“Bread and Roses” should be seen by everyone – because women in Afghanistan concern us all
“Bread and Roses” starts colorfully: colorful parasols, colorful fruit and vegetable stands. But the many colors don't last long in the documentation of the lives of threeshows. Director Sahra Mani is responsible for the documentary, which will run on Apple TV+ from November 22, 2024, and has thus created an important contemporary testimony. Because it clearly shows that by the whole world looking the other way when it comes to women and their lack of freedom in Afghanistan, we are giving terrorist organizations like the Taliban a free hand.
“Bread and Roses”: This is what the documentary by Jennifer Lawrence, Malala Yousafzai, Sahra Mani and Justine Ciarrocchi tells about
Zahra. Sharifa. Taranom. These are the three women who hold their faces into the camera in “Bread and Roses”. Your family and friends are pixelated, the fear of being recognized is still too great in 2024, more than three years after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan - the fear of torture, repression and murder. In impressive, fearless videos, Zahra, Sharifa and Taranom explain how catastrophic the situation is for women in the country in the Hindu Kush - for each one they could have been tortured, kidnapped or murdered. The direction of the filmmaker Sahra Mani has created a contemporary testimony for the outside world and posterity: a contemporary testimony that demands respect, empathy and action. Because like in Afghanistanthe rest of the world, us, cannot simply be indifferent. Not just because what is being done to women in Kabul today will happen tomorrowcan happen or to some extent under a misogynistic government like hersjust forming. The story of Zahra, Sharifa, Taranom and the courageous women in Afghanistan is important because we can only be free in a global world when all women are.
The lives of the protagonists in “Bread and Roses” changed in one fell swoop: When the Taliban took over Kabul on August 15, 2021, they were unable to escape and actively decided to resist when they were forbidden to work and live freely . Despite threats of imprisonment, they meet in public and demand “Work, Bread, Education”. They see it as their duty to demonstrate and demand rights for women who are already in prison. Zahra, Sharifa and Taranom are perhaps the bravest leading actresses that the 2024 film year has seen so far.
The activists film themselves because they are afraid that they could suddenly disappear, that someone could kidnap or murder them. Because human rights and women are now being trampled on in Afghanistan: women who are not mothers or virgins are worthless in the eyes of the Taliban - just like human rights, which all people should be entitled to.
The women in the documentary know that the world is looking rather passively at Afghanistan and the rule of the Taliban: “No one can help us,” they say in a video message. And yet they pick themselves up every day, even though they are “just tired from all that crying.” However, “Bread and Roses” and none of its main characters accuse the outside world; What is missing is listed quite soberly: the girls who played in colorful dresses. Where are these girls today? Since the Taliban came to power, these girls no longer go to school, no longer play outside - and have to wear black.
That’s why the documentary is called “Bread and Roses”
The American trade unionist Rose Schneiderman first spoke of “Bread and Roses” in 1911. She said: “The woman worker needs bread, but she needs roses too”.
This is exactly what women in Massachusetts demanded in the “Bread and Roses Strike” in 1912: They demanded not only fair wages (bread), but also a decent working and living environment (roses). With their protest, the workers achieved a 25 percent wage increase.
That’s why “Bread and Roses” is so important – for all of us
Anyone who thinks that Zahra, Sharifa, Taranom and all the other activists in Afghanistan are demanding western conditions and freedom of movement is wrong: they are used to life under Sharia law, they know no other life than that of strict separation between men and women that dictates their religion. But women in Afghanistan already had rights, even if this is seen too rarely: For example, they fought for the right to vote in the same year as their fellow campaigners in Germany: they have been allowed to vote since 1918. The Taliban took away this basic right again in 2021 - just like so much more: in the country in the Hindu Kush, women are no longer even allowed to leave the house alone, and are not allowed to sing, laugh or dance.
Despite everything, the three women love their homeland: Not all of them wanted to flee Kabul because friends, family, simply their lives had been there until now. It is the eternal crux between the freedom of an individual and that of a group of like-minded people that women have to deal with every day. This year's“Women of the Year”-Prize winnerthat their fight for the freedom of others threatens their personal freedom. And that is exactly the everyday life of Zahra, Sharifa and Taranom in “Bread and Roses”, who find that they have to hide themselves because they have demanded justice and freedom for others. How far do you go to free others without putting yourself in prison? So it's not in the least about fundamentally changing your own country or aligning it with Western standards. It's about human rights and freedom, it's about relating to the world and participating in life.
You might be thinking, “But that’s in Afghanistan. What does all this have to do with us?” Simple answer: everything. Sure, we don't have Sharia as a law and are protected differently than women, but... But? Gender-specific crimes against women are at a record high in Germany in November 2024, the number of crimes onbased, will increase by 56 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, announced the two Federal Ministers for Women, Lisa Paus (Greens), and for Interior Affairs, Nancy Faeser (SPD), together with the Vice President of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Michael Kretschmer . Especially the digital oneincreased by a full 25 percent.
And of course laws can regulate this, it can be negotiated and sentenced. But this doesn't solve the real problem. Because the problem is that many people, many men worldwide (!) have a problem with women and their gender, with equality and equal treatment, that a new, extremelyis on the rise, which also affects women in this country and which, above all, should make us all angry: angry at the circumstances and society's inaction, angry at looking the other way and. Angry that human rights, women and their catastrophic situation in far too many places around the world are apparently not important enough to be in the news every day. Angry that women are once again being silenced, deprived of their ability to speak, and finally also angry that 2024 so often just feels like the Middle Ages, in which men deny women the rights to their bodies without any legitimacy. And please, this anger is not an impulsive outburst of emotions, but justified. Women have the right to be angry.
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That Oscar winnerand Nobel Prize winnerMaking this film together with producer Justine Ciarrocchi and director Sahra Mani is important. Because sometimes, or so it seems, you need (prominent) women who simply have more courage than men to decide on world events. And: who are heard because of their large platform. Lawrence says of “Bread and Roses” and her motivation for producing the documentary: “I can't imagine what it means to not be able to take a taxi or listen to music. I can’t imagine what it’s like when just my vote is illegal.” For her, the time of silence is over: “20 million are in danger,” said the Oscar-winning activist on the US television station CBS.
Malala Yousafzai, who was deliberately shot and critically injured by the Taliban in 2012, explained her involvement in the documentary with her own life and the attack on her person: “When you are a survivor, people take your side. But what about the people who are still in danger? Let’s stand in solidarity with them!” – today, tomorrow, together around the world.
“Bread and Roses” by Sahra Mani celebrated at thePremiere. The documentary will be available from November 22, 2024Apple TV+ im Streamavailable.
