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Filmed over five years, WRITING HAWA follows three generations of Hazara women from the same family in Afghanistan. With unique access and empathy, director Najiba Noori films her mother Hawa and niece Zahra in their aspirations to free themselves from patriarchal traditions. Forced into marriage at the age of 13 to a much older man, the now 52-year-old Hawa spends her time confined to the home to care for her ailing husband. Fed up with the drudgery and isolation of her daily life, Hawa sets out to open a small textile business.

We follow her as she searches for traditional embroideries and turns them into modern dresses to sell in Kabul. She is eventually reunited with her granddaughter Zahra, having escaped an abusive father in the countryside. Both denied access to an education as children, Hawa takes Zahra under her wing as the two study together. But the looming takeover of the Taliban hovers in the background on TV screens and news reports, threatening to turn their lives upside down. WRITING HAWA is an essential testimony of women’s resilience in the face of oppression and the dreams cut short by the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.