This past Friday I attended a showing of the documentary “They Call Me Muslim” filmed in 2006. While the film is from over a decade ago, I found the topic very relevant considering the quantity of misinformed rhetoric that is currently circulating in our culture in regards to Islam.

The film focused on two parallel narratives of women involved in a controversy over the wearing of the hijab. Samah was a college student living in France where the law forbid her from wearing the hijab inside public educational institutions. On the other hand, “K” was living in Iran where the hijab is required for women who are in a public setting. In each case, the women wanted to do the opposite of what the law mandated them to do. During our group discussion after the film, I realized we had not all taken away the same message from the film, with some seeing it as portraying the French laws as potentially beneficial for society. For me, however, the overarching message of the film was that any regulation by a government on the wearing or not wearing of the hijab is a restriction of women’s right to express themselves and their beliefs.

Regardless of the film’s stance on the French restrictions, I felt that it spread a positive message by showing two Muslim women with differing beliefs and circumstances. When I attended the campus teach-in on Islam recently, one of the speakers emphasized that an important part of increasing understanding of Islam is highlighting the diversity of Muslims. For me this film was an important step towards achieving that goal.