Throughout the film, there are many symbols and active instances of the obscuration of a person's identity. Nafas, though returning to her native country, must hide who she is under a burqa, the faux doctor, in the same country in exile, must cover his face with a faux beard, the man who's job it is to get Nafas to Kandahar near the end of the film must also don a burqa to hide among the wedding party. Besides the act of obscuring who one is through the act of putting on disguises, there is also the ever prevalent destroyed physical self in the form of all those crippled by war. A stark imagery of the destruction of identity is shown in the prosthetic legs that fall from the sky, removed from any human being they are part of no one and yet a mass of men run towards them to try and attach this synthetic thing to themselves, to try and fix the self rent in half.
So in an odd twist, when the exile, in this case Nafas, returns home, instead of solidification of identity and belonging there is obscuration of identity and strangeness and in this strangeness the only people that she feels comfortable with is those others who can also identify the strangeness of being rather than belonging in the land. So even though the little boy who is Nafas' guide is taking her to Kandahar and has led her safely thus far, she abandons him within 10 minutes of meeting this faux doctor, of whom all she knows is that he can speak English. This is repeated again in the general distrust that the doctor, and then later Nafas, has in the Afghan people, choosing instead to ask foreign Red Cross workers for help and acting on their advice, just as Nafas had acted on the doctor's advice. On the part of the doctor, he develops an immediate affinity with Nafas when she speaks English as an exile that has not been able to converse in his native tongue much. Just how strong this immediate affinity is, based on a recognition of mutual outsider status, is shown in the lengths the doctor takes to help Nafas.
Obscurity through outward covering is definitely a prevalent theme in the film as you say-- however I would like to argue against your point that the burka reduces identity into something quite obscure.
ReplyDeleteFor it aligns with the idea that women are given no importance compared to the men. Whereas one could argue that this is not the case in the film-- no scene is shown abusing women or giving men notable favor over them. The women in burqas do not so much lose identity as they do gain another kind of identity-- as a collective mass of a certain gender that resists and lives on despite the oppression it faces. The colours in the burka gleam brighter than anything else in the film and act as tools by which we cant help but turn our attention to them. These women are later shown resisting (as with the crooks who stole the family's goods at the beginning whilst their father/husband prayed, or applying makeup from under their clothes) and living (celebrating a wedding near the end).
This is a perversion of a life they once lived, we know-- and yet it is a life and they continue struggling and carving a space for themselves within it. One could say the 'identity-wiping' burka is being resisted in this case-- after all, Nafas keeps raising it to speak to people even though that could be dangerous if seen as outward resistance-- and yet the colour is what immediately allows them to gain an attention they wouldnt had they dressed openly yet as the men do-- in worn colours. The burka gives them a collective focus; one may say that takes away from the individual identity-- yet this isnt the feel one gets simply because their faces are hidden, for now their characters gain a voice as we focus more on their actions to define them. Its a new way of looking at identity I would say.
Finally, we must also consider Nafas describing the burka in less than uncivil terms; for her too it is a new experience, one that does not take away the identity; it creates a new way of viewing things and of understanding. This builds on an inner identity that we are privy to as we are closer to her via the narrative voice.
As such I cant really agree with your point that the burka is one of the tools used for loss of identity; in my eyes it creates a more powerful identity as it demands one take on the world and reveal their nature and identity in an entirely different way.