Brishkay Ahmed remembers the exact moment she became fixated with uncovering the origins of the burqa. She was editing her previous documentary, , in Kabul, with her father at her side. As he saw footage of women clad in the full body veil that's come to symbolize female oppression, he couldn't contain his frustration. "He turned around to me and said, 'I wish this garment one day leaves Afghanistan. It's not our garment,'" she recalls. "I was kind of shocked. Because I grew up in Canada, I assumed that the burqa was an Afghan garment."
Returning to Vancouver, Ahmed set about conducting research and a "social experiment" in which she sought to gauge reaction to the contentious garment by parading it down Davie Street. As can be seen in the opening segment of her new documentary, , it met with an immediate and intense response. As two Afghan expats shared horror stories about the veil, the filmmaker knew what must happen next. "I was like, 'I need to move forward with this.' That's what kicked me off to actually go (back) to Kabul."
As captured in the documentary, Ahmed's journey saw her meeting with both the merchants who make and peddle the burqa and the intellectuals who frown upon it. While the presence of her camera helped her curry favour with the former - "It's rare for someone to ask (their) opinion." - the decades she spent living away from her birthplace aided greatly in communicating with the latter.
"When I speak Dari, it's like a 13-year-old is talking to them, not a 36-year-old woman," she laughs. "They felt my awkwardness with the language. They lightened up because I spoke very simply to them. They simplified things. Otherwise, they would've spoken as if it were a thesis."
And while the each interviewee's theories about the burqa are certainly accessible, they rarely correspond with the other opinions offered. Did it migrate from India? Was it really once a status symbol for the Afghan middle class? Did British foreign policy play a hand in its proliferation? As Ahmed wades through the contradictory notions, it's easy to understand how she quickly becomes the "confused Afghan" in her film's title.
"It was fascinating and frustrating," she admits of being inundated with conflicting accounts. "It was frustrating because I didn't know how to close the film. I'm a filmmaker... I know that I'm Alice in Wonderland going down the rabbit hole but... At some point, can somebody please just clarify which one is absolute?"
Ultimately, Ahmed had to content herself with one key fact: "I was very happy when I found out that it is not an Islamic garment. That was so important for me. These women have been lied to. These men have been lied to. I feel so sad because, how will Afghanistan improve if the women are under the burqa? How will that society fix itself?" She concludes, "If just that message gets through to them.... That would have such a positive impact."
Story of Burqa: Case of a Confused Afghan plays May 10. Full details at .
