The short film “They Call Me Muslim” sought to shed light on a garment called the hijab, which are worn by Muslim women as a way to demonstrate devotion to their religion. And while it seems like the choice to wear the hijab or not should be defined by the religion, rules in Iran and France say otherwise.

The first half of the documentary talked about a college student in France and how, during her younger years, she was prohibited from wearing the hijab because France had wanted to ban religious symbols from public schools. Like many of the other scholars present at the discussion as well as the girl being interviewed in the documentary, I felt that there was a hint of discrimination towards the Muslim religion despite France trying to make it seem like it’s a universal policy. The show mentioned that people were allowed to wear religious crosses while the Muslims couldn’t wear their hijab. Is wearing the Christian cross not a religious symbol? But while these issues arise in France’s public schools, it seems that on the private or university level, these problems do not exists. And for this girl, wearing the hijab was a symbol of her dedication to her beliefs.

The latter half of the documentary revolved around a woman who lived in Iran. And contrary to France, Iran required that all women wear their hijab at all times. Interestingly enough, the woman felt that wearing the hijab did not show her dedication to the religion, but rather she did it because she had to follow the rules. She described of an instance wear the Iranian police force had arrested her because they saw that she wasn’t wearing a hijab. A few scholars, including myself, thought that it was interesting when she described that “after a few days, everything was okay”. It was as if something occurred behind the scenes, but she couldn’t say anything about it.

Overall, it was interesting to watch a film about two very opposing opinions about the same religion. On one hand, you have individuals who willingly follow the customs of the religion when they are oppressed, yet you also have individuals who refuse to follow the customs when forced to wear it. It seems as if the enforcement to do one or the other is causing more and more people to take a stand for themselves and an argument can be made for either side.