A Woman in Kabul

A tv programme

Directed by

Charlotte Erlih, Marie-Pierre Camus

Produced by

Kepler22 Productions

Production year2023

Programme formatOne-off

GenresDocumentary

Runtime 54 min

Synopsis

A French Woman in Kabul tells the incredible story of Elisabeth Naim Ziai, a woman from Brittany who, in 1927, married a cousin of Afghanistan’s progressive king. But as Elisabeth and her husband were on their way to Kabul, the modernizing king was dethroned by a conservative rebel. From that point on, nothing went as planned. Yet Elisabeth remained in Afghanistan until 1980. As the first Afghan woman to dare to remove her veil in 1936, she devoted her life to fighting for women’s rights in her adopted country.

Through Elisabeth’s life, this documentary sheds new light on the evolution of Kabul and a segment of Afghan society. Values changed radically in the capital between the late 1920s and the mid-1960s. Women began to gain access to education; they had the right to work, to go unveiled, and to attend the same universities and social gatherings as men.

At a time when Afghanistan has once again plunged into obscurantism, this story offers a beautiful way to revisit a period of openness and emancipation that has never before been the subject of a documentary. Through previously unseen footage and archival material, A French Woman in Kabul fills a gap in historical record and sheds light on another, hopeful facet of this war-torn country.