Why Swiss-Egyptian filmmaker Nadia Fares is challenging the popular notions of patriarchy in the East and West

Even in her first feature film, the critically acclaimed Honey and Ashes (1996), Nadia Fares achieved a ground-breaking depiction of contemporary Arabic women.

Almost three decades later she continues to delve into this unfathomable and complex realm with Big Little Women which was filmed over four years.

It includes stories by "the Simone de Beauvoir of the Arab World", the widely recognised feminist writer, activist, and physician Nawal El Saadawi, most famous for her public critique of the practice of female genital mutilation in Egypt, together with first-hand narratives by younger girls whose rebellion is expressed in free bike riding and Uber driving – activities which can be still criticised in Egypt when undertaken by women.

"Women in the West are officially recognised as equal to men but the fine-drawn inequalities persist. The official narrative in the West is that it opposes patriarchy, hence it is more difficult to fight it because it remains hidden – domestic violence, for example, shows that the issue has not been solved at all"

“Nawal El Saadawi has always been a great inspiration for me and I would have not made the film without her," Nadia tells The New Arab. 

"She is the core of the story because she went through all the revolutions, presidencies, and crucial changes in society. Indeed, we get to learn about the history of Egypt through her eyes as well as the knowledge she shares on screen of how women have been affected by political and social turbulence throughout these years," she adds.

"On the other hand, the girls who represent the young generation of Egyptian women that Nadia cast first brought her camera to poor neighbourhoods and showed her different realities. I wanted both sides to create an ensemble where they complement each other.” 

Meanwhile, Nadia also weaves in her personal story as a woman from a mixed background whose Swiss mother was put under pressure by her family and society around her to marry an Egyptian man.

The culmination of this overall intolerance came when Nadia’s Swiss grandfather orchestrated the deportation of her beloved “Baba” and the family was eventually torn apart under the influence of a patriarchy, deeply grounded in the Swiss society.

“In the beginning, I wasn’t planning to put myself in the film, rather I was thinking of including someone from my generation from Egypt," Nadia reveals.

"But the main idea I wanted to develop was that patriarchy has no frontiers, no limits. In that sense, it was necessary to bring in my personal story as an intimate example of how Swiss patriarchy decided the destiny of our family, my mum’s and mine. This way I could reflect both cultures which is very important, so we could avoid stereotypes,” she explains.

Nadia didn’t want to make just another film about Egyptian women who are oppressed so she used interviews with her Swiss grandmother and the Super 8 images of her mum and dad in order to make the link between the Orient and the Occident, between Egypt and Switzerland.

She also felt that this approach was fair to the other women in the film who were courageous enough to reveal their stories.

Big Little Women actually implies that the Occident can be more patriarchal than the Orient by mentioning a striking fact – voting for women in Egypt was allowed in 1956, while in Switzerland it only happened in 1971.

“I think it has to do with who is in power. The then-president of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser commenced social and political improvement regarding women's equality, his politics was concerned with female rights. Meanwhile, patriarchy in Switzerland was very subtle," Nadia explains.

"Women in the 1950s and 1960s were still treated as housewives who should take care of domestic issues, and the kids, and should not mingle with politics. Men were deciding everything and there was no point in women taking part in the field of politics. Getting over this preconception took a long time. While in Egypt women fought very early to obtain those rights. The process started before Nasser came into power and the battle was tough. In Switzerland, it came easier but slowly – it has to do with culture and mentality.”

Nadia also emphasises the different approaches to fighting for female rights in the Occident and the Orient. “East and West don’t match in that sense because women are perceived in different ways. Women in the West are officially recognised as equal to men but the fine-drawn inequalities persist. The official narrative in the West is that it opposes patriarchy, hence it is more difficult to fight it because it remains hidden – domestic violence, for example, shows that the issue has not been solved at all."

Nadia continues, "In Egypt, it’s about the way society behaves – it’s a strict patriarchal society in which men may not shake hands with women – as I show at the funeral of my father. The disregard is out in the open and so that makes more approaches in the ways of resistance possible; motivation to create communities that work in this direction comes more easily.

"Egyptian women were always very strong but there is a perception in the West that they are inevitably oppressed. I wanted to show in my film that the Western image of them does not always correspond to reality.”

As for the place of women in the film industry, Nadia still feels that the higher the budget, the less a woman may be taken seriously and that this is valid for both East and West.

"Although I might be the director, it also still happens that men in the team would prefer to talk to my male cinematographer. That’s why I try to have a gender balance when I form a film crew. When I was the head of the American Film School in Abu Dhabi, there were men who would come to my office, would address my male assistant with ‘Hey, Boss!’ and would sit in front of his desk. Naturally, I had to tell them: ‘The Boss is here.’

"The power is still very much reserved for men but women have good stories to tell. And good stories always prevail, so it’s better to keep a focus on that, not on what we don’t have or what we don’t get.”

Despite the ongoing prejudices towards women in the film industry, Nadia Fares seems to be more active than ever. As she anecdotally notes, while having two legs, she lives on three continents – Africa (Egypt), Europe (Switzerland), and North America (USA) – and is currently developing projects in each of them, gladly sharing details of the Egyptian ones.

“In Cairo, I’m working with two Egyptian writers to create a script with the working title By Mistake, a social comedy. We’re now finishing the treatment and are still looking for money to finance script development and production," Nadia says.

"The other Egyptian project is a historical TV series, already written, which we would like to propose to streamers but we are still figuring out the architecture of the financing between Egypt, the USA, and Germany. So far, I’ve received very good support in Egypt for it."

Mariana Hristova is a freelance film critic, cultural journalist, and programmer. She contributes to national and international outlets and has curated programs for Filmoteca De Catalunya, Arxiu Xcèntric, goEast Wiesbaden, etc. Her professional interests include cinema from the European peripheries and archival and amateur films