>> Catalog 2025

Writing Hawa

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FRANCE, THE NETHERLANDS, QATAR, AFGHANISTAN / 2024 / Dari / Color / DCP / 85 min

Director, Script, Photography, Narration: Najiba Noori
Co-director, Photography: Rasul (Ali) Noori
Script, Editing: Afsaneh Salari
Producer: Christian Popp
Co-producers: Hasse van Nunen, Renko Douze
Appearances: Hawa Noori, Zahra Haidari, Fatima Noori, Musa Noori, Rasul (Ali) Noori, Mahdi Noori, Zaher Noori, Mohammad Ali Khaliqi, Mehran Khaligi, Kian Khaliqi
World Sales: First Hand Films, Esther van Messel

Hawa was forced into marriage at the age of thirteen and robbed of her precious youth, but she gave her own daughter a life with the freedom to study, love, and make choices of her own. Forty years later, her grown daughter documents and accompanies her mother’s path to self-reliance. Hawa learns to read and write, she collects Hazara embroideries and opens a small business. Her sphere of activity extends outward. But after she rescues her granddaughter from her abusive father, the Taliban seize power, and once again her will is silenced by violence disguised as tradition. She is separated from her daughter, who flees to France. A letter arrives, and Hawa reads it slowly. Knowledge cannot be taken away, and all people are free by nature. This story is not yet over. (NKY)

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[Director’s Statement] War, violence, lack of access to education, and forced marriages have plagued and victimised countless Afghan women for decades.

My mother’s dreams were stolen, and she spent years housekeeping and raising children, but she never lost her curiosity and motivation to learn and experience life. She has cried many times, longing for true, romantic love. However, Hawa is blessed with unconditional love with her children, and her sons’ genuine support for education, empowerment, and freedom.

This is the story of my mother and family in Afghanistan, where I have lived most of my life. Of the struggle for independence and freedom for oppressed women and the Hazara community. And of people who suffer from forced migration and separation from their home, country, culture, and family.

We see the turning point of Afghanistan’s history from a family window. The fall of Kabul and the arrival of the Taliban make all dreams of three generations of this family collapse: Zahra, Hawa and myself at a crossroads and starting our lives over.

My film also offers a rare insight into the life of a Hazara family under the Taliban. Hawa is a strong woman the audience will connect to and identify with, following her aspirations and struggles. Hope and sadness, major setbacks and little successes will create a truly emotional journey for the viewer.

This film shows Afghanistan before and after the arrival of the Taliban, when the country falls into the hands of a terrorist group erasing women from society and how the world turns a Blind Eye to what is happening.

With this film, I want to create awareness, impact and change.