By Mary Ann Smothers Bruni
There is an alarming rise in "honor killing," the heinous act of men killing daughters, sisters, and wives who threaten "family honor," which endangers tens of thousands of women in Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and adjoining countries. Global communication through satellite television, Internet, and cell phones has raised the expectations of young Middle Eastern women, who now are not content to marry a much older relative to their father might choose and live a life of servitude. While young women respond to new ideas from cyber pals in Los Angeles or episodes of popular Western sitcom, their fathers and brothers demand strict tribal justice for their acts.
The Women's Media Center of Suleymaniyah, Iraq, has joined forces with Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) to end the heinous practice of "honor killing" of women. First time filmmaker Mary Ann Smothers Bruni ¨C who is an author and photographer ¨C documents these horrible acts and the people who are fighting to end these senseless killings that take place in Kurdistan.
Reviews
~ "¡underscores the paradox that drives honor killing in Kurdistan. ¡ The film takes up several cases to illustrate the insidious permutations of "honor" in practice." - Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters, Director of Film & Media Studies, George Mason University
~ "¡Bruni makes a point of tying the "uncivilized" custom of honor killing to violence against women worldwide and to domestic violence in the United States. The equation is worthy of contemplation." - Marcia G. Yerman, Huffington Post
~ "The documentary Quest For Honor not only penetrates [the] secretive and dangerous complicit male culture existing in Iraqi Kurdistan. But the mostly female crew courageously confronts hostility and death threats as they persist in their investigative mission to save lives. Constituting activist filmmaking at its most exemplary, both on and off camera." - Prairie Miller, News Blaze
Award
~ Amsterdam Film Festival, Winner, Van Gogh Award
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