The Judge
Directed by Erika Cohn
Friday, March 30 - 3:15p
Saturday, March 31 - 1:50p
When she was a young lawyer, Kholoud Al-Faqih walked into the office of Palestine's Chief Justice and announced that she wanted to join the bench. He laughed. But just a few years later, in a land where women rarely ascend to the ranks of governance, Al-Faqih became the first woman judge appointed to any of the Middle East's Shari'a courts. The Shari'a courts of Islam and the Rabbinical courts of Judaism adjudicate domestic and family matters within their respective religious communities in the Middle East; these courts have traditionally banned women from decision-making roles.
A true verité courtroom drama, the film allows us to witness the resistance that Judge Kholoud Al-Faqih and her male counterpart, a progressive sheik, face daily. Revealing the kinds of misinterpretations of Shari'a law that Judge Al-Faqih now has the power to correct, the film highlights the obstacles many women face trying to achieve justice within the courts of the West Bank.
Erika Cohn met Kholoud Al-Faqih when the director was studying Islamic feminism and teaching film in Israel and Palestine. The judge's story provides welcome insight into the contrasting interpretations of and inaccurate assumptions about Shari'a law and challenges tired notions of gender exclusion and segregation in the Middle East.