Films explore women's roles in Muslim life

Advertiser staff

A "Women in Islam" film series begins tomorrow at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa,Art Auditorium. Films being screened are:

"My Journey, My Islam" (55 minutes) (1999), 5 p.m., tomorrow: An intriguing look at what some Muslim women in the West ask themselves: What is Islam's relation to me and my relationship to it living in the West? Filmmaker Kay Rasool's personal quest to answer these questions introduces viewers to the lives of several Muslim women from India to Lebanon. A discussion on cultural and religious plurality, assimilation and dual identity follows the screening.

"A Thousand and One Voices: The Music of Islam" (90 minutes) (2001), 5 p.m., April 7: This personal essay goes to the heart of the mystical universe of Sufism, where Islam has developed its most sophisticated musical expression. The great diversity of musical forms which honor Allah in the Muslim faith are explored — ancestral rites in Egypt and Tunisia, richly ornate saints' days of India, spontaneous chanting of Senegalese women and cosmic dances by Turkey's famous whirling dervishes. A discussion on musical expression in Islamic cultures follows.

"The Perfumed Garden" (52 minutes) (2000). 5 p.m., April 14: A frank look into the complex taboos surrounding sexuality in Islamic societies. A discussion of Islamic gender relations follows.

Admission for each film: $5 general, $3 students.