the two parties but still I hope PTI does not end up in the same boat if they do well.

The basic day to day issues like inflation, shortages of gas and electricity and the deteriorating condition of transport and infrastructure etc. are what people want resolved. A conversation with my driver who cannot read or write but yet carries a good insight into politics, sums up how a general voter thinks about politics. He has decided to vote for PTI in the next elections. When asked what convinced him to vote in favour of Imran Khan’s PTI, he said, “All my life I have seen others rule. They have been given more than one chance and they looted and destroyed my country. Imran Khan has a clean track record up till now and I can only hope that he is different from others. Worse comes to worst he’ll also do what his predecessors did. At least he deserves a chance”.

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By Tamreez, December 22, 2011 7:58 am

When I’m asked if I’m enjoying motherhood, I have to struggle very hard not to say “no”. I shudder to think what the other person would make of me if I point-blank said “No, I don’t enjoy it”. And then I think God might punish me for being ungrateful and not valuing his “gift” and then I don’t even want to finish that thought. So instead I say something diplomatic. “Haha, yes but it can be challenging”. “Yes, he’s quite a handful”. “I enjoy it but I also get very tired”. “I love Elhaan, but sometimes I just want a break”.

Underlying all of that is guilt and blame. Guilt that I am not living up to the ideal of motherhood. That I should enjoy every frikkin moment with my child. And blame: I must be a bad mother if my child is fussy while eating, I must be a bad mother if my child doesn’t sleep through the night, I must be a bad mother if he’s clingy, I must be a bad mother if he cries.

In my mind, there is a model of a perfect mother and a perfect child and any time I or Elhaan don’t live up to that, I begin questioning my own parenting or  ”motherhood”. My sisters tell me that watching me with Elhaan they’ve realized how difficult it is to raise a child and they are scared of having kids. I took that to mean that I must be a very bad role model as a mother. I should have made it seem effortless and fun.

And today I thought: My mother always blamed herself for any of our failings, for our rebelliousness or any time we disappointed her or our father. And I always told her that we were all individuals with separate personalities and free wills and our every decision, choice, mistake or failing was not a reflection on her as a mother. She shouldn’t be so hard on herself. She did the best job she knew how to do.

But here I am saying the exact same things she always said. And blaming myself for my 9 month old! He hasn’t even begun to make mistakes and he has no failings. And still I blame myself. He is innocent and friendly and happy. He likes people and he babbles and crawls. He wants to play all day and has too much energy for his own good. He is demanding because he is smart for his age. Yes he can be cranky and he doesn’t sleep through the night. Changing his nappies while he wants to crawl away can be quite a herculean task. Food is something to be played with rather than eaten. And waking up every hour or two through the night takes all my patience and makes me think of two words all the time: sleep training.

But you know what, I’m trying my best.

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By Asim, December 19, 2011 1:44 am

Emel and Oxfam organised the screening of ‘Miral’ last Thursday in London and I am glad I attended it. Director, Julian Schnabel stirred controversy with this daring film, based on a biographical novel by Rula Jebreal. I was shocked to hear in the introduction, that earlier this year on April 4th, a few days after the film was released in US, Juliano Merr-Khamis, an actor and peace activist who played a role in the film, was murdered outside his own theatre in a Palestinian refugee camp.

I grew up hearing the horror stories of Palestine. It is one of the biggest humanitarian disasters of our time. The so-called “civilised” world knowingly has put a blind eye towards the unjustified atrocities committed by the Jewish state since it’s creation. In retaliation the other side also uses all means possible to inflict pain to their enemy. The fact is that human beings are suffering on both sides.

It’s very rarely that we get to see a glimpse of the lives of ordinary Palestinians. Miral is a daring endeavour to voice the human side of this conflict. It tells a story spanning 60 years, of 4 Palestinian women living under the conflict.

The first account is of Hind Husseini and her brave effort to establish an orphanage in Jerusalem after the Deir Yassin Massacre in 1948. Hind was an influential lady of Palestine, who one day finds 55 children on a street, orphaned by the massacre, and takes them home to give them food and shelter. Soon the number reaches over 2000, giving birth to an institute she names Dar Al-Tifel. The striking thing about her is her patience in the worst of situations. She knows there is very little she can do other than using her influence to shield these children from the wrath of the occupiers. Hind believes that education is the only way towards peace.

The story continues with the account of a female fighter, Fatima, who is serving 3 charges of lifetime after a bomb attack and the circumstances that led her to commit that act. In parallel, it shows the disturbed life of Nadia, Miral’s mother. In 1978, the 5 year old Miral (played by Freida Pinto) is brought to Hind’s Institute by her father following her mother’s suicide. Hind protects her too from the world outside the walls of Dar Al-Tifel. One day the girls are assigned to teach at a refugee camp when in an Army raid a local family is dragged out of their house and the house bulldozed to rubble. The rebel in Miral suddenly wakes up to the troubles surrounding Palestinian people.

She later falls in a romantic relationship with a character named Hani, who is a Palestinian political activist. Miral struggles to choose between her desire to join the cause of her people and Hind’s path of academia, keeping away from hostility. She gets involved briefly with the political activities but eventually decides to take on the route Hind paved for her. The film ends with her taking up a scholarship in Italy later becoming a journalist helping her people. Her courage throughout this struggle must be commended. Rula is that journalist who eventually wrote her biographical story under the name of Miral.

I don’t think the aim of the film was to highlight the conflict as a whole, but rather it focussed on highlighting a unique side to the lives of ordinary local women: from Hind’s patience, love and determination to Miral’s struggle from an early age and her dilemma to decide her path in life.

The film has still received a lot of criticism from the Jewish circles as it seems to put them is a negative light. Julian Schnabel however believes that “the film is about preserving the state of Israel, not hurting it. Understanding is part of Jewish way, and Jewish people are supposed to be good listeners. But if we don’t listen to the other side, we can never have peace”. He said this at a rare screening of the film at the United Nations.

I must say it is an honest and brave attempt by the Israeli Director.