On November 19, my social justice group and I went to see the film Wadjda, the first movie directed by a Saudi Arabian woman with a fully Saudi Arabian cast. Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, it tells the story of a ten year old Saudi Arabian girl living in the suburbs of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Wadjda is an lively girl who is always willing to push the boundaries set on her because she is a girl living in the Middle East. After her friend teases her about not having a bike because she is a girl, she is determined to prove him wrong, and show him that girls can have bikes as well. There is one problem, Wadjda doesn’t have enough money to buy the bike. She goes to her mom to ask for the money, but her mom fears that owning a bike will ruin Wadjda’s virtue, and doesn’t allow it. Then, Wadjda finds a solution while hearing about a Koran competition with a prize raised from eight hundred to one thousand riyals, more than enough to pay for the bike she desperately wants. Wadjda enters the competition and works very hard to memorize and recite the verses of the Koran, and when it is the competition day, she ends up winning the money. However, when she is asked what she is doing with the money, Wadjda replies that she is going to buy a bike, and the principal of the school gets mad at her and says they are going to send the money to their brothers in Pakistan instead, because that is a much better use of the money than buying a bike. Wadjda is let down, but in the end is surprised by her mom suddenly buying her the bike, a moment that I believe was extremely uplifting as we got to watch Wadjda win her race against her friend who teased her about not having a bike in the first place.

A clip from the film

This was an extremely motivating and uplifting film that really captured the idea that if you try hard and firmly believe in a cause, you can get what you want. It also captured my social justice groups topic of women in the media because it was a great example of apositive film about women and girls. Also, since the movie was filmed in Saudi Arabia, and the ideas about women are very different there, the film brought a new perspective into the media industry. I am really glad we got to see such a thought provoking film, and am happy that there has been some change in the characters women are playing in films. Overall, I thought Wadjda was a very inspiring film that perfectly captures a girls struggles to overcome the challenges placed before her, and win the race.